Shingles, (Thirteen Ways cont'd. again)

9.

Untreated, and even sometimes treated, shingles do bad damage (not just damage, bad damage) to the nerves. Bell’s Palsy is one complication from shingles, and it causes paralysis, in some people temporarily and in others permanently. Spencer W. Kimball had Bell's Palsy so that one side of his face was paralyzed. Permanently. That’s bad nerve damage.

Many who have shingles suffer residual pain, which means it never quite goes away or that it recurs, also because of nerve damage.

Medical professionals, especially the ones who haven’t had shingles, explain quite glibly that shingles can last a month, three months, a year, but the pain can last several years or forever. Those are just words to them. But when you have shingles and there’s not much you can do about the pain and you think it might last forever, the words begin to sound like a death sentence.