Patient L: A Case Summary

Patient L is a 21-year-old female who was just recently diagnosed with the Shingles. Her case is peculiar as she is well below the normal age for patients diagnosed with the Shingles. Normally people who have the varicella-zoster virus, the viral agent that is the cause for the Shingles, do not show symptoms until they are at a much older age when they have a weaker immune system (Mayo Clinic 2014). Patient L was reported to have the chicken pox when she was younger, which would be the most likely cause of her condition. It is unclear how the patient contracted the virus as an infant. It is also unknown if any of the patients immediate family members have had a history of the Shingles or the chicken pox, which would have helped to explain the patient’s diagnosis (Hicks et al 2008).
The patient first noticed sharp pain that originated from her spinal cord that traveled up to her brain stem, causing headaches (Mayo Clinic 2014). After a couple days of this pain, the patient noticed a rash as well as numerous blisters that covered her entire back. Within a day or two of noticing the blisters, they started opening and letting out a puss-like fluid, causing more sharp pain up the patient’s spinal cord. For the next two to three days, the patient started to develop flu-like symptoms.

A physician at the hospital diagnosed patient L with the Shingles. The physician noted that the causes of her condition were due to her medical history of being diagnosed with the chicken pox as a child, as well as having higher than normal stress. By having the chicken pox previous, patient L already had the Shingles-causing virus inside of her (Mayo Clinic 2014). Her increased stress would lead to a higher release of cortisol, which acts as an immune-suppressive hormone that would explain the activation of the Shingles virus for patient L (Lim