I got shingles a few years ago, age about 64 at the time. Blame it totally on stress and didn't even realize what it was, believing it from chronic back problems and additional hard work of helping my 'other half' get around during a back injury. We fit in an emergency back surgery during the week prior to Easter.....with all the family gathering at our house.....so there was additional stress.
Surgery went well, he went into hosp in a wheel chair and walked out five hours later with instructions from doc to go out and have a great dinner!
Easter got properly celebrated, and the next day, I went to the doc myself, being in easily the worst pain of my life. That considers that I had 4 babies with minimal anesthesia back in the '60s, have had a double mastectomy and associated tests and chemo, and a broken tail bone....3 TIMES! I do know what pain is!
From what I've heard from others, I had a relatively mild case and the meds handled it rather quickly. But I do have flare-ups of the pain whenever life gets stressful, sometimes when I haven't really realized it was catching up with me.
I've been told I should get the shot and will do so soon. Not sure if our ins. will pay anything or not, but Medicine Shoppe and even some grocery store pharmacies in Rapid City have a better buy on it than our clinic and the clinic recommends getting the stuff elsewhere because it costs them so much they don't keep it on hand.
There are occasional notices in the Rapid City Journal seeking people to participate in a study of Shingles if you have had the stuff. That may be worth looking in to as it seems logical your young age would make you a more "interesting" case than some.
Have heard of one guy who got it in his eye and was extremely ill. His comment was that when he got to the Pearly Gates, he would tell St. Peter he had already done his time in Hell, as he had Shingles in his eye! He retained a sense of humor, in spite of the suffering.
Good luck with your medicine and a quick and complete recovery. And with help wih the calving and easy season of it to keep stress to a minimum. Has the doc suggested some good vitamins to help with the immune system? Might be worth asking about.
mrj