TAnn,
Mike had shingles after Alimta, but I don't know if you can blame Alimta specifically. He had gone in for his checkup and showed the doctor a rash that started on the upper leftside of his chest. His wasn't painful , but it followed across one side of the chest and eventually went under the arm and to the back on that side. Shingles follow a nerve. They are from the Herpes Zoster virus that caused you to have chicken pox as a child. In fact, you can actually give someone who never had chicken pox, the virus. It's my understanding that the virus lies dormant and can surface in times of immune deficiency, such as after being on chemo when your immune system is weakened. In Mike's case, he was given the drug Famvir which cleared it up in one week except it left a dried up pattern. The Famvir had a horrible effect on him and he has never totally recovered from that. We blamed the Famvir, but there were other changes in meds at the same time. I will also add that he had pneumonitis prior to the shingles. He was put on high dose prednisone therapy for that. Pneumonitis can also be caused by chemotherapy. Who knows if there is any connection to the Alimta. I can only say that after the Alimta, Mike had stable results on scans , but otherwise all hell broke loose and he hasn't gotten straight yet.
I'm not sure what good all that does for you, but you can chalk it up to research. Sure hope you are soon feeling better TAnn. I understand those things can be extremely painful.
Love and Prayers,
Sue