My Mom had it on the left side from the scalp halfway down her face into the eye to the cheek. They gave her pain meds but it was still horribly painful. Then to throw salt on the wound, medicare rejected her visits/treatment by the opthalmologist. She had cataract surgery with lens in this eye. I was administrator of a large medical practice & knew my way around Medicare. As this occurred in Jacksonville, I took her & the rejected EOB's down to the Medicare office & met with a rep who was horrified when she saw my Mom's face. It initially looked like alligator scales, then when those came off, she had white scarring. I told the rep to take care of this. reimburse my Mom & pay the Dr. within 5 days or I would go down the street to the Times Unions Newspaper and find a feature writer who would be interested in letting the public know about this. It was promptly taken care of. Thankfully, because of opthalmologist's treatment she did not go blind.
Many years later when the shingles vaccination became available, it was before Medicare approved payment, I had to pay $300. for the shot, but would have paid $3,000. after experiencing what my Mom went thru. I strongly suggest getting the vaccine.
