Hi!
I had a second bout of shingles last June and it was horrific compared to the first! Leading up to it I had ice cold sensations on my head/scalp/brain and these continued after it. After recovering from shingles I developed tingling/burning sensations at many many different parts of my body and face…and I mean everywhere! They mostly last a millisecond and barely distract me if I’m talking but the ones on my scalp are quite different and always ice cold, can last from 5 mins to a few hours and cover a much bigger surface area than the others.
GP not overly concerned (said not bothering with an MRI as it could take a year and would only be a snapshot of the day) and suggested taking anti histamine.
Just wondering if anyone recognised the symptoms and whether anyone had been diagnosed with similar symptoms following shingles?
Does it hurt to touch/ brush your hair? Have you lost any feeling in your head/ face? My first ever relapse I woke up feeling like my head was being smashed in, then had further episodes of feeling like my head is being crushed. The slightest change in temperature and I’m in agony, I was eventually diagnosed with MS and Trigeminal neuralgia. If it is neuralgia it’s the worst pain I’ve dealt with, there’s medication you can take but I’m allergic to it so I’m now on tramadol.
Have you had an MRI done ? If I was you I would push for more answers. I’ve not had shingles, but what you’re explaining sounds like what I’ve got.
Hi thanks for replying.
No it doesn’t hurt to touch or brush my hair. It doesn’t sound anywhere near as painful as yours sounds. No loss of feeling either.
No mri as GP said it is only a snapshot of what is happening on the day and she doesn’t think it sounds like MS….but couldn’t think what else it could be!
I suppose I’m worried it might progress and how long to leave it before I go back to the GP again….
It isn’t unusual for an infection to precede a first attack of MS, although it goes without saying that most infections most of the time do not do so. Infections are very common: MS is pretty rare.
In my own case, an episode of shingles was followed by a first MS relapse (as it turned out to be) starting in the same area as the shingles rash had been a couple of months earlier before spreading and deepening until it involved most of me from the waist down. In other words, there was a suspicious coincidence between the two events although I cannot be sure that the shingles precipitated the MS and that, even if it did, whether the MS wasn’t already an accident waiting to happen to me and if it hadn’t been triggered by the shingles it would have been triggered by something else.
In your own case, the neurological hangover from a recent dose of shingles is bound to be the main suspect for the kind of issues that you are having. Please try to be reassured rather than disheartened by your GP. But do keep notes of what is happening. If things don’t settle down (and I hope they do) a record of what haws been happening when can be useful.