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Zoster sine herpete - Shingles without a rash. Familiar to anyone?

Discussion in 'Infections: Lyme, Candida, EBV ...' started by Ryan31337, Nov 22, 2017.

  1. Ryan31337

    Ryan31337 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    359
    Hi all,

    Curious to know if anyone here has Zoster sine herpete (Shingles without a rash)?

    I'm currently waiting for a neurologist to tick-off less invasive investigations before preceding to a lumbar puncture to look for herpes virus in cerebral spinal fluid. I believe valganciclovir was mentioned as treatment if this comes up positive.

    In brief I was in a period of good remission when I experienced a significant viral infection, suspected by on-call doc to be shingles (trigeminal nerve). The rash never appeared so I was not treated, but symptoms and recovery matched shingles expectations. I was mostly bed/house bound for about 5 weeks before pain and illness lifted. I am fairly certain I developed hypertension at this time.

    Some months after I began experiencing periodic neurological symptoms, radicular pain (trigeminal nerve again & legs), 1-sided numbness (lower arm and lower leg) and more rarely allodynia. I have noticed occasional small spots/rash associated with the allodynia. All symptoms come with a typical viral prodrome of mild fever, tachycardia, lethargy etc.

    These patterns had been getting progressively more frequent and severe in the past 6 months, so I decided to self-treat with Acyclovir 400mg twice daily. I have pulsed this now 3x times and see definite improvement (though not complete resolution) whilst taking and reoccurrence of symptoms again soon after discontinuing. I'm aware this is quite a low dose but I am taking a prescription med without guidance so wanted to play it safe.

    If anyone has similar symptoms, experience or thoughts I'd love to hear from you.

    Thanks,
    Ryan
     
    merylg and Nellie like this.
  2. Sue

    Sue Established Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    34
    Location:
    Medford NJ
    I pulse with valcyclovir 500mg twice a day and celexicob ( Celebrex) 200mg twice a day. I had high IGG titer s for Epstein Barr . I never had any invasive or extensive testing. My family doctor gave me this combo . I took it for 6 months straight at first. Now I pulse if I notice the fibromyalgia pain increasing.


    This combo got my fibromyalgia pain from the severe ( on fentanyl patches all the time) to mild . The Celebrex enhances the antiviral properties of the valtrex from what I researched, similiar to what clavolonate does with penicillin ( hence Augmentin).

    Taking valtrex alone did nothing when I added the celexicob this is when I felt a great benefit. Celexicob causes my blood pressure to creep up so Sometimes I only use the valtrex.
    I have thought about Zoster sine herpete due to the fact that my pain was severe. I had severe allodynia not localized pain.
     
    Little Bluestem, merylg and Ryan31337 like this.
  3. Ben McNevis

    Ben McNevis Established Member

    Messages:
    16
    Does anyone understand how GPs perceive the missing link in "You had shingles" - "You have post-herpatic rash" - Do they rally believe that zoster vanishes? I met emphatic, responsive GP recently, but this was one of the elephants in the room
     

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