Shingles Vaccine

Hey Gringos,

I am thinking seriously about getting Shingrix, the vaccine for Shingles. I am a 54, and I have previously had Chicken Pox as a child. I think I may have a mild case of Shingles approximately 1/2 years ago. I had severe pain on the top of my scalp. I showed it to my wife and she saw a rash and a bump. I went to a Dermatologist who looked at it and said it was Shingles. She wrote me a script and I took the meds. She also took a sample to send to the lab. Lab work came back NEGATIVE. At the follow up visit the Dermatologist said that perhaps the sample she took wasn't good enough but she was convinced it was Shingles and showed me pictures she took of the site.

Also, my father had a very bad case of it, as it went from his cheek, up through his eye and all the way past his forehead to midway up his scalp. It was very painful for him. I mention this because, there are studies that show that family history up Shingles risk.

I was planning on getting the vaccine last year , but COVID happened and well you get the picture. Now since, I am several months away from being able to get a COVID vaccine, I figured let's get his out of the way. The vaccine BTW requires 2 shots approximately 2 months apart. Supposedly, the efficacy is 90%. Side effects are: muscle aches, headaches, diarrhea or feeling tired. 1in 4 experience fever or upset stomach. 1 in 3 have swelling or redness in the area where they get the shot. (At least anal leakage is not one of the symptoms)

Wifey is worried and doesn't think I should get the shot.

Has anyone here gotten the shot, and what was your experience?

I actually had shingles, probably been 15 or so years ago now. I was prob around 19 when I got it. Felt like constant wind burn at times, was annoying, think I had a cream to put on it or something, it went away and I don't think I can get it again now or something. But it was a while ago and I just remember at its worst it was annoying, nothing more nothing less.

but glgl =)

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Originally Posted by garrett

I actually had shingles, probably been 15 or so years ago now. I was prob around 19 when I got it. Felt like constant wind burn at times, was annoying, think I had a cream to put on it or something, it went away and I don't think I can get it again now or something. But it was a while ago and I just remember at its worst it was annoying, nothing more nothing less.

but glgl =)

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Shingles immunity is fleeting. You 100% can get it again. My aunt had it twice in a decade or so. It's not fatal or any of that shit, but it sucks ass for sure, and vaccines make it less likely and less severe if it happens so just take the f'n shots, IMO. Plus, if it gets on your face, you now gotta worry about shit like Bell's Palsy and weird eye problems that may never go back to normal.

I'm a "take the shots" guy, from experience. Had severe allergies and asthma growing up, I was allergic to all the grasses and trees they scratch-test you for, as well as animals and feathers. Got allergy shots for years, once a week for a few years starting around 7 y/o, then every 2 weeks, the once a month, prolly for 6 years or so, and almost all of them were eliminated, and the remaining ones were much less severe.

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Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly

Quote:

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Originally Posted by garrett

I actually had shingles, probably been 15 or so years ago now. I was prob around 19 when I got it. Felt like constant wind burn at times, was annoying, think I had a cream to put on it or something, it went away and I don't think I can get it again now or something. But it was a while ago and I just remember at its worst it was annoying, nothing more nothing less.

but glgl =)

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Shingles immunity is fleeting. You 100% can get it again. My aunt had it twice in a decade or so. It's not fatal or any of that shit, but it sucks ass for sure, and vaccines make it less likely and less severe if it happens so just take the f'n shots, IMO. Plus, if it gets on your face, you now gotta worry about shit like Bell's Palsy and weird eye problems that may never go back to normal.

I'm a "take the shots" guy, from experience. Had severe allergies and asthma growing up, I was allergic to all the grasses and trees they scratch-test you for, as well as animals and feathers. Got allergy shots for years, once a week for a few years starting around 7 y/o, then every 2 weeks, the once a month, prolly for 6 years or so, and almost all of them were eliminated, and the remaining ones were much less severe.

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yeah and im totally a not worried about a (lol) vaccine kinda guy....

