Hello,
BJ's been on Imuran for years. Last year, she got shingles.
I forget which pain medications she took for that.
It took quite a while for that to go away.
As I recall, she was holding a soft pillow under one arm, while she
continued her daily routine.
That was because the arm or clothing brushing against the shingles flared
the pain worse.
She has since cut back on her dose of Imuran (for other reasons).

She's been very busy lately. I'm not sure when she'll be posting.

Meantime, you could save us some time by rereading previous posts about
that and which medications helped or didn't.
http://groups-beta.google.com/advanced_search?q=&\
type shingles
type alt.support.lupus
sort by date
Start in July (2nd page) and read each thread through September.
That mgiht give you some tips and websites to read.
Hope this helps and you feel better soon,
J

I had exactly the same thing happen.
Dr. said we would try Cellcept to help me get off the Prednisone.
My request because I heard it was so awful.
I was on 10 mg of Pred. at the time with Plaquenil.
I took 500 mg. of Cellcept, twice a day for one month and the next month I
got shingles.
When you get an illness, you have to go off it he said so your immune system
won't be too suppressed, so you can get well.
After the shingles, I got back on it and seemed every other month was sick
with something.
I finally told him to forget it, I'd rather stay on the Prednisone.
Shingles kept me off work for 2 months.
I pray I never get shingles again.

I have been fine since I went off Cellcept and managed to taper to 6-7 mg of
Pred.
I don't think I would take it again unless it was a life threatening
problem.
Judy
=====

I haven't posted hear for a long time, I came back to ask a question and
thought I maybe could answer yours.

I had a similar experience.  I was on plaquenil and methotrexate and 40 mg
of pred, I switched to 2000mg a day of cellcept and was able to taper the
pred down to 5mg and 10mg on alternate days.  I got shingles after about 3
months, it not fun, not at all.  I started acyclovir too late too help, I
took vicodin for the pain and then neurontin for quite a while.  The whole
thing lasted several months before I could put it on the back burner.  I
never stopped cellcept, I've been on the same regimen for 3 or 4 years now
with no more shingles and no more bad flares.  I'm a happy camper with the
cellcept. Wish I could get the pred down further but can't seem to.  Good
luck, it will get better.

I'm going to start a new thread with my question.

john

I had shingles last summer. I am on Imuran. I believe that is why it took
months for the lesions to heal. I still have discomfort occasionally, even
after all this time. I had just returned from a holiday which involved days
of driving. I  was overtired from that and was a bit run down. I think that
is why I got shingles at that particular time.
BJ-Sk. Canada