Can this be shingles?

As I understand it, Shingles blisters are very sensitive and painful. DD couldn't even bear to have clothing touch her sore area. And they normally follow a nerve path so are in a sort of line.

You are up against where antiviral medication would help.  It needs to be 24-48 hours after symptoms first appear.  So, I don’t know if going to the doctor would help.  

As @gar said, the rash will follow one nerve (if it is shingles) on one side of your back. So, as it grows spread, there is a definite line pattern to the clusters of blisters. 

Also, the bumps will turn to blisters any time now - 3-5 days after rash appears - if it is indeed shingles. If it doesn’t blister, it isn’t shingles. 

Can your husband take a picture of that area on your back with your phone?

Shingles are very painful, not itchy. I had mine on my lower back many years ago. They can come in different places, not just your torso.

Shingles are usually on one side of the body. Mine were definitely more itchy than painful. I had (thankfully) pretty mild case.

I would probably get it checked out. Don't hold any babies in the meantime as they could get chicken pox.

I would go to the doctor right away just to check. My husband just had shingles. It was 3 red spots on his back and he noticed it because it was itchy. He went to the doctor the same day and started the medication right away. It never became painful or progressed beyond those 3 spots so we think because he started the medication so soon it really helped.

This makes me wonder. Why do you have to wait so long until you can have the shingles vaccine? Why not in your 20s-30s instead of waiting until your in your 60s. Even if you had to have a booster every X number of years, it seems like it would be better than having the outbreak.

I had them on my back as a kid and they were extremely painful. Just the slightest touch felt like I was being stabbed with needles. It may be some other sort of rash. Have you tried any Benedryl?

I was in my 30's when I got them.

When I asked my doctor about it, she said some insurance companies have lowered the age to 50.

You need to be seen early on in order to get the antiviral med that can help lessen the severity of the outbreak.

I had them in my forties and it started with just a feeling when I woke up like I'd pulled a muscle in my back (just under my right shoulder blade). Within a couple hours it progressed to feeling like I was being stabbed in the back whenever I took a deep breath. And, I never had more than two tiny spots of the rash/blister, two spots that together didn't add up to the size of a quarter. I went to the ER that morning (didn't know what was going on), got the antiviral and prednisone and started on them right away. The pain only lasted for a couple more days, but I had months of the neuropathy later and the nerve pain would flare up for years after that, usually when I was under stress.

Shingles are nothing to take lightly. I had the vaccination shortly after I turned 60.

When I came down with shingles (at 45 years old), it started with random sharp prickly pins and needles pain up and down my right arm. I started breaking out in a faint rash and went to my primary care doctor's office. One of the physician's assistants said it was poison oak or ivy. I thought it might be shingles, but she said that was highly unlikely, because of my age, and the rash being on my forearm instead of my torso. She also said that unless there were clusters of blisters to confirm a shingles diagnosis, she wouldn't prescribe antiviral medication.

Well, by the next morning, there were clusters of little blisters all over my arm, from my armpit to my wrist and onto the base of the palm of my hand, in a wide stripe. It felt like my arm had been stung by a Portuguese man of war tentacle. Burned like fire. I went back to the doctor's office, got seen by a different PA, who said it was definitely shingles, but by that point the antiviral drug wouldn't do me much good since the telltale band of blisters had fully developed.

I pitched a massive fit over being sent home emptyhanded the day before, and they prescribed it anyway just in case it might help some, along with a nerve pain relief medication (because shingles pain is nerve based).

The blisters lasted several days, and until they burst and scabbed over, I had to quarantine myself. Because they couldn't easily be covered and if I came into contact with pregnant women, infants, or people with compromised immune systems, it could really make them sick or even put lives at risk. But I was in so much pain and felt so sick, I didn't want to leave the house anyway. Once they had scabbed, I wasn't contagious any longer, but the rash lasted another couple of weeks and it took a couple of months before the red stripe faded completely, and all the prickly sensations went away.

The pain was something else. Nothing really relieved it. And all I could do was lay or sit with my right arm propped up at a right angle away from my body, or resting in a sling, to keep from rubbing against my body so much.

I'm Pea Livid that my insurance company won't cover the vaccine because of my age. It's possible to have it more than once. And I'm past the waiting period after an outbreak to get it. I keep pushing for it though.

I was 31. It was awful. I asked my pharmacist how long I would feel awful and he said up to six months. I looked at him incredously. Six months??? That was with the antiviral! Oh man!!!

I had just gotten over a very severe case of viral bronchitis when the shingles outbreak happened. My immune system had taken a beating, and I guess that's what allowed the shingles virus to emerge.

Even though the vaccine is expensive, it is so much cheaper than treating it.  You can also get it and pay for it yourself if you really want it and can afford it.

ETA: Zostavax is a $200 vaccine.