Hello.  Sorry to hear about the neuralgia.  I can imagine how bad it
is.  The only thing I know about relieving the pain is in this old
post I dug up.  Don't know if the links are still active, but maybe
there's something here to give your or your doc an idea:

Take care,

Mike

http://wellweb.com/INDEX/QHERPES.HTM

6/4/99 -- Lidocaine Patch Effective In Relieving Nerve Pain After
Shingles  The use of a topical lidocaine patch was significantly
effective in the treatment of the pain associated with postherpetic
neuralgia (PHN), a chronic pain disorder following acute herpes
zoster (shingles), according to the results of a new clinical study.
The study compared the efficacy of Hind Health Care’s Lidoderm(R)
patch (lidocaine patch 5%) versus placebo patches applied directly
to the painful skin of people with PHN.

3/22/99 -- FDA Approves Lidoderm For Postherpetic Neuralgia Pain
(Shingles)  The United States Food and Drug Administration has
approved Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Lidoderm(R) (lidocaine patch
5%) to treat the pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN),
a complication of shingles (herpes zoster) that affects
approximately 200,000 Americans. Lidoderm, a patch dermal delivery
system, is the first FDA-approved product with an indication
specifically for the treatment of pain associated with PHN.
Postherpetic neuralgia results from nerve injury or damage during an
outbreak of shingles, a reactivation of the herpes zoster virus that
causes chicken pox. PHN causes chronic, often excruciating pain that
persists for months or even years in the sensory nerves where the
shingles eruption occurred. PHN has long been considered a difficult
to treat pain condition.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/health/general/skin/lhgsk003.htm

03/19/99- Updated 06:39 PM ET

New patch approved for easing shingles pain

WASHINGTON - Diana Hind was bedridden with pain from shingles. Even
narcotic painkillers didn't help.

So her husband, a retired pharmaceutical chemist, mixed a different
painkiller in his laboratory. Now the LidoDerm patch not only has
80-year-old Mrs. Hind back on her feet; on Friday, the Food and Drug
Administration approved its sale for up to 200,000 sufferers of
shingles-caused pain.

The hand-sized, drug-filled patch has evolved a bit since Harry W.
Hind stuck his homemade salve onto his wife's back with Saran Wrap
and tape.

''We had to make a more elegant way of doing this,'' Hind, 83,
explained.

Mrs. Hind added: ''You know, socially you can't go out with Saran
Wrap around you.''

But at the time, she didn't mind the mess. ''I could not have gone
on with that pain. There's no question about that,'' the San Jose,
Calif., woman said.

Shingles is a risk to anyone who has ever had chickenpox. The
chickenpox virus, called herpes zoster, hibernates inside the body.
As people age, the immune system wanes and herpes zoster can
reactivate, causing painful shingles. Most people recover in a few
months.

But for up to 20% of patients, shingles can damage nerves in the
skin and cause severe, unrelenting pain for months or even years.
Narcotic painkillers and a few other drugs offer some relief for
this ''postherpatic neuralgia,'' but they all cause serious side
effects.

When Mrs. Hind was stricken in 1989, a University of California, San
Francisco, doctor gave her just-under-the-skin injections once a
week of the anesthetic lidocaine. The series of shots, every
half-inch across her back, took 45 minutes and provided about six
hours of pain relief. The injections had to be performed carefully,
because lidocaine that penetrates to the bloodstream also can cause
serious side effects.

Weaker versions of topical lidocaine numb the skin's surface, but
they don't penetrate to the nerves and so don't help postherpatic
neuralgia, said Dr. Bradley Galer of Beth Israel Medical Center in
New York.

So Hind, who had run a company for years that developed eye and skin
drugs, revamped lidocaine to penetrate into the skin, just to the
nerves, without all those injections. He slathered his new solution
onto his wife's back and taped Saran Wrap over it to keep the goop
in place overnight. The next morning, Mrs. Hind says, she was
without pain.

The FDA approved Hind's 5% lidocaine solution in a less-messy form
Friday, the LidoDerm patch. In studies, 60 to 70% of patients got
pain relief from LidoDerm, said Galer, who helped study the patch.
Some patients need new patches daily. With others, a single patch
lasts a few days or a week.

''A big beauty of this ... is there are absolutely no systemic side
effects,'' Galer said. ''Within a week, most people know if it works
or not.''

The FDA did warn that lidocaine occasionally causes dangerous
allergic reactions and skin reddening or irritation. Also, patients
must dispose of used patches carefully, because they contain
lidocaine that could be dangerous if a pet or child ate it.

Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Chadds Ford, Penn., will sell the patch
beginning in September. A price has not been set.

Sorry about the neuralgia.  We know how bad that pain can be!!  I'm fairly
lucky in that ibuprofin really helps to dull the pain for me.  Are you
continuing to take any of the antiviral meds?

Good luck.
ar

Zovirax--  i have a shingles outbreak every three months to the day.   i
am an odd case I guess.   It breaks out on my thigh and my forehead.
The pain is horrible- up my spine and behind my eyeball.  Go to the
doctor!   Good Luck