Shingles

Better believe I got the vaccine. When I was working had a patient come in who had it on her face and was creeping towards one of her eyes just before she was retiring. She was single and had worked her entire life and had saved up enough money to buy an RV and had plans to travel and she and her dog live in the RV. All that was tabled due to this, so, so painful and scary. Through the years saw some terrible cases on other patients. Common thread was the pain involved. No thanks.
 

I had chicken pox as a youngster and shangles at age 60. Have never had a shot for shingles.
 

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Just read somewhere last week that shingles is related to the chicken pox virus, don't know if it's true or if it matters. I had chicken pox as a child so I'm hoping I'll be immune.
 
Granny B. said:
Just read somewhere last week that shingles is related to the chicken pox virus, don't know if it's true or if it matters. I had chicken pox as a child so I'm hoping I'll be immune.
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Granny B., the CDC recommends you get the shingles vaccine if you have had chicken pox... If you have had chicken pox, you are not immune to shingles, you carry the virus that causes shingles.
 
Granny B. said:
Just read somewhere last week that shingles is related to the chicken pox virus, don't know if it's true or if it matters. I had chicken pox as a child so I'm hoping I'll be immune.
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Yes, it’s the chicken pox virus laying dormant all those years and popping up to remind you when you’re old.
 
Granny B. said:
Just read somewhere last week that shingles is related to the chicken pox virus, don't know if it's true or if it matters. I had chicken pox as a child so I'm hoping I'll be immune.
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My doctor told me I did not need the shot as I have never had the chicken pox. It is people who HAVE had the chicken pox who get shingles. The virus lingers hidden in your system and pops out as shingles. So if you've had the chicken pox as a child, you are at risk for singles, thus sayeth my doc.
 
I just recovered from a bout of shingles, which was an unpleasant surprise because I thought I'd never had chicken pox. It was awful, blisters and pain following the nerve from my shoulder blade and all down my left arm to my thumb. (Even under my thumbnail!) I had residual nerve pain for a couple of weeks after the blisters healed.

I highly recommend getting the new vaccine, which is reportedly much more effective than the older one.

Also, you can definitely have shingles more than once. I have a friend who has had them twice (after having had the older vaccine) and my sister-in-law has also had them twice. I will have the new vaccine as soon as my doctor gives the go-ahead. I have read that the vaccine may not totally prevent shingles but can make an outbreak much less severe.
 
Camper6 said:
My only concern is that is it effective in old people. The vaccine.
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Well there's that and what are the potential side effects. Here's what gets me about all these vaccines... the manufacturers are pretty much immune from lawsuits and they keep replacing vaccines with newer ones that really work, TRUST US, would we lie to you? LOL

Now I had shingles but I lucked out, and I mean I really lucked out. I first noticed some strange redness as I was drying off after taking a shower and on my way to report to jury duty. The "report to jury duty" was the lucky part because ordinarily I would have just kept an eye on it for a few days and maybe put something from my medicine cabinet on it. But since I was reporting to jury duty I didn't know how long I might be unavailable to make it to the doctor... could be days or weeks. So I said the heck with jury duty, I'm going to the doctor and then I will just call and get my jury duty postponed. So I was on the meds literally within hours of noticing something a little interesting. I didn't have it bad at all, I just took the meds and every precaution about spreading it. It was gone in days, I believe, and I had no pain, blistering, oozing, etc.
 
My mother had shingles when she was 20, on one side of her face extending from the level of her ear lobe down into her neck.

The shingles themselves never reappeared, but she spent the rest of her life having recurring episodes of extremely painful facial neuralgia. I remember her lying in bed crying from pain.

No thanks. I got the newer vaccine and I hope it works.
 
My husband had shingles when he was in junior high school and he's 62 now. He said the doctor thought it was poison ivy at first because he'd never seen a kid with shingles. Shingles can occur at any age but we "elderly" folks are more prone to outbreak because of compromised immune systems, or so I've read.
 
We get the shingles shot for free here in Australia once you turn 70, My hubby had shingles a couple of years ago ...I hope I never get them
 

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