Pat,
I've had shingles too, which showed with a positive titre for the varicella zoster, but the HSV-1 titres were way beyond positive, i.e. it only takes .9 to be negative, 1.1 to be positive - only .2 spread - and I was at 5.0. That much higher should indicate more than just having had the virus at some point. On the shingles I was right at the titre for positive, so that just shows that I have had shingles at some time, not necessarily active now.

Shingles being a virus, I don't know why they gave you the antibiotic unless 1) they didn't have the antiviral meds yet, 2) you had scratched them and they were infected or they were worried about infection, 3) you didn't get it diagnosed early enough for the antivirals to do much good (I believe it's 48 hrs or so from when you first get symptoms).