Alright, which is it Poison Ivy or Shingles???

[Tuffcookie]

The doctor in ER Saturday told me I had Shingles, now on Monday my regular doctor looks at the rash and says he thinks it's poison ivy. He told me to stop the Shingles medication and I got a cortizone shot and another prescription for prednisone. So time will tell. Now I'm hoping it's only poison ivy!

TC

 

[RNMOM]

What is their problem? Men.

Tuffcookie, poison ivy is usually flesh to pink colored small bumps that look moist, ooze and crust over. It is very itchy. If it gets a bacterial infection it can have pus and darker colored crusts too. The source for the poison ivy must come in contact with the affected skin. So, if you have clothing or your hand that was exposed, would it not have come in contact with another part of your body also creating a rash in more than one place? Lots of people get poison ivy in several areas at the same time.

Shingles look a lot like chickenpox. It has to run along a nerve root, such as along the side. They usually occur on one side of the body and are painful and burning. I have never heard anyone with shingles say they itch.

Why don't they keep you on meds for both for a while? Are the treatments that different? Steroids are used for both where I work.

I wish you a lot of luck.

 

[Judy from Boise]

I know the window for shingles meds to wrok is early and narrow....

Is the rash confined to only 1 side of your body....does it feel like your skin is "on fire" or is it normal itchiness ?

 

[Tuffcookie]

RNMom, When this whole thing started I woke up and the lower left side of my face was real red, like I was having an allergic reaction to something. I also had bands of red rash over my upper left leg and bottom It only seemed to be affecting my left side. I didn't go to the doctor's office but I did call him and told him I thought I might have poison ivy. He called in an Rx for methylprednisolone - 4 mg. to be taken for 5 days. I didn't notice a difference in the rash. Saturday morning, as I'm getting ready for my bath I notice not only is the rash on left side but it's on the right upper leg and stomach area too. I thought to myself that if I didn't know any better I would swear I have chicken pox! I got on Webmd and right under chicken pox they have shigles. When I read that I about freaked out! I called my doctor, who sent me to ER to be examined. They diagnosed me with shingles but today my doctor says poison ivy. So if the shot and pills I got today make a difference I'm going to assume it was poison ivy.

TC

 

[browneyes]

I hope for your sake it's poison ivy.

 

[phamton]

My dad had a rash that started in one place and then spread over a week or two to several different places. (He is 78 years old.) The ER doctor thought it was poison ivy. The dermatologist said it was ringworm and treated it for that but with no luck. His regular doctor thought it was shingles. None of these treatments worked so I took him to my doctor who said it was "Pityriasis Rosea" which is often diagnosed as other things before discovering the real cause. My dad was better in a day or two with treatment fro pityriasis, although the rash took a few weeks to completely disappear. Here is a webpage with some pictures or you can do a google search for many other pages. http://www.dermnetnz.org/dna.pitros/pitros.html

Bev Hamilton

 

[Teejay32]

I don't know anything about shingles TC but I had poison ivy through all of this June. It wasn't anything like the PI I remembered when I was younger, it was the Itchy Fiery Creeping Crud from Hell. First it showed up as little bumps here and there, in patches and then these different long red bands on my legs, neck, and sides. (It looked like wherever material might rub against the skin, I'd get a 'band'.) I just used calamine lotion for a while, then one Friday night my forearm started swelling up fast so I went to the ER. Got put on an IV bag right away, it had turned into 'cellulitis' and I had IV antibiotics Fri, Sat and Sunday nights in the ER. (They had me come back each night.) Also had prescriptions for another antibiotic pill and an anti-itch med.

Now, one ER doc said to take prednisone and wrote a script for it. By Sunday night a different doc was on duty, and he said he's not a fan of using prednisone for it - the rash can come back when you've finished taking it. (And by golly, it did.) The Sunday doc also switched the antibiotics the first one had written...I guess there's not a whole lot of agreement about this stuff in practice. Anyway. It lasted 4 weeks. It spread for at least two of them. But then it went away fast, the red marks faded but haven't gone away totally yet. It was very strange.

The next time, I will get a bottle of hydroxizine pills (anti-itch) right away, they made life much more bearable. Good luck.

 

[Serena]

I hope whatever it is that it goes away soon.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

I'm just getting over a case of shingles.

I didn't know what it was at first. A few weeks ago I had this pain in my side, straight down from my right nipple near the base of my ribs. Hard to describe it ... it almost felt like I pulled something, but it was weird in that it hurt on the front and in the back. It felt in a way like someone had stuck a needle right through me, and it did itch a little but I thought that was because I kept massaging it thinking I'd pulled something and was trying to work it out.

On a Sunday, I noticed a rash forming, and DW Lauri suggested I should go to the doctor. Monday morning the rash had spread, was burning a bit and was itchy (but not so itchy that I couldn't keep from scratching it). I made an appointment for that afternoon, told the doctor what was up, showed him the rash, and he immediately said shingles. He put me on 7 days worth of Valtrex (1 gram horse pills three times a day).

What I found out about shingles -- it's an adult reoccurrence of the chicken pox virus, usually triggered by stress or a weakened immune system. It only occurs on one side of the body -- the rash doesn't cross the sternum or the spine.

The biggie -- you are only contagious to those who have NOT had chicken pox. If you have shingles, you can give chicken pox to someone who never had chicken pox as a kid. And guess who's wife falls in that category?

 

[Teejay32]

Oh no! How is Lauri?

 

[Jeff in BigD]

I've never heard of shingles (save the roofing material), what is it & how does one get it?

 

[RNMOM]

Shingles are the herpes zoster virus that lies dormant in your nerves after you have chickenpox. You must first have chickenpox at some time in your life to get them. For some unknown reason they resurface, following the nerve causing blister like rash with some itching but often with pain. It can last for several weeks.

People who are elderly or immunocompromised can get horrible, total body episodes of them and would be hospitalized and isolated. Most people get them around one side or on the side of their face.

The others are right, it occurs on one side of the body and usually does not spread. Notice the "usually".

In case you all have not figured it out yet, medicine is really a lot of guessing at times. If there is a major episode and they really need to know they could probably do some scrapings and send it off to the lab. They usually don't do those for ordinary cases. Not that tuffcookie is by any means ordinary.

The best advice I would give is keep it covered, wash your hands. Keep your doctor aprised of the progress. Use calamine lotion or soothing baths of aveno or, put old fashioned oatmeal in the toe of a knee high stocking and soak in a tub with this in it. Instant oatmeal bath. Take benedryl if it is itching and watch for any signs of infection.

Tuffcookie, if you are not having pain of any kind, I would tend to think poison ivy or another contact dermatitis. I have never spoken to anyone that did not complain of pain with shingles.

I hope you get better fast.

 

[Lucky4me]

I have recurring episodes of shingles. Imagine several knives stabbing and twisting and you'll get the idea of the pain. For me it was worse than childbirth. I've had poison ivy too which was like a mosquito bite in comparison. I also get a fever, body aches and severe fatigue. I am sure however, there are varying degrees of severity much like chicken pox. If it's shingles it won't go away for several weeks. Poison ivy usually clears up in a few days. I hope you don't have shingles, tc!

 

[Serena]

Lucky, my aunt had it like you did. She was in bad shape.