United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I posted few weeks ago I thought I had a bug bite on my neck on the obpi side... well it was not normal or in a circle as most bug bites are... it looked like and upside down tear drop and boy was it painful.

Two doctors visits and 4 medications later I was told it is shingles. But the doctor was puzzled because the rash was not moving in the same fashion as most shingles wrapping around my neck. I tried to explain that I had little feeling on that side and my nerves were scrambled because of obpi and the fact that I was in such pain and felt the heat made it different from an ordinary bug bite. As usual no one was listening to me because there are no medical studies to support my crazy notion... so I was treated for bug bit and then on my second visit treated for shingles...

The was plus side of getting shingles on the bpi side for me. I am sure it was not as painful and it would have been much worse on the unaffected side of my body. I am sure the rash did not spread because the nerve's seem to be so disconnected... LOL... I knew something was wrong because I could feel the burning and tingling along with the pain... why won't they listen? Don't get me wrong it was so painful I was so frustrated and agitated with it.

I have no record of ever having the chicken pox so I could not compare sides... but I must have had them to get shingles. Does anyone remember having chicken pox on obpi side and how it felt? Dumb question but just curious.

all healed and my sense of humor is back
Kath

Kath, thanks for the information on shingles. I've had both Chicken pox and shingles and both were very painful and like you, no one listened to me.FYI, shingles is attributed to stress and I sure can vouch for that too; each time I had it I was under GREAT stress.It is good to start documenting every thing our bodies experience related to any type of pain in case we get lucky to get a study on adults with OBPI.
Carolyn

Carolyn

This was my first experience with shingles and yes I have had quite a bit of stress...
I was surprised when I got shingles... I usually am very good at dealing with stress... I don't sleep... it could be worse, when I was younger I had Chronic Fatigue and it is from the Epstein Barr virus... they called it chronic mononucleosis ... but once you have the virus stress can trigger a relapse. I would rather have the shingles then be down for the count with Epstein Barr again. That is another virus that remains in your system.

Its important for us to share information here not only to support each other but to help us to gather information we need when we go to doctors. Armed with information we can each teach our own doctors and feel confident when we speak about it being common to obpi injured.


Kath

Kath, thanks for sharing...we must continue to share everything our adult bodies experience regarding pain/discomfort et al, because as I am educating my MD, I believe our Drs are finally listening to us especially when we take them a copy of what we learn here on both the forums and Awareness link postings. ...I double copy & print and give one copy to my Md so we both know what we are dealing with and HOPEFULLY will get medicare to cover should I need it.
Have a great day,
Carolyn

When I had chicken pox when I was a kid... I don't remember vividly but from what my mom said, I had a few bumps on my obpi side, but definitely not as much as the rest of me.

Shannon

Shannon

That is interesting. I have a friend who got shingles in the exact same spot that mine started and it spread all over her neck. Well, half way around her neck, up her face etc... that is what they thought mine would do but it remained contained to just a small area and it tingled etc on my head and was rash like but did not errupt.... I thought that was strange... I am glad I got it on this side because it hurts but people with full feeling I am sure are much worse off... one bonus for OBPI... LOL..
Kath