Virus may have saved life
Taking break: managing stress is essential to reducing the risk of future shingles outbreaks, said Sharlene Brown.
SHARLENE Brown may owe her life to a medical condition that has otherwise made living tough.
The Korumburra woman has battled the electric shock like pain of shingles since suffering her fourth outbreak in March 2012.
The latest episode struck her hip, leaving her unable to walk without a limp.
That is why she was hobbling across a pedestrian crossing in Korumburra’s Commercial Street earlier this year when she was hit by a vehicle.
Had she been able bodied, Ms Brown believes she would have been further through the crossing and bore the brunt of the collision full on, most likely sustaining more serious injuries.
She shared her battle with shingles publicly to raise awareness of the debilitating condition.
Shingles is caused by Varicella Zoster virus, the same virus responsible for chickenpox. Therefore shingles only presents in people who have previously suffered chickenpox.
During times of low immunity or stress, the virus reactivates and presents as shingles, initially forming blister like welts in a circular pattern as the virus follows one’s nerves.
There is no cure.
“It looked like a line of bites across my hip and I had been feeling off. I just put it down to being bitten by a spider.”
If medical treatment is received within 72 hours, the severity of an outbreak can be restricted, but typically still results in ongoing nerve pain often described as stabbing or like an electric shock.
“It’s just like red hot pokers and at other stages it’s like an electric shock and you just have to freeze.
“I’m still getting pain in my hip nerve endings a year on and have hip bursitis because of the way I was walking.”
Sharlene takes an extremely high dose of anti-epileptic medicine to cope. Even then, that comes at the cost of memory loss and $36 a month, although that was $155 until the medication became available through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
She attends a weekly pain management course at Traralgon but still pain takes a mental toll.
“You have chronic pain and you have depression because you do not see light at the end of the day. For the last 14 months, I have only had about two hours sleep a night and when I get the occasional night of four or five hours sleep, I think I’m really lucky.
“You have runs where you can’t pick yourself up.”
Sharlenestruggled through her work as a personal carer at Korumburra’s Carinya Lodge while battling shingles but has been unable to work since the accident.
“Shingles is usually something associated with older people but I was 16 when I had my first outbreak (on stomach) and that was because of stress at the time.”
The next episode, at age 33, affected her eye and nose. Sharlene still experiences nerve pain in her face during cold weather. Seven weeks after surgery at 35 years, shingles struck again.
“A lot of people do not realise you can get a reoccurrence of it.”
Her daughter Rachel even suffered shingles – not chickenpox – at age two, after previously contracting chickenpox.
The ongoing battle prompted Sharlene to join with others to speak to politicians in Canberra in February to lobby for more funding for shingles research.
Sharlene aims to control future outbreaks by managing her stress levels and is now keen to establish a shingles support group in the area.
Anyone interested is invited to phone her on 0419 339 856.
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