Yup. That all tracks with my experience of it too. Glad you got it early. The healing process isn't fun. It will happen though. The nerve pain will subside, with time. Hard to judge the scale, because my own case got more developed than yours, so I won't speculate. For what its worth, extra hot showers and massage always helped me when I was recuperating. Extra hot showers and epsom salt soak/scrub.
idk if this is something you’ve done/tried but for, colloidal oatmeal baths have actually been incredible for the pain and for healing the sores from the rash! i have no idea how people in their 50s/60s/etc. manage through this one.
Never heard of that when it was relevant at the time. I'll keep that one tucked away for the nightmare scenario that it comes back. Yeah, I can't imagine getting it when I'm too old to ever have enough cellular turnover to heal properly from it. I'm already too familiar with fire that never goes out.