If I say that shingles is not scary, but post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) is the most frightening disease, I believe that most of the patients who have suffered or are suffering from post-herpetic neuralgia will know it very well! The pain is so severe that it affects the quality of life of the patient, and in some cases, it can even lead to thoughts of dying! In order to relieve the pain, they have to travel to various clinics every day, spending money like water, but the pain is difficult to eliminate or even getting more and more painful! Not long ago, I treated a patient with postherpetic neuralgia who had been in pain for 3 months after herpes, and had experienced some pain relief after being hospitalized in a famous pain clinic in Shanghai. The total hospitalization expenses amounted to a staggering 11,000 RMB, which was mainly spent on examinations and treatments, including nearly 20 times of nerve block anesthesia, 16 times of TCM targeted drug therapy, and dozens of various physical therapy sessions. I can imagine this patient’s situation during her hospitalization: every morning she was greeted with various tests and treatments, and her heart was full of fear and helplessness before each treatment because she was afraid of the pain caused by the operation. Nowadays, people say that it is expensive and difficult to see a doctor, but in my opinion, it is really too expensive to spend so much money on such a post-herpetic neuralgia treatment! The internal reasons, the environment, the health insurance reform year after year, and now the rules do not allow hospitals to feed the doctor with drugs, in the current soaring prices, the rising cost of employment, the government input and serious shortage, forcing hospital managers to find ways to increase revenue, excessive examination and excessive treatment becomes inevitable. In fact, most of the increase in medical costs for patients is paid for by health insurance! In a small environment, the relevant professional doctors have a different understanding of postherpetic neuralgia, which ultimately leads to different treatment results! Herpes zoster is the skin lesion of the acute attack of the herpes virus, and the attack of the virus on the sensory nerves is the root cause of the pain, for the damaged nerves, if the first time to give nerve block repair, the degree and duration of the postherpetic neuralgia attack can be controlled to the maximum extent, but the status of the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia is very unsatisfactory! There are many departments claiming to treat shingles and postherpetic neuralgia, but unfortunately, until now, not every doctor has recognized the key point of early repair of damaged nerves as the basis, and treatment is often symptomatic, or oral analgesics or oral antiepileptics to blunt the damaged nerves in order to alleviate the pain. The fact that this patient was hospitalized for about two weeks and underwent 20 nerve block anesthesia is a sign of many problems! Through this patient’s experience, we realize that there are still many problems in the real medical environment, and we need the relevant departments to start from the actual situation, allocate medical resources rationally, guide hospital administrators to reform from the clinical reality, and encourage doctors to really focus on patients and provide efficient medical services for every patient!