Shingles vaccine?

Fast Eddie B

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Fast Eddie B
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Lenoir City, TN/Mineral Bluff, GA
I had mine today. It's a new, more effective vaccine called Shingrix. The old vaccine was about 50% effective, the new one about 90% effective. Needs a single follow-up shot in 3 months.

Apparently shingles happens when chicken pox virus that had been dormant in cell bodies migrate out to nerve endings, causing a skin rash and nerve pain. If it occurs on the face it can lead to vision problems up to blindness.

It occurs more commonly in older people. I've never had it, but at 68 I'm in a high risk group.

I have a friend thats suffering from it now and its nasty, and something to be avoided if at all possible.

Anyone else had the vaccine or had shingles? Its all rather new to me.
 
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Fast Eddie B said:
I had mine today. It's a new, more effective vaccine called Shingrix. The old vaccine was about 50% effective, the new one about 90% effective. Needs a single follow-up shot in 3 months.

Apparently shingles happens when chicken pox virus that had been dormant in cell bodies migrate out to nerve endings, causing a skin rash and nerve pain. If it occurs on the face it can lead to vision problems up to blindness.

It occurs more commonly in older people. I've never had it, but at 68 I'm in a high risk group.

I have a friend thats suffering from it now and its nasty, and something to be avoided if at all possible.

Anyone else had the vaccine or had shingles? Its all rather new to me.
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I had the vaccine several years ago, as recommended by my doctor. I am also in the older high risk group.

I hadn't heard that there was a new and more effective vaccine. I will ask my doctor about the new vaccine.
 
Humots said:
I had the vaccine several years ago, as recommended by my doctor. I am also in the older high risk group.

I hadn't heard that there was a new and more effective vaccine. I will ask my doctor about the new vaccine.
Click to expand...

The CDC is recommending that folks who had been vaccinated with the old one still get the new one.

But by all means check with your doctor.
 
Fast Eddie B said:
I had mine today. It's a new, more effective vaccine called Shingrix. The old vaccine was about 50% effective, the new one about 90% effective. Needs a single follow-up shot in 3 months.

Apparently shingles happens when chicken pox virus that had been dormant in cell bodies migrate out to nerve endings, causing a skin rash and nerve pain. If it occurs on the face it can lead to vision problems up to blindness.

It occurs more commonly in older people. I've never had it, but at 68 I'm in a high risk group.

I have a friend thats suffering from it now and its nasty, and something to be avoided if at all possible.

Anyone else had the vaccine or had shingles? Its all rather new to me.
Click to expand...

Had chicken pox in childhood. Got Shingles about 8 years ago. One day I noticed a slight pain at the base of my skull. That pain spread and as it did a rash developed on the left side of my head and a little onto my face. It was extremely painful. At night laying my head down felt like it was on fire. During the day it was tolerable, but it felt like something was squeezing my head
 
I had shingles when I was in my 40's. I had been getting more and more involved in a major home repair project, staying up late, long sweaty hours of labor. One night about 3am I was on a ladder painting the ceiling when I was suddenly so fatigued that with music and lights on, I fell asleep on top of the bed, fully dressed.

When I woke sometime the next day, I felt as if I had entered a level of hell. It was intense and horrible. With the rash, pain and fatigue, I wasn't functional. As I recall, it lasted a long time.

I still feel that I brought it on myself by allowing the activity and sleep deprivation to get to that point. I haven't had a vaccination.
 
My Mom had shingles a few years back. when she was in her early seventies.

Mom is tough. She is very athletic, still does lots of runs and triathlons.

The shingles really knocked her down. Hard pain for months, took more than a year to totally go away, really weakened her.

Get the vaccine.
 
I had shingles when I was 30, nearly 40 years ago. On my face. Falling off the roof and shattering my leg and back was less painful. We had the previous vaccine about seven years ago when my late mother-in-law got shingles on her face and in her eye. It essentially killed her. There was no in between of intense pain or so drugged her system was shutting down.
As it happens, I saw a sign pushing the new vaccine at the pharmacy just today. We'll be getting it.
 
It IS a virus infection.

My 52 yo brother went in to the VA one morning on his way to work. Said "You are not going to believe this, but the hair on one side of my head hurts". Nurse says "Shingles!"

53 yo Sis gets a pain on her thigh. Lasted for months. I hounded my Primary Doc at the MO. I wanted it ASAP, nope he says, not until you are 60. I finally got the shot at 59 3/4. I got the Shingles at 63. Only lasted a week or two. But it was inthe medain nerve of my left hand. A row of hot tingley spots- under my thumb nail and down to the nail of my index finger. Like splinters under my fingernails. Glad I had the vaccine, only lasted a week or so. And probably brought on by the stress and pain of knee replacement.

So, had it. Do I need the new vax?
 
I had the older vaccine about four years ago. The injection site developed a quarter-sized (that's about the size of a Euro coin) lump that itched like anything for a few days. If that's a mild form of shingles I'm not eager for the full-out experience.
 
I had shingles recently, just after Christmas. I'm 42. It started as mild tingling on my face on Boxing Day, then my face started breaking out. It totally knocked me out. I took about a month to recover. I'd say I had about two weeks of strong pain, like being constantly electrocuted, followed by two weeks of insanely strong itchiness. I also either had the flu at the same time, or the flu symptoms were part of the shingles. I was off work for two weeks, and it would have been three weeks off work did it not start while I was on leave.
It left me with a bit of scaring on my face. I was fearing the itching and pain might be permanent as well, luckily they are now 99% gone. Nasty illness.
 
Fast Eddie B said:
From the CDC:

“People who have previously had shingles or Zostavax should still get Shingrix to help prevent future occurrences of the disease.”
Click to expand...

How timely, I have a script for Zostavax which has been hard to fill because of a shortage of the vaccine in Oz. Will check with my Doc re Shingrix, but my money is that it is not yet available in oz.
 
If I remember fcorrectly, I was told I was too old to have the vaccination a few years ago. I had a very mild attack last year. It was only on the left front side of my neck and up into the area behind my left ear. It itched a lot but was not painful and after taking the pills prescribed, it went away quietly. I was obviously quite lucky there.
 
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Close friend of mine has it right now, and it is actually painful to me to see him twitching and wincing. Gonna get the shot.
 
I've had it twice. The last time was in October last year. Luckily, I get a mild version, but it's still damned unpleasant, and I'm very glad when it goes away.
 
My mum had a rather bad case, she hadit for months and it knocked her about badly, couldnt sleep, lost weight and drove us all nearly insane with her bad temper (not surprising as she went weeks without any quality sleep, constantly waking up)- I wouldnt like it at her age- or any age for that matter
 
I received the vaccination during a routine annual check up in 2016. Was the new vaccine being given at that time in the U.K. or should I enquire about a further dose? I would have thought if a further vaccination was recommended, the GP surgery would have offered me it as a matter of course. They're quite efficient in things of that kind.
 
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