His first words were "This is a medical emergency". That wasn't very comforting, but country doctors aren't always known for their "bedside manners", just their medical experience. He went into a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of cortisone pills, and told me to immediately down seven of them, and follow the instructions for the rest. He then said, "come back if they don't help".
They worked on the rash. The pain stayed for months.
I just had a relatively mild case of shingles. I thought I had burned my forehead with a curling iron. When I woke up with swollen eyes I headed to the Dr. His NP immediately diagnosed ,what looked like burns as, shingles. I only had lesions around my hairline which turned into nasty scabs. Fortunately there was no pain and although it headed toward my eyebrow it didn’t affect my eye. The ophthalmologist said that shingles in the eye will start on the nose. The only lingering side effect is the area around my eyebrow is numb.
Your doc should have given you anti-virals, not just steroids.