For the past two months my sister has been suffering from the shingles. She has been given several medications and four pain blocks, however; the pain in her back keeps getting worse. She had an MRI, this showed she had a hemangioma on C-5, T-7, and T-12. She was informed that surgery was out of the question. She is very scared and in an intense amount of pain and afraid that the pain will be never stop, could you please give me some information that might help her.
There is unlikely to be any link betwen the shingles infection and the hemangiomas, these have probably been present all of her life while the shingles is a new infection, usually of a single nerve root which
is causing these new symptoms.
Provided the diagnosis of shingles is definite, with typical lesions in a belt-like distribution around the body then there is unlikely to be a connection.
If this is the case surgery would not be an option because the hemangiomas are not causing the pain in the first place, and arei an area which is susceptible to surgical intervention without causing even furtheer problems.
We are left then with a severe case of shingles, leaving the hemangiomas to one side as not being relevant.
At this stage your sister is probably suddering from the syndrome of post herpetic neuralgia, a number of options exist including topical creams : EMLA, Lidocaine and Capsaicin. Oral medications : Lamotrigine and Neurontin. Epidural medications ( mixture of ketamine,bupivacaine and morphine ). Surgical procedures ( radiofrequency lesioning of the nucleus caudalis, thoracic sympathetic ganglion blockade. Subcutaneous ketamine.
To have access to the full range of options your sister may need to be seen in a specialized pain management center by a physician who specializes in pain management. But do not despair there are lots of options she has not tried yet.