For me actually, this past year has been another surgery every 3 months till October, so I had some more serious things to think about then lol Covid. So to me personally, Coivd is literally just and always has been, annoying noise. I dont care one bit, at all about a fucking flu virus, ive literally had other real shit to be worrying about. So to me, Covid is and has always been soooo annoying, but anyway, I agree with you here. Funny enough and im not going to say who or how close, but I have a very close person in my life who knows their shite, life long Nurse and thats the one being so dramatic over the omg, its rushed, scared, and im thinking to myself, just stfu and take the shot, not for you, but for everyone else Nurse lady....


But you get the point, different people, different perspectives, and thats fine such is life right =)

Those who were on Donkdown probably remember my unfortunate experience with shingles in 2010.

I'm also convinced that vaccines caused it to happen. But am I an anti-vaxxer? Not at all. Read on, and I'll explain further.

In the second half of 2010, I was getting a lot of colds. I think it was just bad luck. I usually average about 5 colds per year, which is only slightly more than the average adult. However, starting June 2010, I was getting one bad cold after another. It's easy to picture colds as just the sniffles, but most of these were colds with really severe symptoms -- heavy fatigue, muscle and joint pain, tremendous congestion, etc. They would tend to last 2-3 weeks, so they were also long-lasting. None of this was long-term dangerous, of course, but it seemed like I had colds more often than I was healthy between June and October of that year.

Why am I bringing that up? Because I had a baby on the way, and I had to take two important shots -- the flu vaccine, and a TDaP booster. The TDaP booster had become very important in 2010, because infants were dying of whooping cough (pertussis) -- a long-dead disease which was revived because of the anti-vaxx idiocy pushed by Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey.

Unfortunately, you're not supposed to take those two shots when you have a cold, as they have reduced effectiveness. Finally, I found a window in October where I had no cold, and I got both of these shots, about a week apart.

I got a particularly bad reaction from the TDaP one, where I had substantial arm pain beyond what was supposed to happen. I was told that I was in the unfortunate 1% who got a bad reaction to it. My sister, who had taken that same shot in 2010 because she worked with kids, had the same bad reaction, so it's likely something hereditary.

Anyway, about 2 1/2 weeks later, I started feeling a weird irritation on my hip, right under my underwear band. I was convinced that the underwear was either too tight or had gotten old and coarse, so I threw that underwear away and assumed that was what caused it. However, the next day, it was hurting even worse, yet the skin looked perfect, which baffled me.

The following day, I had back pain, and the pain on my side was now even worse. I told my girlfriend about it, and she asked if the back pain was only on the side where I had the skin irritation, and I said yes. She replied, "This is going to sound really out there, but I think you might have shingles." She then looked all over that side of my body and found a light rash starting to form, about 6 inches above the area where I had the pain. She was even more convinced I had shingles. I told her that I would get this looked at the following day, and that I was tired. I got in bed, and 5 minutes later, she yelled, "Todd! We have to go! My water broke!"

Couldn't be worse timing. The baby was coming and it looked like I had shingles. As chicken pocks can kill a newborn, I wouldn't be able to touch or hold my only child if I really did have shingles.

Indeed, I went to the doctor that morning (before the baby was born), and I was diagnosed with shingles. I was 38. I couldn't touch my son for the first month of his life. Very sad for me.

It got worse and worse, peaking at about the 7-day mark. However, since I jumped on it quickly (thanks to my girlfriend figuring out early what it was), I took the meds and they held it back from lasting a long time, or from causing nerve damage. It also helped that I was only 38, as the chance of permanent nerve damage goes way up with age.

I was curious if this gave me a lifetime immunity from shingles. The answer is no -- since it's not a new disease, but rather a reincarnation of an inactive disease which hides in your body for life (chicken pocks). However, I did read that only 4% of people who had shingles will get it a second time, so there is probably some mechanism to suppress it from occurring again.


Regarding the cause, I started wondering if the vaccines combined with just having gotten over a cold were responsible. I found an interesting forum thread (now gone) where people were sharing their incredibly similar stories -- getting shingles at a young age, 2 1/2 weeks after getting the TDaP booster shot.

In 2011, an girl on poker Twitter complained that she was pregnant and had shingles. I messaged her and asked, "Did you get the TDaP shot 2 1/2 weeks ago?" She responded, "Yes, how did you know?"

I have had them 3 times...ass, leg and top of my head.

None was a bad case but they hurt quite a bit, valtrex FTW.