A week before my shingles rash appeared, I had all kinds of aches and pains. I was at the lab which is in the same building as my doctor and the lab tech said to just go try to see a doctor. I did and lucked out and when the doc started looking at me to prepare for an EKG, he saw my chest and said "you've got shingles". Sure enough, i had red welts halfway around my chest and back that weren't there that morning. He prescribed Valtrex which I started taking that evening. The rash turned to blisters and I used Gold Bond Medicated lotion which helped a lot. That part wasn't too bad, probably due to the Valtrex. After the blisters dried up, the postherpetic neuralgia set in and was more painful. I took Gabapentin for a couple months, which seemed to help a lot. It finally just went away. All in all, Shingles wasn't nearly as bad as my Grover's Disease.