New recommended treatment in Scotland for postherpetic neuralgia
August 15, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
If you’ve had the chicken pox, it’s possible that you may get shingles one day. Shingles (herpes zoster) is the flare up of the virus that causes the chicken pox.
If shingles isn’t bad enough, a number of people who have shingles are left with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) after. It’s a very painful long-term complication of shingles. For some, it goes away after a while, others suffer from it for a long time afterwards.
In Scotland, there is a medication called Versatis (5% lidocaine medicated plaster) that has been found to help relieve the pain of PHN. While initially it wasn’t recommended for use within the National Health System (in February 2007), the Scottish Medicines Consortium has reversed that decision and Versatis is now recommended "for restricted use within NHS Scotland for the treatment of neuropathic pain associated with previous herpes zoster infection (post-herpetic neuralgia, PHN)."
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Tags: chronic pain blog, pain blog, neuralgia, shingles, postherpetic neuralgia, PHN, versatis, herpes zoster
The last book I read was Between Gardens by Carol Graham Chudley and Dorothy Field. It is a true story of letters written between two women about gardens. It is also entwined with in their deepening friendship as one can only look at gardens while the other plants and harvests.. Carol suffered from Cronic Fatigue, Syndrome, sleep deprivation and endless pain for years. She was an active woman before this Its like a diary where she describes loosing her stregnth and independence but not her intregrity. As she grows progressivly worse she tells her friend Dorthy about the gardens and the cycles of flowers as the garden grows more neglected. She tells her about gardening and she says what she sees from her window intertwined with a journal of her illness.
Dorthy tells her about her new found skills as a gardner due to Carols tips. The book is a tribute to gardens, friendship and support, and a meditation to living with integrity in spite of everything. The illness deepened her friendship while others faded away. Enjoyed this book and have a lot of it highlighted with yellow. Such beautiful words.
The things that I get out of Help My hurt section are numerous. I have cronic pain. Fibromyalgia. I like the ABC’s of pain. I have learnt a lot about vitamins and minerals that are specific to nerve health. I have found a pain chart another time that I printed out and used for my clueless doctor.He just didn’t listen. I enjoy the tips on management from distraction tecnigues to relaxion and some of the meds suggestions. Interesting about shingles pain.
have sent the link to Womb within to my daughter.