Carp! I keep putting this off.... Sorry you've had such a hard time of it lately!

Oh geez, golddust - like you needed this! This too shall pass??

Yes. This will pass. Next to the case our employee had, I have no right to complain.

We are doing much better these days. Things are settling back to normal. Derek must make better choices if he wants a better life. At this point, it is his to do with whatever he wants with it. I can not fix him.

My son and daughter....25 and 27...both got mild cases of shingles on their torso this summer about a month apart....go figure. I see the Dr. next week and am going to ask about the vaccine. Sorry for your rough go all around GD.

I'm sorry to hear this. You certainly don't need this additional stressor in your life.

I want to send DH to get a shingles vaccine as he hasn't had one yet. We'll have to be very watchful of side effects for sure. Thanks for the heads up.

I didnt' realize you could get side effects from the vaccine. We are both just over 50, so our insurance doesnt' cover it but I do (did) have a prescription from our. I will have to check on that. I didn't know that made a difference. I'm going to call the insurance company directly. I have had chicken pox, hubby hasn't. So is it a live vaccine?

My MIL had internal shingles and was hospitalized. Because that's fairly uncommon, it took quite some time before she was diagnosed. She lost about 15 lbs. in a couple of weeks and had trouble with her taste buds for quite some time afterwards.

tina

Oh, I am so sorry that you and your employee are going through this. I had shingles during a stressful time when I was much younger and I still remember how painful it was. It's amazing to find out how many people have had shingles once you mention it in conversation.

I got the vaccine a few months ago without any negative effects, thank goodness.

Some of my friends have had shingles which prompted me to think about having the vaccine. I'm not sold on getting vaccines, (not crazy about the concept of injecting that stuff into our bodies) so kept waffling about it, but the pain they suffered kept me thinking about it. I finally got old enough and went thru a life threatening illness, so decided I didn't want something else that might be preventable.

I was very anxious about getting it (never have had a flu shot, either), but had no reaction. I think it's only about 50% effective in preventing shingles. And its effectiveness is affected by your age.

Sorry to read about your reaction; hopefully that little bout you had will increase its effectiveness in the future.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shingles vaccine effectiveness

Sorry you had such a bad reaction and happy that you got the vaccine though as you only had a tad of the horrific pain shingles can cause. I got my shot about four years ago, never had any reaction, felt fine and drove home immediately after having it.

Why don't we just bring chicken pox back ??

I thought you had to have had chicken pox in order to get shingles? Not sure.

Any way, after knowing too many people with horrendous cases of shingles, some with long last effects, I got the vaccine last year. The shot didn't hurt and I had no side effects. Sorry you are having such a hard time, Golddust.

You only get shingles if you've had chicken pox. The virus lies dormant until it doesn't.

It lies dormant inside your spinal cord, according to the Pharmacist who administered my vaccine.

You can still get shingles without ever having chickenpox.

Gold~ Just wondering if your GD had chickpox in the past
or did she received the vaccine ?

She had Chicken Pox before the vaccine was approved here. She was under a year old when she caught them frim Max. She was born in early 1994 and I remember the vaccine was approved for use in the USA shortly after she had them. Maybe 1995?

We have been told so many different things about Shingles - all by professionals that it is hard to know what to believe. The Center for Disease Control said you can't catch Shingles from Shingles but you can get Chickenpox from Shingles.

I woke up with shingles last November, and still feel its after effects. Didn't get the vaccine as I never thought I had childhood chicken pox or was exposed to it---guess I was wrong. I was under no stress, in fact, had never felt better when it happened. I was age 75 though, and my neurologist said that age 60 is often the starting time for the condition, but he's seen cases in teenagers, just not that common.

Definately having it on the face & around the eyes is the most dangerous as it can cause blindness & deafness. Mine was from the top of my left arm to my fingers, and fortunately I'm right handed. It's now mostly a burning, itching situation. I've tried a couple of pharmaceutical drugs, did many rounds of acupuncture, homeopathic stuff from the health food store---all without the slightest result, except to my wallet. Interestingly, the ONLY thing that cools it down strangely has been cheapey Noxema face cream, at least for a few hours. I suspect it may turn into a chronic condition.

So get the vaccine, which even though it might not prevent shingles MAY keep it mild & over quickly.

Like many, I had CP b4 I was 10...waaaayyy back ~1970!

