However, last summer I got shingles. I was fortunate, the summer before that my sister had them, and I saw what she went through, so when I started having the pain and the skin sensitivity on my side and back, I went immediately to Urgent Care, described what was going on, and the doc there didn't waste any time. She put me on the heavy duty 'cure the thing' acyclovir dose, with the promise that since I'd caught it so early, I could get away without even seeing a rash.
I wasn't quite that lucky, but from all I have heard, I still had quite a 'mild' case, thanks to getting on top of it early. And ladies and gentlemen, if that's a mild case (six weeks of misery and not being able to wear anything or sit in a chair with a back on it and all sorts of hurt), then those who have it worse have all my sympathy.
Since then I have been on daily acyclovir to prevent a recurrence, plus a bottle of the 'take this as soon as you start feeling the tingle' whopper dose, in case the daily dose doesn't quite do the job.
So if preventing and treating shingles is all acyclovir does, that's OK with me.
