I will post it on Thursday.
I make many herb remedies, and also essential oil blends, for various conditions. I also make cough syrup, salves, and a few tinctures. I am willing to share all my methods and ingredients.
Last year I got shingles for the first (and hopefully last) time and by the time I went to the doctor (she’s a naturopath) to verify it was shingles, it was too late to take the antiviral. But the went away in about 3 weeks and she was surprise how quickly they resolved. I made up an antiviral herb formula and also applied an antiviral tincture and they seemed to help.
I immediately starting to drink, each day, five packets (5000mg total) of Emergen-C. I also consumed a tablespoon of extra virgin coconut oil in my oatmeal for breakfast. I washed the infected area with the coconut oil. I continued to do so until the infected area cleared up and was no longer itchy or painful. That was a 3 week period.
Compared to horror stories I've heard from shingle sufferers, I ended up having a mild case. I had two family members follow the same protocol and they had the same results. So I'd say get on Valtrex ASAP, load up on Vitamin C, and finally keep your skin supple and your nerves calm with the coconut oil.
Concerning shingles - which I have never had and will not ever have {natural immunity - reason following} - I had an argument for maybe 15 years with the medical people that shingles occurs in people who had chicken pox as children. The infecting virus is herpes zoster. People would come to me in desperation to ask if there was any cure for shingles; I would tell them to ask their doctor for a chicken pox vaccination - but DON'T tell the Dr that it is because of shingles! ...never worked, of course.
I argued incessantly with medicos to give a chicken pox vaccination to their aging patients. The doctors would argue that, if they had chicken pox as children, they were immune to the virus. Since both maladies are caused by the same virus such a statement is demonstrably impossible! ...but they naturally wanted to hear it from the AMA or Mayo Clinic or Lancet.
Now I see that Wikipedia agrees with everything that I argued way back when.
The point is that obviously the virus lies dormant in the sheath of the nerve fibers - myelin sheath. For whatever reason, it is activated with age and causes great pain. A good FReeper friend just last year had Shingles on the face and in the eyes - a horror that almost caused her her sight. I am immune because I was repeatedly exposed to chicken pox as a child without ever contracting the disease and thus must be naturally immune.
To cut this short, a Japanese doctor got the same revelation that I had in the 90's and experimented with vaccination. It worked! Now, since shingles vaccination is separate from chicken pox vaccination naturally the price can be raised.
Still, finally there is a vaccination and countless people that had chicken pox as children can escape the horror of shingles as adults. AND - I was correct all along! :^D