Then, in the early 80's in college when I was 20+, I had a mild flare of shingles on my chest, which followed a nerve arch to down under my right arm. Even that mild case was kind of a B*tch! Just the curved line of red-patches that stung!

If one has had a flare of shingles b4, can it happen again?!?

Now that I'm newly 52 (on 9-16!), I wonder if I should check into the vaccine Rx!?!!??!
Just had my annual physical too, & never thought to ask about it....arrgh.

DID get my Flu-shot though!!!
I'm not stupid....I've only missed getting it twice, and regretted it....

Faron

I had Chicken Pox when I was 28. I was area coordinator for Special Olympics and was in LA for the BIG games. I spent the entire games, extremely sick, bedding down in the Dorms.

Someone sent a Dr to see me bedside and he wanted to put me in the hospital. I refused and lived to tell the story. Likely contaminated the entire airplane we flew on both ways. sigh.

Chicken Pox vaccinations are a very good thing, IMO.

I actually let our DD play with a neighbor kid who I kinda knew had CP when she was ~ 6y/o. Sure enough, DD soon came down with CP.
Far better to get it when you're young!

...the lesser of the 2 evils I figured...

Faron

Faron~ When I was a child if someone got CP all the mothers would bring their children over to play :)

FBT-
Yeah...when they're young (as I said) it's good to get it over with!
Glad I'm not the only one...!

Faron

Several of my friends have come down with shingles lately, and my mom had a terrible case years ago (before the vaccine was available), so I decided to get the vaccine about 3 months ago. I had a very painful and itchy rash at the injections site for over a week, which surprised me. I still think it was worth it.

Nothing helpful to add-- just want to say I am sorry you are dealing with this.

Sending out energy to you for a very speedy recovery.

From the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke:

You cannot develop shingles unless you have had an earlier exposure to chickenpox....You must already have been exposed to chickenpox and harbor the virus in your nervous system to develop shingles.

However, they also say:

Not enough data currently exists to indicate whether shingles can occur later in life in a person who was vaccinated against chickenpox

So apparently, it's not that you can get shingles without chicken pox, it's that you may have had chicken pox and didn't know it or don't remember. By one estimate, 99% of adults over 40 have had chicken pox.

Also, be aware that until the blisters crust over, shingles is contagious....the exposed person can get chicken pox (not shingles) from it. So if you haven't had CP or been vaccinated, stay away.

I hope you are feeling better, you really did not need that right nowâ¦.

I was not going to get the vaccine, would just suffer through an outbreak, as I don't want them injecting me with foreign substances. Who knows the future there. But I did not know there is a risk of things like blindness, so will have to reconsider.

Our employee really had a bad case and she developed the complication of Ramsay Hunt syndrome. She could not blink her eye or smile. She had to wear a patch. Her Dr couldn't guarantee her eye would recover. It is getting better now, thankfully.

I'll take my mild outbreak of Shingles over what she went through any day. She needs to get her eyes examined because of shingles. She is still feeling nerve pain so badly that she can't stand her own hair on her neck.

Get the shot!! My Mom was hospitalized with Shingles. She couldn't get the shot because she had Lymphoma. Her Shingles were so painful and the pain never did go away.

There are some real horror stories about Shingles out there. I read somewhere, maybe in this very thread, that one in three people will get them.

Snookums, I understand you not wanting to get a vaccine, but am glad you are going to reconsider. I have known a couple of different people who had shingles dangerously near the eye. In my FIL, in came down a nerve path from the edge of his scalp, across his forehead and extremely close to his eye. After seeing my MIL suffer with internal shingles, I will definitely get the vaccine.

tina

My aunt lost partial vision in one eye due to shingles. My mom had an extremely bad case that lasted more than 2 mos and my Grandma had it 3 times. I got the vaccine a year ago no reaction PTL. We were lucky and it was covered. Sorry to hear about your reaction hope it heals quickly for you.

My DF got shingles in December 2011. He thought he was having heart problems and we took him to the ER. They referred him to his Dr. When we went to the appointment 3 days later, the shingles had formed blisters and it was too late to take the medication to minimize the shingles. He suffered severe nerve damage to his chest and back. Three days before he died in July of this year, he told me the shingles pain was going to kill him. He was normally not a complainer. That was 19 months of excruciating pain.

