St John's wort (Johanneskraut)

I am on day six of the antivirals against shingles, one more day to go. I thought by this time I would be ' over the hump' but no, there is not much change. You can't sleep and everything itches. The nurse did say they can't do anything about the initial infection, but they can 'manage' it and stop it spreading, thus the antivirals. I am very grateful to have them. If this is how bad you feel when one nerve is affected, what must it be like when internal organs are pulled into the viral orbit?

One silver lining is that I am reading through the pile of books I had waiting. Today in Davina Whitehouse's (actress) autobiography I discover she had shingles in her eighties. She caught it early though, took the antivirals, then a friend gave her St John's wort oil which magically made the spots on her face disappear.  I used to make this oil in Germany from flowers in the paddock next door. There it is called Johanneskraut, and we used it for all cuts and abrasions. I didn't know about the disappearing act it does on shingles spots though.

From 'Davina' by Davina Whitehouse