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Get Vaxxed, People!
Not that vax; you made your decision about Covid long ago. I’m talking about Shingrix, a vaccine to prevent shingles recommended to people 50 and older. My doctor never mentioned it to me and, for the past two and a half weeks, I’ve been dealing with my oversight.
Shingles is a weird little bugger. If you ever came down with chickenpox, a virus named varicella-zoster lays dormant in your body. Then, if your immune system is weakened by stress, certain medications, or disease — whammo, it springs back to life. About one in three Americans get shingles, usually after age 50. (My wife got it in her mid-40s, so your mileage might vary.)
A big hit to my immune system was Covid, which I had about two months ago. In mid-March, my ear started hurting badly. Then fever and chills. Finally, five days in, I dragged my stubborn self to urgent care where they diagnosed shingles at a glance.
The first sign of shingles is a painful rash, usually a strip of blisters wrapped around either the left or the right side of your torso. It also can appear around one side of the neck, one eye, or one ear. I had heard of the torso rash, but not the facial stuff, which is why I figured I had a random ear infection or something.
This is a specific, rare form of shingles called “Ramsay Hunt syndrome,” which attacks a facial nerve. I have all the symptoms: facial paralysis, hearing loss, tinnitus, and severe vertigo. (That last part has been the most annoying, limiting work and keeping me stuck at home.)
I was treated with antibiotics, steroids, and over-the-counter pain pills, and it is very slowly improving. Very slowly. It’s supposed to last three to five weeks and Monday will be the start of week three. Worst case scenario, I could be stuck with facial paralysis and hearing loss for months or years, but apparently that’s rather rare.
So consult your physician about Shingrix!*
* This post was not paid for by GlaxoSmithKline, but the author is willing to accept a large cash payment. (Mostly to cover all the DoorDash I’ve been ordering since I can’t leave the house.)
Here is the mushroom research – there are different types and you can get a tincture formula if you don’t like mushrooms:
https://news.wisc.edu/mushrooms-cripple-herpes-other-viruses/
I would think this boosts your system against COVID as well…..
Newt Shingrix?
Mine was first diagnosed as on ear infection so I was given antibiotics. When that didn’t help I went back. The diagnosis was instant, rash from ear towards mouth and starting towards eye. I thought it was an outbreak of adult acne. It went away without causing any other problems. Once it cleared, the np put in an order for the shingles shot but the immunization clinic was out. I seem to remember finally getting it but it wasn’t on the immunization record. After reading this, I will talk to my civilian doctor about getting the new shot. I had no idea how bad a return of shingles to that nerve path could be.
A few years ago when my doc gave me the prescription for the Shingrix, I asked him if Mrs. Quietpi should get the vax, because she had never had chicken pox. He answered that previously he had sent people like that to be tested first, and virtually every person had come back positive. So almost certainly she did indeed have an asymptomatic case, and yes, she should get the vax, too.
My PCP is skeptical about Shingrix, as she’s had several patients who had very severe reactions to it. She admits that’s practicing medicine by anecdote, but she didn’t push me to get it because of that.
I think I had a mild case of chicken pox as a kid. Must check with Mom; she will most likely recall. My sis had a more severe case of chicken pox, and she had a bout with shingles about 10 years ago. Unpleasant at the time, but she hasn’t had lasting aftereffects, as far as I know.
My wife got tested during her pregnancy (apparently chickenpox is dangerous to newborns). She was surprised to test positive, even though she’d never knowingly had chickenpox. I think subclinical infections are pretty common.
I did have chickenpox in high school, but I didn’t mind. It was a very mild case, so it didn’t bother me much, but it still got me out of school for a week.
That is factually incorrect. The pox vax you need to get a boster every ten years or you can get the pox. Its not perament inmunity. Its one of the vaccines I have mixed feeling about. If you only looked at the death and hospital rates of kids get ing pox. Althogh not that bad, its high enogh to justify getting a vax. However when you look at the big picture and long term side effects on public health I am not sure. I think the UK might have it right. Howver I could be convenced to change my mind.
My understaning of the science is you being around someone who had the pox (I think its in the last few years but dont quote me on the studies you need to look it up). Acts like an immunity boster to stop you from getting shingle. However Immunity to pox decrease over time. If I remember correctly is like in the 10 to 20 year range before needing to be exposed again to get your natrual immunity boster protection. But dont quote me on it. There are some good youtube vidoes on the science behind it. So I think its like around 20 years. Is when you would need a vaccine or get it natrually thru exposer. However if you wait to long and get exposed you can get shingles. Again this is me just repeating something I have not read the lititure on. Just what I have been taught is how pox/shingles immunity works based on research.
Not exactly
I was told not to even TOUCH the washing machine. (Five year-olds are not necessarily gentle to things mechanical.) But I really wanted to look inside. So I stuck my head inside and looked around. Got chicken pox immediately afterward. Really thought I got it for being bad.
Waited waaaaay after 50 to get the shot, but my doc said the percentage advantage of Shingrix over Zostavax probably made it okay to wait a bit. Was the first person at my pharmacy to get Shingrix.
