Thanks for the well wishes, guys. I'm feeling much better. The lesions have mostly healed and are simply red on surface rather than raised. On my neck, it just looks like a bad case of healing razor burn. I can't say that the antiviral pills helped given that I started taking them most likely after the 72 hour initial window in which such treatment is recommended to start, but I have to feel the antiviral helped to a degree.

Shingles are intense. The first five days or so after the initial outbreak was acutely painful on several levels: the surface of the skin in and around the outbreak area was unbelievably sensitive and painful. In addition to that, however, the shingles was accompanied by nerve pain which was comprised of random stabbing jolts which I envision as though someone was pressing or poking a raw nerve. Now, the deep nerve pain is gone, and the surface of my skin on my neck, the back of my head and my shoulder is just a bit more sensitive than the rest of my skin, but bearably so. Really not a big deal at all.

I'm glad to be feeling better, that's for sure!

Chris L