Radiation therapy and shingles

Have others experienced a shingles attack (my first) shortly after initiating radiation therapy?

I was 3 days in on therapy and begin having dermatome sensitivity on left flank and front abdomen. Treated initially with ibuprofen until stomach pain jumped on the wagon; added prilosec, subbed acetaminophen for ibuprofen, and pain morphed into visceral abdominal and flank pain, hard to control; finally get to PA almost two weeks after first symptom and she finds two small lesions near umbilicus (I had seen them 3 days earlier but did not make the connection). I started Valtrex anti-viral and tramadol for pain (which was making me miserable).

Friday morning (two nights on tramadol) I wake up to go for my last radiation treatment but cannot hardly walk down the hall as knees kept collapsing, but i could recover. Long story short- visit to ER (did get my last RT), CT of head (looking for a bleed) and lungs (got to rule out the pulmonary embolism) and left with a diagnosis of primary hypoxemia (was at 74% O2 on first ER read), unknown origin. Sent home on oxygen. Two days later, using only acetaminophen for pain and 1/2 dose of tramadol in a confirming experiment, it appears I am super sensitive to respiratory depression by tramadol.

Fortunately, the shingles seems to be residing and treatable with Tylenol now; I have yet to test sleeping without O2, but do not seem to need it for singing anymore.

I did get a PSA out of this; good to have as my next scheduled test will occur at a time where I might get PSA decrease due to RT.

nothing is simple anymore

rf

If you've had chicken pox you have this virus lying dormant in the nerve roots. In some people, it stays dormant forever. In others, the virus "wakes up" when disease, stress, or aging weakens the immune system.

I had a severe outbreak after being diagnosed and towards the end of the research/consultation/testing part. The stress just wore me out. A little something extra to add the misery

By the time I started radiation I was calm. So for me it was stress related.

I've heard of folks having RT and I've heard of folks having shingles.

but you're the first I've heard with both. Yeah, the stress of RT could do that.

Sucks to have shingles. I know the problems my father had with it.

Hope it all resolves soon,
Andrew

I suffered an outbreak after radiation was finished and while on ADT. My docs all agreed that the disease stress and hormonal unbalance could be triggers as well as age. Fortunately I caught them quickly and the medication was effective in limiting the condition. I had deep residual pain for a few years following the outbreak.

rockyfords said...
Friday morning (two nights on tramadol) ... 1/2 dose of tramadol in a confirming experiment, it appears I am super sensitive to respiratory depression by tramadol.

That can happen. about one in ten people have some problem with Tramadol, and being related to meperidine then respiratory depression would not be a surprising reaction. I had used Tramadol daily for over ten years and was fortunate that it was effective and well tolerated. In your case, it's good to have this in your medical records for future reference.

Regarding shingles, I had the original shingles vaccine when I turned 61 because it seemed to be a dreadful disease. As I understand, there is now a newer, improved vaccine that I suppose I'll have to get someday, once the dust has settled. Regarding RT... can't help you there.

How would radiation in his pelvis cause dermatitis on his face, chest, and head? Or on his skin anywhere,for that matter when megavolt Xrays are used? It sounds like an allergic reaction.

Thanks to all who have responded-

I seem to be out of the woods on this thing now- lesions are healing and pain is almost not worth treating with tylenol.

Stress is such a mind-killer; unexplained visceral pains requiring medication, bought on by stress, only increases the stress as docs inch towards an earlier round of staging scans- and the future shuts down as I wonder "is this my last "good" summer?"

But then it is something else (shingles), but treatments for that drive me to a physiological edge requiring immediate intervention....

But all seems better now. I did not much like roller coasters much as a kid, and I certainly don't now.

Thanks again, and a shout out to all of us who are challenged to live life as best we can under the stress of this disease.


yah, but not this summer anyway......

rf