To a speedy recovery, Jon.
This discussion caused me to recall chickenpox. When I was a kid, moms would have a “chickenpox party’ so their kids would go ahead and get it. Me, I practiced both receiving and giving.
I remember mumps parties also, but don’t remember going or having one.
Sorry Jon. Shingles is unpleasant enough in the usual places. You have to pretty much wait it out. Get better.
Shingles has the potential to be way worse than any vaccine reactions. Just ask Jon, sadly.
I’ve had that concern as well. My children are all old enough to have had chickenpox before the vaccine was available, and I think I’m glad for that. But I’m not sure. The CDC claims about a 90% effective rate for the vaccine, which would concern me given the relative severity of adults getting the disease — and, frankly, given my newfound distrust for the CDC on matters having to do with vaccination. On the other hand, it does seem plausible that adult cases of chickenpox in vaccinated individuals might be quite mild compared to the same in unvaccinated individuals. So I remain on the fence.
When my mother had heart surgery, the leg they used as a bypass was the one that had a previous very bad shingles outbreak. She woke up with that leg paralyzed. Took a year to get back to full walking, and she will never be 100%.
When I passed 50, I took the vax
I feel your pain (literally) my brother. Hang in there, this too will pass.
Whatever….Bill Gates can track you with that vaccine too.
Sorry to hear that you’re suffering from shingles. Shingles is pretty common, truly a plague on older people that traditionally has been treated almost as a right of passage for that age group.
It’s interesting that the Shingrix vaccine has many of the same features as the most popular COVID vaccines. You have to get two doses of the vaccine to start. Shingrix provides 90% protection from shingles, which is good, but it’s not 100%. For this reason if someone who has gotten Shingrix later gets the shingles we don’t say that the vaccine doesn’t work or isn’t worth taking. People who have gotten Shingrix are likely to have a much less severe case of shingles if they do get one. Shingrix, like almost all vaccines, loses effectiveness with time, but it lasts a lot longer than COVID vaccines. Shingrix has its share of side effect, most commonly just after taking the vaccine, i.e., pain at injection site, fever, etc. Rarely there are serious and potentially fatal side effects, like Gillain-Barre syndrome, which is generalized muscle paralysis. Nevertheless, the benefit of the vaccine clearly outweighs this risk.
Shingrix is for people over age 50, and there is no point in younger people taking it except in special circumstances.
One difference between Shingrix and the COVID vaccines is that we know far more about the effectiveness and side effects of the COVID vaccines than of Shingrix.
I got Shingrix shots myself. I got a very sore arm for a couple of days, the most severe reaction I’ve had with any vaccine. But having seen patients suffering from shingles many times I’m grateful to have the risk of that disease reduced.
Shingrix is an “ethical” vaccine. Zostavax, like all the Covid vaccines, is produced in the land of aborted fetal cell lines.
Sux, Jon. Hope you have a complete recovery soonest.
I experienced shingles-like symptoms once, on board ship in the middle of the Atlantic on the way to the Med. That suct, but it passed quickly. Probably just exposure to some random toxin.
I got the shingles shots in ’20; my first Covid jab had to wait 2 weeks after the 2nd one.
Which vaccine did you get? There was an earlier version, but Shingrix is much better.
Jon,
I hope they’re giving you valacyclovir as well (Valtrex), which is an antiviral. Shingles can be really nasty. When I had chicken pox, I had something not entirely dissimilar to what you’re having. I was, apparently, really really sick. I know because I still have the vases from the various flower arrangements that I received as a child. I guess people thought I was going to die or something? It’s also possible that people were just nicer back then.
In any case, it was horrendous. I remember the itching and the pain. I seem to vaguely recall having sores in my throat.
As a nurse, I generally recommend all vaccines of differing varieties in differing cases. Myself, I’ve had a few extras due to my own health issues and a few that I can’t have because of my health issues. More often than not, the vaccine and side effects (even a first run at Guillain-Barre, imho) are worth not getting the disease itself.
Yay for better living through chemistry! While people like to talk crap about “Big Pharma”, I also like to remind them that their life expectancies and comfort is much, much higher prior to their interventions in our lives.
I hope you feel better very soon!
Yes! Valacyclovir and prednisone were both prescribed.
Oooh. Prednisone. That’s a new one I don’t often see with shingles. But…. with acute neuropathies, it’s not unheard of. Get well soon! It’s the magic combination!
I was prescribed prednisone a few years ago to treat a bad allergic reaction. It was pretty great: I remember sitting in a bar one evening, thinking that, yeah, it would be kind of fun to get into a fight right now.
I steer clear of steroids.
I’m on prednisone for an auto-immune condition which I contracted about a month ago-polymyalgia rheumatica or PMR. And we are carefully working on reducing the dose as soon as possible, but avoiding a relapse. But it sure is great being out of pain!
Maybe it’s an Arizona thing. My doc prescribed it with the acyclovir. Worked good.