Back toUpdated on October 22, 2024
Some people have shingles more than once. Tawanda has had shingles three times. In this video, this single mother of two describes the painful symptoms, how shingles can be triggered by stress and what she is doing to prevent another shingles infection.
Medically reviewed in April 2020.
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Tawanda Tenny. I'm a correction officer, single parent of two. I've had the shingles three times.
My oldest son was in the army. And my youngest son was getting ready to graduate from high school. I felt the sting on my right lower side.
Throughout the week, it went from a stinging small bump through to a small rash. My sister-in-law, who was a nurse,
she asked me why was I stretching because I was kind of irritated. They were red, kind of blustery.
And she told me that they were shingles. And she said that they were chicken pox at a dormant stage that had surfaced and that I needed
to go to the doctor ASAP. At my worst, my shingles felt like a small ball of fire
if you could imagine that. Anything that got next to it, irritation, irritation. So I'm walking around work with my uniform on
and that included quite a bit on my waistline. So at the Royce, it was probably about 8 and 1/2.
On the second time that I had them, it was during the time my sister was diagnosed with cancer.
And I think that intensified my stress, which aggravated my shingles. After going to my doctor for the third time,
he confirmed that I need to, number one, learn how to deal with stress. I get a tingling sensation if I get stressed.
It's kind of up on the surface of my skin. If I'm in a predicament where I see the stress is coming
or it's intensified, I just simply acknowledge the situation and kind of have to back away from it.
