POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: HIVEMT on October 19, 2008, 08:11:00 am
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I started my combo September 14th, 2008. October 3rd, I suffered what appeared to be a stroke and was rushed to a stroke center here in Oakland, Ca. It turned out that I was suffereing Varicella Zoster Virus (Shingles) and strangely enough it was attacking the left side of my face. Now I didn't officially have a stroke but I had to be treated with Acyclovir and had to be monitored because they though that the combo had caused it. Lucky for me the combo had nothing to do with it...just dumb old me takes his meds but never takes time for himself and is always caring for others...and of course those that I have picked up from the clubs at 2 and 3 in the morning certainly didn't show any care while I was in the hospital. I'm doing much better but be careful...Varicella Zoster Virus is BRUTAL!
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Hi hivemt, welcome to the forums.
I hope you're feeling better now. It's good that you got medical care fairly quickly, shingles on the face/head can be quite serious if not treated aggressively. A friend of mine had it on the left side of her head a few years ago and it was initially misdiagnosed. She has serious problems with her eyesight in her left eye to this day, and they're even talking corneal transplant. Sometimes it flares up on her and her eye and part of the left hand side of her face droops and light is unbearable, so she has to wear sunglasses even in the house.
I've never heard of anyone attributing shingles to hiv meds. (how strange!) Stress, poor health, hiv, etc are the usual culprits. Please do try to take care of YOU and reduce your stress, if possible. Maybe the stress of starting meds was the cause, not the meds themselves.
You might want to ask your doctor to give you a script for acyclovir or valacyclovir (in the recommended dose for shingles) in case you have a repeat performance of the shingles. The sooner the antivirals are started, the less intense the outbreak.
Again, welcome to the forums.
Ann
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I can sympathize fully. It was a long time ago and during a period of extreme stress when I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like someone had gone over one side of my face with a nail gun. It was a Friday and not thinking anything like shingles I went to work. BY that time I had welts covering one side of my face, a few right around my eye,
I went to a local clinic, that rushed me right over to the ER. I was in the hospital for a week on IV acyclovir and on high dose oral for a couple of months. Luckily it never go in my eye as I was told I could have lost sight in that eye, or worse. I had numbness and tingling on one side of my face for 6 months.
Doctor told me that most people get shingles around the trunk of their body,m it's when it gets above the neck when it's serious.
It was good you caught it soon
I take 800MG acyclovir twice a day as prophylactic been on it for years. I wish HIV meds had the lack of side effects as acyclovir. I've recently been reading and my doctor said that acyclovir may have some limited effect against HIV itself.
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i had shingles on the right side of my face which literally felt like i was having nails driven into my head,it was so painful that i had to be put on morpheme(not spelled correctly i know).my eye never fully recovered,eyelashes never grew back,right side still itches to this day and its been over 12 yrs!!! my DOC told me that when shingles occurs anywhere on the face and head,it is closer to the nerves and thus the intense pain.anyway i know what you went thru and you have my support!!!
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...Varicella Zoster Virus is BRUTAL!
Welcome to the forums. Yes it is very brutal. I have had it three times since I was diagnosed positive in 1985. Last time being just about five year ago. Never had it on my face though. Glad to hear that you are doing better now. Shingles is a tough thing to deal with. It put me out of commission for about 3 weeks, and I still have several areas on me that I have no feeling in.
Take care of yourself------Ray
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I've never heard of anyone attributing shingles to hiv meds. (how strange!) Stress, poor health, hiv, etc are the usual culprits.
Hi, reading the posters words and Ann's response, it occurs to me there may be a miscommunication somewhere along the conduit. Is it possible that the shingles are part of IRS - immune reconstitution syndrome? So the cause is herpes zoster virus in the system, and low immunity, but the trigger is going on meds...
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Mecch is right -- the event could have been related to starting your new antiviral regimen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_reconstitution_inflammatory_syndrome
That doesn't mean you stop the meds! You just treat whatever flairs up because of IRS.
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Is it possible that the shingles are part of IRS - immune reconstitution syndrome? So the cause is herpes zoster virus in the system, and low immunity, but the trigger is going on meds...
The last time I had Shingles was in 2003, and this was also shortly after starting on meds. So, I believe in my case it was contributed to immune reconstitution syndrome. That episode was very short lived though, and not as near as painful as other episodes.
Ray
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Mecch is right -- the event could have been related to starting your new antiviral regimen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_reconstitution_inflammatory_syndrome
That doesn't mean you stop the meds! You just treat whatever flairs up because of IRS.
I had an outbreak about two months after beginning treatment, on the same combo as HIVEMT. I can't say with certainty what caused it, but it's my only HIV-related illness so far. I was fortunate that it was mild, and on the torso. I imagine a severe outbreak is indeed BRUTAL. It's taken a little time, but the marks are clearing up.