I had shingles when I was 8 mo prego with my 2nd child.
The pain involved was incredible and my sympathies to
anyone afflicted. I didn't get chicken pox until I was
12 yrs old and had an extremely bad case - including
in my esophogus, nose, and other areas I won't describe
in detail! My ob/gyn's (and dermotologist he referred me
to) both had little to explain my shingles outbreak, other
than there was a correlation between having had
chicken pox and subsequent outbreaks of shingles. Both
mentioned stress as a factor that triggers the shingles
outbreak, and at the time I was not only pregnant,
but the mother of a toddler, finishing my 2nd
master's degree, doing a full time internship and
doing the bookwork for my husband's office, so if stress
is a trigger... I do notice the stress thing as being a
trigger for my recurrent apthous ulcers (cold sores). I did find
it interesting that my ob/gyn put me on a prescription of
Vicodin for the pain during the course of the shingles and yet
told me I couldn't take asprin! I hope that I will not experience
another shingles episode, my doctor relating that some people
have recurrent shingles, others have one episode, again with no
real explanation as to why, which seems to be so common with
viruses. As a side note, because of my personal experience
with the severity my case of chicken pox, I did choose to have
my kids vaccinated against it. Armed with as much knowledge
as I could obtained, I hope it will be the best choice for them.
And, as a 2nd side note, the shingles were just disappearing as
my daughter made her appearance in the world, beautiful and
healthy, and is now a 2 yr addict of the Teletubbies ::sigh::.
|