Question
Hello. At the beginning if March '09 I was diagnosed with a case of shingles. This case was on my forehead and in my eye. I was immediately put on medication and it all cleared up with out an complication. Since then I have had re-accuring headaches which I have named "shingles headaches" due to the fact that noise doesn't make them worse, but light does. The headaches usually go away within a day. Over the past few days I have noticed what look like puss filled blisters on my shoulder, of the same side from when I had shingles before. I can not tell if the base of them are red, as they are in a spot were i have a tattoo. Before i jump in and go to the doctors I wanted to know if this is in fact another case of shingles or just a strange rash. I wanted to know if you can get shingles again and not have pain in the area. My shoulder does not hurt to the touch, but the other symptoms are there. I hope you can help.

Answer
Hi Nichole,

Well as someone who has had Shingles many times, I doubt the second rash is Shingles as you saw it before you felt it. I can always tell when my Shingles is going to recur as the area gets extremely tender and the spot it breaks out on starts to itch several hours before the spot appears.  Shingles also tends to come back to the same spot over and over.

This is not to say that the second rash doesn抰 need to be assessed and treated as you don抰 want it to get worse unnecessarily or spread to your blood which would make you very sick.

Just go to a clinic and have your rash looked at so you can relax and clear it up.

I hope this helped,

All my best,
Margot