You most likely have shingles and not chickenpox. Shingles is caused by the chickenpox virus. When you have chickenpox as a child, the virus goes dormant in your body and lives in a nerve. Years later it can break out in a localized area that that particular nerve controls. The chickenpox infection you had as a child may have been so mild it was not diagnosed at the time, so you may think you had no exposure, but it s unlikely to have reached the age of 57 without it since chickenpox is very contagious. Primary chickenpox is spread throughout the body, particularly on the trunk, and doesn t generally occur in a specific area as you describe. You are on the right medicine. However, since the virus lives in the nerve, it can cause an inflammation of the nerve that can be quite painful and cause numbness as well. The blisters are typically just a sign that the virus is present and sometimes don t even appear. The main thing is the nerve pain which is quite severe and can last several weeks sometimes. This is common or normal with a shingles outbreak. Most often it resolves with time. Hope this answers your question.