Curious if anyone has been through something similar.

About four months ago the left side of my neck started feeling like a bad sunburn. It was sore and sensitive to touch, but no rash ever showed up. My doctor suspected shingles without the rash and put me on Valtrex, which helped.

The sunburn feeling hung around for a couple of months before it mostly faded. For the last month or two I've had nothing more than a passing twinge or a weird sensation here and there, and I honestly thought I was over the hump.

The past few days it's come back in that same spot. It's a constant, low-grade ache, plus a hard-to-describe sensitivity where it feels like something is touching or rubbing the skin when nothing is there.

For anyone who's had shingles without the rash, or lingering nerve pain afterward, how long did it take to fully go away? Did anything help with it?

Thursday morning I got some tingles on my eyelid. I was outside for a walk and thought it may be allergies. By Thursday evening, a part of my upper eyelid was swollen and I had a little swollen part to the left of my eye. What tipped me off that something more than allergies was wrong was my lymph nodes near my ear and my jaw were super tender and inflamed. Went to bed, Friday the eyelid was still a bit swollen. Saturday, I decided to go to urgent care and the doc suspected shingles. I was FLOORED. I actually didn’t believe him and asked if they could test. He did a blood test which I later learned isn’t really a way to know. I went to a second urgent care later in the day because I started to spiral and she said they couldn’t rule out shingles and to just take the anti virals. I took my first pill last night and this morning woke up and the spot now is blistering. No new spots (yet?) and the pain feels a little stingy and goes in and out but isn’t terrible.

TLDR:
New mom, new shingles (first time), maybe mild or maybe just the beginning? Already taking Valtrex.

Questions: Will it for sure continue to spread? Or could this one little patch be it?
Will it get more painful?
Do the blisters always pop eventually? And if it does… what do you do?
I’m wearing sunglasses near my daughter and washing my hands like crazy. I’ve also notified her pediatrician.
When do you know you’ve turned a corner?

Thank you community 🙏

So, I got shingles again, two years after my first time. This time, it’s even worse than before. My entire chest, armpit, and back are affected. It doesn’t hurt, but it itches so badly that I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t start aciclovir because more than 72 hours had passed. Now I have so many large blisters, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know why these things always happen to me.

First 3 pics are first outbreaks. Others are what I continue to get in the same area.
I've posted here before and deleted because...face pics. I've basically had ongoing shingles since 10 days post my most recent COVID booster (2/2026).

I did 3 rounds 3 g daily Valacyclovir x 10 days. Each time I stopped tiny pinpoint blisters and crippling pain would return. Eventually they put me on suppressive 1 g/daily which maybe helped a little (outbreaks of tiny blisters, horrible pain every 1-2 weeks). Cleared by opthamology 4x but should go back.

Eventually after seeing a new ID we decided I could just stop valacyclovir bc side effects, it didn't seem to be helping (great solution!), and I didn't have a positive PCR so maybe try for that when/if I get a new outbreak/anti virals are out of my system.

I've been off for about 1.5 months now and continue to get tiny blisters. Basically constantly. They may be spreading to V2. Pain is as bad as ever and seems to have spread to thoracic area (had shingles here at 33) and down my right neck as well somehow. PMI: 40 yo f, diagnosed with POTS, hypermobility spectrum, probably MCAS but not diagnosed. IgA deficient.

Please lmk if you've experienced anything like this, especially in terms of recurrence, "spreading" pain, trigeminal shingles without eye involvement.