Diana Hind was bedridden with pain from shingles. Even narcotic painkillers didn't help. So her husband, a retired pharmaceutical chemist, mixed a different painkiller in his laboratory. But at the time, she didn't mind the mess. I could not have gone on with that pain.
Shingles is a risk to anyone who has ever had chickenpox.
The chickenpox virus, called herpes zoster, hibernates inside the body. As people age, the immune system wanes and herpes zoster can reactivate, causing painful shingles. Most people recover in a few months. But for up to 20 percent of patients, shingles can damage nerves in the skin and cause severe, unrelenting pain for months or even years. The series of shots, every half-inch across her back, took 45 minutes and provided about six hours of pain relief.