I was dx with shingles 2 weeks ago. Still feeling v v v tired and washed out. I’ve now got a niggling worry that maybe I’m not recovering because of another underlying problem. It seems so silly now I’ve typed it “out loud” but can’t stop myself thinking about it. I’ve been suffering from exhaustion for some time although blood tests came back normal and also have bad muscle ache all day at the mo (normally only in evening side effect from arimidex).
Does anyone know how long shingles takes to recover from? I’ve told work I’ll be back on Monday but don’t think I’ll be well enough.
Little Mrs I remember someone in work being off with shingles last year and she was reletavely healthy 30 somthing and she was off work for 3 weeks, as i think it attacks the nervous system. If your immune system is a bit low i would think you will take a couple of weeks at least to recover. I am sure you will get lots of other replies as there is a wealth of knowledge on here
Hi there sorry to hear you are unwell, I had shingles 5 years ago and it was awful, I was off work for five weeks but took me a lot longer than that to recover, I still get the odd sharp pain where I had it.
About 10 years ago, both my sister and a work colleague of mines went down with shingles at the same time. The work colleague was in so much pain he was having to sleep in an armchair at night as he couldn’t lie down. One morning my sister rang me before I left for work, she was in floods of tears as she was in so much pain. It is a really horrible thing to get and can take a few weeks to get over. My sister went back to work p/t for the first few weeks as she was too tired to cope with her normal hours.
Thank you I feel reassured with your reports of how long others take to recover. I’ve been signed off for another 10 days so i’ll do a P/T week 1st week back. Dr I saw was disengaged and said it was “unusual” to take so long to recover (I’ve been off work 2 weeks) and the muscle pain I’m suffering was “unusual”. I feel more reassured by your messages than by him.
Do you ladies phone your BC nurse to discuss vague worries like fatigue/muscle pain or do you stick to things relating directly to your BC dx? I’ve never rung her for advice and know they are very busy …
As well as contacting your BC nurse with any concerns you may have you can always give the BCC helpline a call. Here you are able to talk with one of our trained members of staff who will either have experience of breast cancer, or is a breast care nurse, and has an excellent knowledge of breast cancer issues. The number to call is 0808 800 600 and the lines are open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm and Saturday 9am to 2pm.
littlemrs, I contacted my Breast Care nurse recently about a post menopausal bleed I had to see my GP about ( I was referred to an urgent clinic service, got it checked out and it was OK). Whilst it wasn’t directly related to my BC the nurse was happy to talk to me about it and assured me they did get other post meno ladies contacting them about stuff like this. I hadn’t actually spoken to her since about June of last year, but when I was discharged from oncology in the October I was assured that the BC nurses are your first point of call for anything suspicious all the way through remission. If there is anything that you feel needs to be checked out that could be related to your BC they can get you a clinic appointment quickly, mines told me usually with the week.
Don’t think twice about contacting them, it’s what they are there for.
Thanks I think I’ll give her a ring. Much better than reading symptoms of other cancers and scaring myself silly. Why do my typing fingers creep to those pages? I’m a rational adult most of the time!
Ihad shingles when I was 38 sixteen years ago and I remember being off work for ages due to post viral pain. It was very painful and didn’t go for a long time. Also I was very tired all the time. I had a frozen shoulder too which I had to have operated on.
So I don’t think you should be too eager to go back to work whatever the doctor says. The last one I saw said take two paracetamols and go back to work so I did go back half way through a certificate but by then I felt ready to return. I think I’d been off about five weeks by this time but still had the frozen shoulder