If someone has been fighting the zoster virus for over a year is losing some hearing and sometimes needs oxygen to breath how can you make things better for her?

Answer

Sounds like a really bad set of circumstances. It's unusual to have zoster for a year, so I hope she is continuing to see a physician. I'm not sure if you meant that you were concerned all of the problems mentioned above were linked to one another, but I'm assuming you did not. Here are some suggestions:

1. Make sure her pain is under control; zoster, if she truly still has it, can be a very painful condition. Make sure her pain is being addressed by her physician.

2. Hearing loss can come about from different conditions, be it from normal aging, medications, loud noise, etc. See an ENT to be tested to see if the hearing loss is the type that can be helped by hearing aides or if there is anything else that can be done.

3. Make sure that the person you mentioned and everyone around her does not smoke! This is crucial for someone on oxygen especially; it is still amazing to me that someone on oxygen would put a flame up to their mouth--sometimes even at the same time--which can result in explosions. But more importantly, this could certainly cause more damage.

4. Make sure that she is seeing a physician who can take time to address all of the issues (this may mean coming back for multiple appointments).

Hope this helps!

Dr. B.