PSA. I'm home from the doc for my back pain. If you are suffering with pain of unknown cause this info may help you. [View all]

I've been whining ad nauseum about my crippling back pain.

Here's what's up. Maybe this might help someone who is suffering with undiagnosed pain.

Crippling pain in center back, right back, right hip, right groin for weeks. I've had pain before, but this is a dreadful suicide pain.

Pain is so bad that it took 2 IV doses of Dilaudid to get me on the CT table. and this drug didn't actually relieve the pain, it just made my knees buckle.

CT scan showed degenerative disc disease, stenosis, etc. But nothing that would cause pain this severe.

Prescribed a high dose of Oxycodone. This actually intensified the pain.

Prescribed Gabapentin over the phone last week. It's not helping.

I went to my primary care this morning. She's a very good nurse practitioner. She's better than a lot of physicians.

She gave me a good exam and said she was going to write an order for a MRI of my hips and back.

She asked me if I was having any other problems. I told her that when I woke up this morning, I had a nasty rash near the base of my penis that just manifested over night.

She looked at it and said "That looks like shingles".

She called the doctor in to confirm and the doc said "Yep, that's absolutely shingles".

I told her that I had the shingles shot, and she said "doesn't matter, you can still get it".

As it was explained to me, shingles attacks your nerve bundles on one side of your body, and you can have shingles without ever getting a rash. In my case, the rash just popped up late. If the rash did not manifest, I probably never would have been diagnosed, and would have suffered with pain and useless medical tests.

I was put on an oral drug, Famciclovir, which is an anti-viral. I was also told to increase my Gabapentin dosage. She said I'm contagious, and I'm not to touch anyone, and I'm to wash my hands a lot.

She said the shingles are probably due to either a stress reaction, or a vaccine reaction.

This is the sickest I've been in my life. I actually considered offing myself.

If you are having unexplained pain, this may be one of many potential causes.

You all have a nice day.