With sudden, excruciating pain spreading throughout her body, Viola Davis believed she had been bitten by a venomous creature.
“I would rate it a nine out of 10,” she said of the pain in an interview with People. “I was surprised how painful it was. Hard to lie down, hard to get up, hard to walk. Nerve pain, all that.”
But what the EGOT winner actually suffered from was a very common illness that affects 1 in 3 Americans at some point in their lives.
The good news is that the virus is not life-threatening, but there is no cure. And before it leaves your system, the agony it causes is unfortunately very common.
Davis began experiencing her symptoms in early 2012, just after the actress adopted her daughter and received an Oscar nomination for “The Help.”
“I was working, working, working, throwing myself into the ground,” she said. “Then all of a sudden I woke up with flu-like symptoms and an extremely painful rash.”
“It started on my stomach and went up to my back. It went away and then came back with three blisters on my upper back.”
She says that when her doctors diagnosed her with shingles, it was “the surprise of my life”: “I knew absolutely nothing about shingles. »
The disease is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. If you have had chickenpox, the virus stays in the body for life and can reactivate later as shingles.
Shingles causes a painful rash that usually looks like a single band of blisters wrapping around one side of your body. Doctors can usually tell at a glance through a visual inspection, but samples of the blister can also be sent to confirm the presence of the virus.
The rash may be itchy, tender to the touch, and cause burning and stinging pain with fluid-filled blisters that burst and scab over. Some people, like Davis, also experience symptoms such as fever, headache, fatigue and tenderness.
Serious complications can result from shingles, including postherpetic neuralgia. This chronic nerve pain — which can feel burning, stabbing, or aching — occurs where the shingles rash first appeared and persists for months or years after the rash has healed. Adults over 50 are at increased risk.
PHN can also cause vision damage if the rash appears near the eye (shingles ophthalmicus) or nerve damage if the rash affects the nerve near the ear (Ramsey Hunt syndrome).
There is no cure for shingles, but doctors can prescribe medications that can speed healing and reduce the risk of complications.
Lessons learned
“I felt like I was kind of immune to any illness at that point because I was working out, I was eating right. I felt like I was healthy because I was doing all the right things. And then all of a sudden I got shingles,” Davis said.
Eating healthy and exercising won’t prevent shingles, although it is certainly good for your overall health. However, we have a powerful tool to prevent the development of shingles.
Adults 50 and older and adults with weakened immune systems should receive the two-dose Shingrix vaccine, which is more than 90% effective in preventing shingles and persistent pain (PHN).
The shingles “woke me up and I started listening to my body, which I wasn’t doing before,” Davis said. “I felt like a soldier and the more I could muster, the stronger I was. I didn’t know that’s not what strength is. Strength is kind of loving your body and being healthy as you get older.”
She now encourages others to value their health and seek medical attention when something is wrong.
“Life is not meant to be lived with anything that causes you debilitating pain,” she said. “I feel like I’m important enough and my body is important enough to listen to it and honor it…I’ve found that’s the key to aging gracefully.”
Gn Health
