Do you need bed rest with shingles?

Treatment for Shingles

The physicians at UCLA Dermatology may recommend one or more of the following options: Painkillers to relieve pain. Antiviral drugs to help reduce symptoms and minimize nerve damage. Bed rest, especially during the early phase of shingles and if fever is present.

How long do I need to rest with shingles?

Typically, it takes 3–5 weeks for people to recover and the rash to fully clear. It is more common in older adults and people with weak or suppressed immune systems. While shingles does not have a cure, treatments are available to prevent complications, ease pain, and speed up recovery.

Will rest help shingles?

Rest is critical when you have shingles. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, the right self-care, which includes plenty of rest, can ease discomfort. This is especially true if you develop postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), which is ongoing pain after a shingles rash goes away, according to the NIA .

Do I need time off for shingles?

If you have shingles, you're contagious until the last blister has dried and scabbed over. To help prevent the virus being passed on, avoid sharing towels or flannels, swimming, or playing contact sports. You should also avoid work or school if your rash is weeping (oozing fluid) and can't be covered.

Is it normal to be extremely tired with shingles?

You may experience fatigue while you have shingles. However, it's also possible to feel fatigued even after the shingles rash has disappeared. Fatigue may happen indirectly due to PHN, a complication of shingles that involves lingering pain. Many people with PHN experience insomnia.

Shingles: What You Should Know | Johns Hopkins Medicine

Does shingles cause fatigue?

Most cases of shingles cause severe pain and itching, and can leave scars. Fluid-filled blisters develop, break, and crust over during and a few weeks after an outbreak. You also may feel sick or fatigued, with a slight fever or headache.

How painful is shingles on a scale of 1 to 10?

“Shingles is extremely painful," Wigand-Bolling said. “On a scale from one to 10, most patients will say the pain ranges from six to 10.” Between 1 and 5 days after the first symptoms occur, a rash will develop in the affected area.

Do shingles get worse at night?

It can be constant or intermittent and may get worse at night or in reaction to heat or cold. The pain can result in fatigue, sleep disturbance, anorexia, depression and, in general, a lowering of quality of life.

Do you have to quarantine with shingles?

If you have shingles, you should: Cover the rash, avoid touching or scratching the rash and wash your hands often to prevent the spread of the virus. Avoid close contact with people until the rash blisters heal (develop crusts). It is essential to avoid contact with people at higher risk from chickenpox infection.

Which painkiller is best for shingles?

Doctors have a variety of choices to treat shingles pain. Medications like ibuprofen or acetaminophen are often used. More severe cases might call for use of Tylenol with codeine or oxycodone.

What type of isolation is needed for shingles?

Airborne and contact precautions until disseminated infection is ruled out. Airborne and contact precautions until lesions are dry and crusted.

Can I sleep next to someone with shingles?

Shingles itself is not contagious. It can't spread from one person to another. However, the varicella-zoster virus is contagious. If you have shingles, you can pass the virus to another person, which could then cause them to develop chickenpox.

Can you spread shingles to other parts of your body?

In very rare cases, the blisters spread to nearby areas of skin or even over the whole body. This may happen if the immune system is very weak, for instance due to a serious disease like cancer or AIDS. Under those circumstances, shingles can be life-threatening.

What are the three stages of shingles?

Shingles' clinical manifestations are divided into 3 distinct phases: preeruptive, acute eruptive, and chronic. The preeruptive phase (or preherpetic neuralgia stage) usually lasts about 48 hours but can stretch to 10 days in some cases.

What helps shingles pain at night?

Does shingles get worse before it gets better?

Typically, the peak pain of shingles is felt within 4 or 5 days after the first symptoms develop, and it comes along with a blistering rash. As the blisters scab over, the pain usually starts to disappear. In some cases, the pain does not go away. This is known as a condition called postherpetic neuralgia.

Is your immune system weaker after shingles?

Weakened Immune System

There is a clear association between shingles and weakened immunity to infection.

Can shingles spread through sheets?

Shingles can be spread when a person comes into contact with fluid contained in the blisters. The virus can be spread by direct contact with the lesions or by touching any dressings, sheets or clothes soiled with discharge from the spots.

How long does nerve pain last with shingles?

Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) can last for weeks, months, or in some people, years after the shingles rash goes away. In most people, shingles pain goes away in one to three months. However, in one in five people, pain lasts more than one year.

Why is my shingles pain getting worse?

Postherpetic neuralgia occurs if your nerve fibers are damaged during an outbreak of shingles. Damaged fibers can't send messages from your skin to your brain as they normally do. Instead, the messages become confused and exaggerated, causing chronic, often excruciating pain that can last months — or even years.

Is back pain associated with shingles?

Shingles is an infection of the spinal nerves by the herpes virus causing painful blisters on the skin of the affected dermatome. Patients may experience back pain in the lumbar spine preceding the outbreak of shingles. After the infection subsides, some patients may still experience chronic nerve pain.

Can shingles feel like a pulled muscle?

Patients often feel like they have pulled a muscle, slept in an unnatural position the night before, or are developing a cold in the back. This feeling lasts for 2-7 days, and the skin becomes quite sensitive to touch during this period.

Can you spread shingles by scratching?

People with shingles should keep the rash covered, not touch or scratch the rash, and wash their hands often to prevent the spread of shingles. Once the rash has developed crusts, the person is no longer contagious.

Can you wash your hair when you have shingles?

Recommendations include applying cold compresses to the affected area to numb the pain and using calamine or menthol lotion to lessen itching. Use gentle, unscented shampoos and warm water to wash the hair, and avoid scrubbing the scalp.

What triggers shingles flare ups?

Stress, some medications, and certain health conditions can reactivate the virus and trigger the symptoms of shingles. When shingles occurs more than once, doctors refer to it as recurrent shingles. Recurrent shingles is more common among people with a compromised immune system.