Hello, I read your message carefully and understood your medical problem. I see your 81 years old aunt has shingles on the right side, she is on antibacterial therapy and she has arthritis as well. She is a chronic pain patient and her pain is not only generated from the shingles alone. Arthritis is a painful disease and as it is usually caused by an immune reaction trouble it is expected to be associated with other conditions related to a weaker immune system like shingles. Anyway, along with the pain treatment, you can use some home remedies to ease the symptoms and to induce the fast recovery. Let the blisters to fall naturally, do not scratch them. Use cool and wet compresses to the affected zone and apply lotions like calamine to produce comfort. Applying cornstarch or baking soda helps dry the sores. To clean away the crusts you can use Borow s solution or just soak them in tap water. Contact immediately a doctor if you see new skin changes on her skin or if you want to use topical creams. Her doctor will tell you what to do. Hope this was helpful.