Wellness

[Moonchilde]

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@MalteseMomma wrote:

I do not understand why if you already had Shingles anyone would need the vaccine. They say it is not 100%  sure you will not get them again or even get them from the vaccine itself.

I have had Shingles and do not want to get them again but I will not get the vaccine.  IMOP I run the same risk of reoccurance  either way!

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Yes, but the likelihood is very great that if you have had the vaccine, if you have another outbreak it will be much less severe and of shorter duration. That is reason enough for me - 50% less likelihood of getting it in the first place, and probably 80% likelihood that any subsequent outbreak would be relatively minor. I'll take those odds, since the "downside" of having the injection is maybe a sore warm arm for a couple of days - vs a full-blown, nasty case of shingles, during which many have severe complications (eyes for one), and are stuck with the post-herpetic neuralgia for years or forever. And those things aren't rare, either.

[Love my grandkids]

@gidgetghI just went to my pharmacy after I got the verbal OK from my doc and got it there.

[Moonchilde]

I'm curious if there is an age below which medical science says you don't need a shingles vaccine. I've never seen anything about this that I recall.

I'm not talking about when insurance starts to pay for it, etc, but rather - anyone who came of age when chicken pox vaccine was given out and mandatory (as mandatory as all vaccines are, i.e. not all that) should not need the vaccine, because they've never had chicken pox. 

People in their 50s? 40s?

Anyone read anything about an "age limit" below which it's highly unlikely you'd need a shingles vaccine?

[Nonametoday]

Our insurance paid for ours.  My husband had already had shingles years ago.  I am not sure what chicken pox years ago has to do with shingles now.  I know people who never had chicken pox and never had shingles, people who had chicken pox and had shingles, and anyway you slice it.

I have optic neuritis, right eye from MS.  I have trigeminal neuralgia, right side (which is also known as the suicide disease).

I had the shot for shingles 2-3 months before I came down with shingles althoughI had been told by another doctor 6 months before that I had active shingles on my face.

When I actually broke out with what was undeniably shingles and shingles by biopsy, it was on the trigeminal nerve which includes the optic nerve on the right side, the same side as the painful right eye.  Speaking of painful, unless you have all this and have shingles with postherpetic neuralgia on top of the trigeminal neuralgia and optic neuritis, you do not know what excruciating pain is.

Go to YouTube and search the suicide disease and watch the video for trigeminal neuralgia sufferer.  Then add shingles on top of that, same side.  

[Moonchilde]

@Nonametoday,

The connection between chickenpox and shingles is, simply, that only those who have had chickenpox are likely to get shingles. If you have not had chickenpox and have not been vaccinated for it either, you can of course still get chickenpox. Once you have had it, you are at risk for shingles. If someone who has not had chickenpox or been vaccinated touches open herpes zoster or varicella blisters, they will get chicken pox. From what I have read on various govt medical sites, it's always chickenpox first, shingles after chickenpox.

Anyone who was vaccinated against chickenpox as a child is very unlikely to get shingles - BUT - as we age, they are finding that immunity weakens and there are cases of vaccinated adults getting chickenpox in old age and in certain circumstances recommend having chickenpox vaccine again.

[Nonametoday]

@Moonchilde  

I have always heard what you heard that the ones who had chicken pox are likely to get them but the infectious disease doctor and the neuroophthalmologist I saw during the many months said this is not necessarily true and also I was walking proof that having had shingles once and having had the vaccine is not guarantee you won't have a bad case of them.  I don't know why I had two cases right back to back and even had the shot but I did.  My neighbor never had chicken pox and he was told by his doctor (hematologist who was treating him at the time for prostate cancer) not to touch me or anything I had touched.  

[Moonchilde]

Yes, @Nonametoday - touching "stuff" from live blisters/sores will give you the virus. Or inhaling breath, sneezes, etc in the same room as someone with chickenpox. It's the same virus that causes both diseases. I was unable to find any mention of getting shingles instead of chickenpox, but I'm unable to say that it's impossible. And I wouldn't ever say it was impossible to have two bad go-rounds if one had the vaccine (never say never) but it isn't common. It IS, however, rotten luck :-( Sorry you've had to go through that.

[Nonametoday]

@Moonchilde

Our infectious disease doctor who saw me wanted my husband to have the vaccine although he had live shingles case many years ago which was documented by biopsy as I diagnosed him and our doctor did not believe he had shingles but I just knew that was what it was and when he finally had a blister, it was biopsied and it was positive.  Within days he was broken out all along the right side of his rib cage area.  However, having said that since he has so many illnesses, he had already received the vaccine 3 months earlier, when I did as hiis cardiologist and internal medicine doctor suggested he have the vaccine at the same time I had it.  He got it, but he probably did not need it since he had already had shingles (or maybe he did).  We were told that our #3 child had chicken pox twice but the reason for the second time was because he was only 5 days of age when he had them the first time.  He caught them in the nursery when he was born where 2 babies had died of them.  He had them again about age 5, and doctors said it was because of the very young age when he had them first time.  He was so sad.  His little newborn head was a solid blister all over.  He had to stay in hospital and get IgG.

[ECBG]

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@NameAlreadyTaken wrote:

@Moonchilde

Our infectious disease doctor who saw me wanted my husband to have the vaccine although he had live shingles case many years ago which was documented by biopsy as I diagnosed him and our doctor did not believe he had shingles but I just knew that was what it was and when he finally had a blister, it was biopsied and it was positive.  Within days he was broken out all along the right side of his rib cage area.  However, having said that since he has so many illnesses, he had already received the vaccine 3 months earlier, when I did as hiis cardiologist and internal medicine doctor suggested he have the vaccine at the same time I had it.  He got it, but he probably did not need it since he had already had shingles (or maybe he did).  We were told that our #3 child had chicken pox twice but the reason for the second time was because he was only 5 days of age when he had them the first time.  He caught them in the nursery when he was born where 2 babies had died of them.  He had them again about age 5, and doctors said it was because of the very young age when he had them first time.  He was so sad.  His little newborn head was a solid blister all over.  He had to stay in hospital and get IgG.

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@Nonametoday,Bless his little heart!  So difficult!

[Moonchilde]

OMG @Nonametoday, that's so awful! It was lucky he made it without serious after-effects. I was I think 5-6 when I had them and I remember keeping my eyes closed because all the blisters grossed and creeped me out. I only had one small scar, near an eyebrow.