Just a small patch at the moment, not really that painful and I can still ride a bike ok, but as the condition seems to pop up if you have a weak immune system I'm just wondering if I should not do any racing for a while.
I think the 530 miles I did in Majorca last week might be the cause of it.

Speak to your GP it can get pretty nasty if you don't look after yourself.

No way! Take it easy and no strenuous efforts until your body is back to full health
I've had it and ignored it for a week to my detrement.
I ended up having to take enforced rest for 6 weeks whilst taking some expensive new drugs

Get to your GP immediately!

My wife is still recoveing from Shingles 6 months on. She got a very expensive drug early on that minimized the rash and fought the infection, but she was still really sick.

As I understand it, Shingles is an infection of the nerve endings and you can get it in any part of the body. It can be pretty severe if you are unlucky.

It affects everyone differently, but the wife was floored for at least a month. The recovery has been very slow.

So forget biking and go and see your GP to see if he can nip it in the bud.

Get the drugs right now. Wash your hands thoroughly after even thinking about touching it, and keep away from your eyes. If caught early it's relatively painless. If left, even 24 hours, it can get really bad very quickly.

Bloody hell! Didn't expect this sort of response. Will be seeing my GP Monday but it's been a few days now since the blotches appeared so opportunity to "nip it in the bud" may have passed.

Tom dB – web monkey
Get the drugs right now. Wash your hands thoroughly after even thinking about touching it, and keep away from your eyes.

While this is good advice overall (the rash in the early stages does shed virus that you can infect other people with and basically give them chickenpox), IIRC the eye symptoms that occur in 10-25% of shingles cases are due to the virus reactivating in the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve, not to you infecting your eye socket with new virus from your scabs. Check with your GP before accepting medical advice from random people on the internet, of course. 🙂

absolutely no racing! there's a secondary virus / infection thing you can get which knocks you for six, as above my wife was knocked sideways by it for about 6 months.

I had it a few years ago, did a ride in the peaks and passed out on top of mamtor! Not a nice infection, just rest, I also got impetigo at the same time 🙁

Will be seeing my GP Monday

Call the doctor's and get an emergency appointment at the hospital GP. It is usually much quicker than going to your normal docs as well.

the rash in the early stages does shed virus that you can infect other people with and basically give them chickenpox

Is that right? I was told (by the hospital) that it was not infectious and I could carry on as normal (working etc) if I felt up to it as it wasn't contagious – perhaps I had already passed the early stage?

Well I managed to get an emergency appointment with my GP. Too late for anti-virals so just gave me a topical cream. No real concern from the doctor as it is such a small area of rash. He also said I could carry on training, it would only be the level of discomfort from the rash that might prevent me
riding.

Can I have his bike when he dies?

Seriously need to rest and get better and not spread it.

I've Had shingles twice ..not good. It does seem to get brought on by stress. Second time round what started as a strange "fly bite" on my back that wouldn't heal progressed to my ankle and slowly worked its painful way round "tracking the nerves" in my foot.

Shingles doesnt always hurt a lot but it does feel "strange" in the area. The doctor that first diagnosed me was good and put me on antivirals for a week. That seemed to start clearing it up. However he later referred me to a "skin specialist" after 2 weeks, who told me to stop taking the drugs…that made it worse!! Anyway I lost confidence in the skin specialist after he mixed up my blood test(he wouldn't admit it of course). Luckily it went away on its own. I suffered from Aug to late Jan a few years back and am still **issed off with the useless skin specialist..

My advice is to get good medical advice and try to get them to give you the drugs even if it is "too late"…for me they certainly reduced symptoms

There is so much contradiction about this. NHS direct said it wasn't shingles. Pharmacist and doctor say it is. Some say it's contagious some say not. Despite feeling perfectly fit and well I am definitely going to take it easy though and make sure the rash and the little bit of discomfort is on its way out before upping it in any way.
Sorry zaskar, my bike went back to scott today for a warranty job, you'll have to wait a bit.

this is what it looked like on its journey round my ankle…was a pain walking to work!!

All i would say is that if I had the choice of getting the drugs again or waiting to see what what would happen …i would get the drugs immediately

Is that a typical shingles rash? Mine is more like a few separate points of redness with some merging rather than a ribbon like yours.

I dont know …u definitely need to check your symptoms with your doctor.

Mine started as very itchy points of redness then went into a tracking line of blisters with clear fluid…very yuck. Neither antibiotic or antifungal creams cleared it. I had it for some time..

Hmmm. No itching at all for me yet, just a little tender. Not much to write home about really.

I'm pretty sure it's no good to excercise hard with a virus. This may sound a bit Anorak-ish but I'm sure Beryl Burton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_Burton )Died prematurely due to long term effects of training when ill which caused a heart defect.

Best have a rest, you'll feel better fo it. 🙂

Not sure where I read it but I've always remembered it.

Had it when I was young and can still remember the pain to this day (I counted 104 of those horrible things on my middle). Don't recollect having any drugs back then though – it was the usual GP thing of "take lots of rest". Hurt like a bandit for a couple of weeks then just went.