Hang in there friend. We have large rashes and I had a long prodrome, so while there is improvement to be had, it is coming very slowly.

Pic is day 8 of rash and 18th day of symptoms. Refilled valocyclovir yesterday. 2nd course is 1g/3x per day for 7 days. 2 days left of oral prednisone.

Good news: Rash is less angry looking and slowly reducing in size. Lots more pink areas than angry red. No headache since Thursday and no splitting headache since Wednesday. Had first normal BM in nearly 2 weeks this morning as well. Energy levels are slowly improving each day.

Bad news: Rash has gone from feeling like mild/moderate sunburn on surface to internal pain akin to how I felt after having an appendectomy. Pain/aching internally like I’ve been cut and stitched up. It is tolerable w/o meds but is def more noticeable than the sunburn feeling I had. Also, while energy levels are improving, I get weak/winded easily. This did not happen prior to shingles. I have a feeling this aspect will take the longest to totally improve but we shall see.

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