Needless to say, DH and I have both had the shots, with no side effects.

I remember when the chicken pox vaccine came out (1995) because it was offered to my daughter (born 93). I've always been iffy on new vaccinations; told the peds no thank you. Not sure when she ended up getting chicken pox but she did.

I'm not sure what to think about the shingles vaccine. When my hub had the weird rash on his hands a few months ago; the derm didn't know what it was; I told him to ask the derm about shingles as well as getting the vaccine. His immune system has been weak; if anyone will end up with shingles; it will be him.

Hopefully one of the members in the medical field will see the post because I can't remember what the derm told hub about the shingles vaccine; it was something to the effect that the vaccine doesn't protect against every strain of it.

Wiki - varicella vaccine was first developed by Michiaki Takahashi in 1974 derived from the Oka strain. It has been available in the US since 1995 to inoculate against the disease. Some countries require the varicella vaccination or an exemption before entering elementary school. Protection from one dose is not lifelong and a second dose is necessary five years after the initial immunization which is currently part of the routine immunization schedule in the US The chickenpox vaccine is not part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule in the UK. In the UK, the vaccine is currently only offered to people who are particularly vulnerable to chickenpox. A vaccinated person is likely to have a milder case of chickenpox if infected

I'm happy to report that my side affect Shingles case is far behind me. I'm glad I got the shot. I think I must have been a real candidate for a serious outbreak by the way my body responded. (Don't get it while stressed!)

So glad you hear you are doing well golddust!

Thanks for the info, I just scheduled my vaccine for next week.

I wonder if the antiviral med will help if taken as soon as the reaction starts?

I've been giving a lot of Zostavax shots lately at work, almost everyone knows someone that had a rough time with shingles.

The estimate of 1 in 3 people getting shingles is right. The severity is unpredictable. And you can get shingles more than once.

If you were born before 1980 you are considered to have had CP, or been exposed. It is the same virus. CP is the primary/first infection. Then the virus hides dormant in the nerves until you win the shingles lottery. Shingles is the secondary infection, and the odd pattern of rashes occurs because as the virus reactivates, it shows along the nerve affected. So the rash pattern follows the nerve lines. People exposed to shingles rashes that are not immune will develop CP, the primary infection, as the virus must already be in the body to cause shingles. Remember, same virus.

The vaccine is about 65% effective at prevention. Not as good as the childhood vaccines, but still respectable. It can also increase the chances of a milder outbreak if you still get shingles, though that's hard to predict.

Because of the complications of severe infections (depends on affected nerve) and the difficulty in treating post-herpetic neuralgia (the lingering nerve-based pain after the rash resolves), many people opt to stack the odds in their favor as much as possible and get vaccinated. I know I will when the time comes. In case you are wondering, nerve-based pain doesn't respond well to traditional pain meds and inti-inflammatories, most often meds developed as antidepressants and anti-seizure medications are used, which take a while to start working and are a bit hit and miss.

This is a live vaccine. It's not common, but you could develop a handful of spots while responding to the vaccine. The most common reactions are pain/swelling/redness at the injection site (not surprising as it is an under-the-skin shot, which is inherently more irritating, AND you inducing an immune response), and feeling under the weather for a day or two as your body ramps up your immune response.

Did I miss anything? Time for dinner, but I'll check back.

I have a 3 questions .......
1)Do we know yet weather or not you can get shingles,
not having had actual CP, but having had the vaccine ?

In the past,prior to the CP vac, adults where re-exposed to the virus which boosted their immunity.I understand that in the short term there will be increases in shingles due to the CP vacs in children ........(from what I've read)
2)Are they saying that when all the possible carriers of CP are gone (those born prior to '94)shingles will disappear ?
I guess not if my answer to #1 is yes...:)
3)If being exposed to CP builds up immunity against singles
why can't I just get another CP vac ? ( I know it's in it's weakened state.)

And if I have totally board all of you guys to death~
Try living with my mind âÂÂ¥

Very good questions!

For 1 and 2, from the CDC:
"Chickenpox vaccines contain weakened live VZV, which may cause latent (dormant) infection. The vaccine-strain VZV can reactivate later in life and cause shingles. However, the risk of getting shingles from vaccine-strain VZV after chickenpox vaccination is much lower than getting shingles after natural infection with wild-type VZV. For more information about how natural infection with wild-type VZV causes shingles, see Shingles Overview. Lab testing is needed to determine if a person got shingles from vaccine-strain VZV or from wild-type VZV."

