Sharing symptoms, pain, treatment experiences, and recovery process of shingles.

I am sharing my experience and recovery process of shingles, a condition I had only heard about in words before. I had never been hospitalized for a common illness nor had I ever had an IV inserted in my arm, as I was generally healthy. The reason I contracted shingles, which is said to occur when immunity is at its lowest, was due to appendicitis. Specifically, due to a misdiagnosis at the hospital, I missed the optimal treatment window for appendicitis, which led to peritonitis. As a result, I underwent abdominal abscess drainage and was on antibiotics, which drained my previously healthy stamina to the bottom.

 

I suffered for about two weeks, and I guess I was really not feeling well at that time. Even though I have a healthy constitution, after suffering from inflammation inside my body for a while, shingles appeared immediately. The symptoms were itchy on one side of my back, like being bitten by a mosquito, and then blisters formed. It might seem like a simple dermatitis or skin irritation, but in my case, it didn't feel like just a skin condition; I also felt like my body wasn't quite my own. How should I say it, I felt short of breath, and my body was tired regardless of my will, and it wasn't even that a particular part hurt, but I just felt that something was off with my body, like it was strange. The blisters on my back even burst during washing, and if it had been that minor, I wouldn't have suspected shingles, but I also noticed red spots forming in the shape of patches under my chest on the same side. I thought this was strange, so I went to the hospital.

 

I was referred to neurology, and as soon as the neurology professor saw me, he diagnosed shingles and told me to be hospitalized. I took many pills prescribed for a week like eating rice. Perhaps because the pain was alleviated by the many medications from the start, I didn't really experience pain or difficult symptoms during the hospitalization, so they reduced my medication. But on the day they reduced the medication, I experienced hellㅋㅋ My body just felt extremely painful... My chest was pounding with shortness of breath, and even a light touch on my body hurt—this is what it feels like. It was like a fake pain, a pain only I could understand. A strange feeling I was experiencing for the first time... I wondered if this was called neuralgia. After a few days, the blisters on my skin gradually improved, and I was discharged.

 

 

These are photos of my back taken when I was hospitalized for shingles. The blisters are on one side of my back, but I went to the hospital more than a week after the onset, so several of them had already burst. It is important to go immediately to neurology or dermatology within a day or two without bursting the blisters. They say the golden time is crucial.

 

It seems that it took more than two months to fully recover to my normal condition after being discharged. My body just didn't feel like my own and was in a very bad state. I remember stopping in the middle of doing the dishes because I felt so weak and had to lie down, and even when I went shopping, I couldn't complete a full lap and had to go back home. Whenever a pimple or bump appeared, I wondered if it was a recurrence, so I went for a check-up, but I was reassured that it doesn't relapse so easily and quickly. They said there are many patients like me who are afraid and come back for follow-up visits, haha.

 

 

After experiencing shingles, which I had only heard about in words, I became a fanatic of various nutritional supplements. Haha I also consider regular exercise essential and am working hard to boost my immunity.

 

And the thought I had at the time was that shingles is a disease that elderly people absolutely should not get. Young people tend to recover relatively quickly, but for seniors, recovery is slow, and they are likely to suffer from aftereffects. I really hope parents get the shingles prevention vaccine.

 

This was my personal experience with shingles. I hope everyone maintains good immunity to prevent it in advance.