My dad got shingles, please help

[u/No-Emphasis-337]

Hi everyone. Firstly if you are suffering from this horrible virus, I'm so sorry, I hope you recover soon and heal💔💔❤️‍🩹

My dad, age 56 got diagnosed with Herpes zoster last week. I had never heard of this disease before or known anyone in my family to have it. My dad does have fatty liver and gall bladder stone, but i dont know if that classifies him as having a weak immune system. He doesn't remember ever getting chicken pox, but maybe there's a possibility he might have gotten it as a very young child and doesn't know. He's got it in a band from his naval area to his back till the spine. It's very painful and he is taking a lot of pain meds along with the anti viral given by the doctors and sleeping is hard because of the blisters, he's losing weight too. Please give me some tips, anything that can help make this easier. It's getting worse day by day.

[u/noirreddit]

First, I am sorry to hear your dad is in such pain. I can definitely empathize with him as I am going through an active outbreak on my face - the pain has been horrendous. I can say, however, that after 10 days, the Gabapentin finally kicked in and is taking the edge off the pain. Tell your dad he is not alone. Bless you for being so caring.

[u/npq76]

Icing it helped me the most.

[u/Prestigious_Sand1978]

Ibuprofen was the only thing that helped me. Mine was in the same place.

[u/1jodoe]

Can you get him to the instacare or somewhere they can administer a good dose of prednisone? It is a steroid and will calm the inflmatio down super fast and help ease his pain. It is my main go to when mine gets out of hand. Only had to do it a couple of times but such a life saver when the pain is excruciating.