For 3, the concentration of attenuated (weakened) virus in Zostavax is 14 times what is in the CP vaccine. If an adult was given CP vaccine in place of shingles vaccine, they would not produce the response needed. The dose would not be considered a valid vaccine dose, and it would need to be repeated with shingles vaccine to count as being vaccinated.

Off hand, I don't know exactly how exposure to a child with CP compares in terms of immune response, but I'd bet that exposure is much more intense than what CP vaccine provides, probably more than shingles vaccine too.

Older adults generally don't have as strong an immune response, vaccines included. Hence we now have the high dose flu vaccine, which is 3 times the normal dose. It sounds like these might be very high doses, but it is really more a reflection on how regular vaccines strive to use the lowest dose likely to induce a great enough response to protect the vast majority of people that get it.

Being exposed to CP does not boost your immunity toward shingles it actually increases them. Read from the Mayo Clinic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shingles

I'm not seeing what you are pointing to in that page. If you are referring to the fact that you have to have CP (even if mild/unrecognized) to get Shingles, then yes, in that sense it increases your risk. The virus has to be already dormant in your nerves from past exposure in order to be in place to cause shingles.

That's why someone with no previous immunity (from CP or vaccine) will catch CP from someone with an open shingles rash.

CL~ I can't find that comment at the Mayo link.
Is that the right link ?

There are many sites that claim a link between multiply exposures to CP and shingles (I can not verify their accuracy but if it's on The Web it must be true âº)
This is the position the UK is taking.
At this point I don't imagine true studies will be possible for at least 20 more years.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2563790/

"If you are referring to the fact that you have to have CP (even if mild/unrecognized) to get Shingles, then yes, in that sense it increases your risk. The virus has to be already dormant in your nerves from past exposure in order to be in place to cause shingles"
---
My point exactly chicken pox doesn't create immunity it creates possibility. Without chicken pox you don't get shingles. Only a vaccine will create immunity unless for some reason you have natural immunity. Once you have the herpes virus you have it always and can get flare ups just like with the other kind of herpes- eg cold sores or genital herpes. It's the gift that keeps on giving. When the kids were little I bought into the expose them early to protect later but did not know the link to shingles. There was no vaccine back then either.

Cl~ The point I was making was the same one that United Kingdom was citing in the article I posted above.
There are minds that feel that repeated exposure to CP lessens the chance of getting shingles.
Unlike cold sores and genital type herpes ,singles is not transmitted person to person.
I finally found the link from the CDC that you can get shingles from the CP vaccine.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.cdc.gov/shingles/hcp/clinical-overview.html

Wow after reading that article it seems we are all doomed. If you can get shingles after the chicken pox vaccine. I am really glad I got my shingles shot.

I tried to find the original studies that were about exposure to CP and immunity but no links.=
" We know that exposure to chickenpox can significantly prevent or delay shingles (by exogenous boosting of immunity)Increased annual chickenpox rates in children under 5 are associated with reduced shingles in the 15��"44 age group"
This doesn't really convince me as most people I know that get shingles are late 50's or older as immune systems decline.

I am not sure which article I read that says CP is seasonal but shingles isn't may be missing info too. As the area my parents live in has shingles outbreaks just like chicken pox normally in the late spring early summer. I wonder if as the boomers age if stats will become clearer.

The CDC article says you can spread CP with shingles but does not mention shingles to shingles. Which I have personally seen amoung my parents friends.

After doing a search for Shingles (and finding about 100 threads about roofs) I finally stumbled across this old one. Just chiming in to say I got my 2nd shot yesterday (the newer version) and today I'm no good for anything. This 2nd shot made all 5 covid shots a cake walk in comparison. Feel like I got hit by a truck and it backed up over me. Chills, headache, weak as a kittin, and "thinking" is not an option. It's a struggle to type this. Anyone else here have a similar reaction? I know it's all just a fake illness but it sure feels real. Drinking loads of water and Advil seems to help a bit but tomorrow should hopefully be a better day.

Just a quick update - Feeling 90% better this morning. I guess the moral of the story is that 1-2 days of a flu-like misery is worth not having to suffer several weeks of tortuous shingles.