[Jeff Higgins]

I feel for you Glen, I really do. Any form of shingles just sucks. The rash is bad enough, just hop you don't get to experience the postherpetic neuralgia as I did a few years ago (we had a pretty long thread on that at the time).

I hate to offer such doom and gloom, but the rash was nothing - akin to a mosquito bite - once the nerve pain started. Simply indescribable. Like drive one insane to the point of considering taking one's own life indescribable.

I'm told, however, that the double Shingrix vaccine does a good job of keeping that component at bay. Not everyone who gets the rash gets the follow-on nerve pain (which is a Godsend for them) anyway. But, the few who do report less severe symptoms.

I too had no luck with Gabepentin. Despite my aversion to them, prescription opioids probably saved my life. All the Gabepentin did was make me feel weird, kind of "off", and constantly sort of confused. It really made me feel like chit. Yeah, the opioids make one feel pretty drowsy, and if enough is taken, will make one pass out. That was kind of what I was after anyway.

I would be awake for almost three days straight at the height of it, in far too much pain to sleep, until my body just shut down, with the help of massive doses of prescription opioids. Even then, I would be awake in three or four hours, the pain winning out again. Seven weeks of this. I pray for you that you can avoid that part. Again, the Shingrix may be playing a roll in that.

As an aside, it looks to me like Gabepentin is the "new opiod". Seems doctors that are reluctant to prescribe opioids, and patients who are reluctant to take them, have found something "safe". My wife, the nurse, tells me not so fast - it's probably going to get on the same schedule as opioids. The side affects suck, and a lot of people report it as entirely ineffective. Hell, they ran me up to 900 mg four times a day and it did nothing beyond turning me into a zombie. The opioids were actually much better, only making me drowsy rather than all confused and creepy feeling.

Anyway, best of luck. I feel for you.