I just had a relatively mild case of shingles. I thought I had burned my forehead with a curling iron. When I woke up with swollen eyes I headed to the Dr. His NP immediately diagnosed ,what looked like burns as, shingles. I only had lesions around my hairline which turned into nasty scabs. Fortunately there was no pain and although it headed toward my eyebrow it didn’t affect my eye. The ophthalmologist said that shingles in the eye will start on the nose. The only lingering side effect is the area around my eyebrow is numb.
I had a very similar experience, except shingles DID get into my eyebrow—AND my eye. It caused Iritis, for which a series of prescriptions was recommended. Prednisolone caused several days of terrible sleeplessness. My ophthalmologist sent me to Bascom-Palmer Eye Institute to make sure my eye was saved. Fortunately, I had four clip-on sunglass to put on my prescription sunglasses to make the trip. (In the 3-hours of driving in the darkness of early morning).
As for pain, I only experienced one painful episode that lasted a few minutes. I'd hit the area accidentally with a belt buckle, folded over at the waist, and couldn't help the tears and saliva that silently flowed to the floor due to the pain. The pain was "right up there" with kidney stone pain—which I've also had to endure!
It remains the "10" I've since used to weight other pain descriptors against.