I too get a recurrent herpetic rash so frequently its almost like its chronic and never completely goes away. at first thought was shingles, but now reached conclusion that it is more likely hsv1 (the one that causes cold sores). not the rash that bothers me (at this point, i often get no eruption, or erutption that fades after one day) but the nerve symptoms it causes and it also triggers dysatunomia for me.
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Have you had a doctor diagnose the rash as either shingles or hsv1? I am just curious because I am not 100% sure that what I am getting is shingles or maybe something similar. I do get little blisters that burst and scab over. Mainly they itch for a while and ooze a little. Sometimes they just look like bug bites. But the itching remains long after the rash is gone. Certain places on my body where I once had the rash will start itching and I'll also get a set of symptoms that I get when I have these mild cases of shingles (probable shingles). I have mild nausea, sore throat, my left eye feels irritated, I do stupid things (absentmindedness), and I get a pinching pain in my lower right abdomen. And my right hand pinky finger area gets pins and needles because I once had the rash there. Pretty random symptoms but I get them each time. Occasionally I get pain which is internal and sometimes that gets to be severe. I ended up in the ER a few times not knowing what was going on. Sometimes the rash will sting and burn besides itching. I did get my first bad case diagnosed as shingles by my doctor. But I haven't gotten any further testing done. She attempted to do a viral culture by using a swab of the rash when one of the blisters was oozing, but the lab said they couldn't do it for some reason and threw the swab out.
But like you described, I also seem to just constantly have these shingles episodes or whatever they are, and it never seems to completely go away.
In case this helps you...I have an Rx for valtrex for the bad cases, but I take papain/papaya enzyme for the milder cases and it seems to help. I also figured out that eating things high in arginine will bring on a case of shingles. Nuts, seeds, gelatin, chocolate. I read that taking lysine will help counteract the arginine but I have not found that it helps at all.