welcome Josie

so sorry to hear that your husband is going through such pain. Shingles is a very very painful and debilitating experience. I wish him a speedy and complete recovery

You may also want to ask your husband's doctor about L-Lysine, an amino acid that is known to inhibit viral activity. It is really good at keeping the Herpes virus that causes shingles in dormancy

here is also some general shingles info that may be helpful to you
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/shingles.html

Just an aside...I suffered a whole bundle of illnesses after pesticide poisoning during the 90s, of which shingles was one. I had a holistic therapy program involving acupuncture, reflexology and some other treatments including natural supplements, like the L-Lysine, and the outbreaks stopped, the pain went away and the virus has never flared since.

Cheri