Hmmmmmmm. Sarah. Good reminder for everyone! Thanks. Here the issue with a wild animal exposure would be in the hands of the health department. The animal is euthanized and the brain examined immediately! Forget the MD. Pre bite exposure injections are NOT something to be taken lightly either. There are potential *serious* health risks to consider as a result of the vaccines! They may be just as serious as the disease. Many years ago I remember that someone caught a baby raccoon in their yard and wanted the animal to become a pet for his THREE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER! OMG! They carry a species of roundworm that is potentially fatal to humans not to mention the potential for disease transmission!!! Any way, the daughter wanted to play with her new pet and got her finger bitten. (Well duh!) The two month old raccoon was brought in, killed and the head removed to send off for the health dept. to examine. During the interim the little girl started her post bite injections. The raccoon was negative for Rabies. Both the raccoon and child suffered because the parent was stoopid! I myself have been exposed to Rabies three times but cannot have the post exposure injections any more nor the pre-exposure vaccine. I have severe reactions and need to just be ultra careful when I handle the wild ones. If not, stick a fork in me because I am done either way! The animal vaccines are more to protect the public health rather than the pet but it works well for all.

Thanks Ravencajun for the encouragement! I have read all there is on the web about this drug. I knew how serious it is and the dangers associated with taking it. I have been getting blood work every 2 weeks for 6 months and just yesterday was told I could go to every 2 months! YEA! I already take lots of vitamins, the B's and D3 every day. I also take 1000mg of Folic Acid the day I take the 5 pills and then 800mg a day. My Dermo has it all covered...LOL I have always suffered from headaches so I figured that was a weakness of mine and it was just targeted. I take a low dose and for that I am thankful. On a good note it has helped my psoriatic arthritis a lot! And the arthritis in my neck that was awful...it is manageable now! It is an affordable drug, a lot cheaper than the Enbrel he wanted me to take. Enbrel is 1000 dollars a month for me to take it...no way under the sun can I afford that! So, Methotrexate was a better choice, plus its been around a lot longer and I was told it is safer. Its just these last 2 weeks I have felt bad...and I don't like that! OH! And the pharmacist told me to drink a lot of water during the day and that will help also. It will help flush out the kidneys and a lot of his clients have told him that it just makes them feel better. Luckily I drink lots of water every day and it is no problem. But my elbow...poor ole thing! It just plain hurts! Using it is hard...I tried Icy Hot but I have a raw patch of psoriasis that is healing and forgot about it...Oh my! The burning...LOL And my cat thinks Icy Hot is a mating call or something! She goes crazy when she smells wintergreen! So funny. Thanks RavenCajun...I do feel a wee bit better now :o) Deb

Repeating... "Should I defer Shingrix vaccination because such a reaction might be confused with COVID-19? NO. If you have an opportunity to vaccinate a patient age 50 years or older who is due for dose 1 or dose 2 of Shingrix, proceed with vaccination as usual. It is important to counsel the patient about the risk of self-limited side effects, including local reactions, such as redness, pain, or swelling at the injection site, and systemic reactions, which include fever, chills, headache, and body aches. If they occur, such side effects normally resolve within 72 hours after vaccination. Because of concerns about COVID-19, if a vaccine recipient develops fever after vaccination, they should stay home until it resolves. Shingrix vaccination does NOT cause respiratory symptoms common in COVID-19, such as cough or shortness of breath. If the vaccine recipient develops new symptoms of cough or shortness of breath, or if fever does not resolve within 72 hours of vaccination, the recipient should contact their healthcare provider."

Just saw this article today about another immune response to the vaccine, which causes blisters, very dangerous if not treated. We know so little about the immune system, and doctors often know little about immune responses to various things. I went to see a whole host of specialists for my rash but finally figured it out by myself. One thing for sure, these symptoms should not be ignored by doctors just because they're not sure what is causing them. They should be investigated. Do read this story, linked here. Thankfully the doctor of the woman featured did some research and outreach to try and find treatment for her, better than what would have happened if s/he had just said, "Oh it will go away" . . . or kept at the standard protocols and didn't realize that there were new developments. Having had some "atypical" responses to other medications, and my one serious but not life threatening reaction to the measles vaccine, I would say that one should err on the side of caution and monitor the situation closely with the help of a GOOD doctor. It's difficult sometimes to decide how seriously to take these minor annoyances because most of the time they just resolve on their own, except when they don't . . . I'm always paranoid I will ignore some skin cancer sign . . .but on the flip side I don't have the time or money to be running to the doctor for every little thing . . . https://www.yahoo.com/news/few-covid-vaccine-recipients-developed-133911410.html Edited to add that hubs had a recurring rash that he said he picked up "in the pool at college" which recurs whenever he spends time in a public pool. It looks like the "whole body" pictures of the Pityriasis. It comes and goes at other times too. Like I said, association is not causation, because I got my first Pityriasis outbreak in college and had never spent time in the pool there, although I did go to the hot steam sauna a couple of times which necessitated going into the locker room. But still, that's just the age I was, of the typical outbreak. It came and went with me having no idea why. I did not realize that it could occur later in life. I have not had a flare up again of it. I don't have a problem with our town's public pool or locker room so far, although I never frequented it a lot. Edited AGAIN to add that delving into the fine print of the whole article Nosoccermom posted, Pityriasis rosacea is also indicated as a possible side effect of taking omoprazole/Prilosec, which hubs has started taking for acid reflux. https://www.drugs.com/omeprazole.html Ah the mysteries of the immune system . . .