Hilaire:
Sorry to hear of your condition. Acyclovir usually will stop the blisters and pain in one or two days. Only problem is if you live in the USA you practically have to mortgage your home to afford the medication -- even with insurance. In Argentina the exact same drug costs about $12 US in Pesos. But you have to take it four times a day for two weeks.
There are newer and even more expensive drugs, but no more effective than Acyclovir.
The good news is that as long as you minimize stress in your life and maintain a good immune system by taking care of yourself, you can minimize the outbreaks.
Just be certain not to accidentally touch your eyes while treating the blisters on you body. Herpes Zoster has no problem spreading to other places on your body if you're not careful. However, it isn't communicable once it's developed into Shingles.
Once again, a good reason to have your children get the chicken pox vaccine.
EDIT: Some have suggested that Shingles causes a bad odor. Total myth, unless you only bathe once a week or less. Here are some things to think about that are not myths regarding outbreaks of shingles.
1. If you come in contact with children who are at the beginning, middle, or final stages of chick pox that's enough to jump start your immune system to the virus and cause an outbreak.
2. Stress, even if you don't believe you are suffering any stress, is enough to weaken you're immune system and allow an outbreak.
3. Not eating a balanced diet (or at least not supplementing your diet with a multivitamin) is a good way to leave your self open for an outbreak.
4. If you suffer shingles on your thigh, back of your arm, or across one side of your abdomen, you can break the blisters and treat them with regular rubbing alcohol when they initially appear. However, you have to keep breaking the skin and drowning the open blisters with loads of rubbing alcohol. Yes, there is a risk to causing a secondary infection, but this rather painful treatment does work by killing the virus contained in the blisters and drying the blisters so they heal. But it is a bit drastic. But if you live in a tropical country, that's the usual home remedy because the blisters, if allowed to run their course, can lead to much worse infections.
5. Acyclovir, the same drug prescribed for genital herpes, works. It's just a drag to have to take it four times a day for two weeks. But it will stop the pain within two days and the blisters usually dry out on their own. There is a newer version of Acyclovir that you take once a day, but in medical trials it doesn't work as well as the old-fashioned version of that particular antiviral with Shingles.
6. Don't be too depressed about Shingles. It's just a latent result of having had chicken pox. Probably 50% of the human population who has had chicken pox ends up with one or more outbreaks of Shingles in their lifetime.