Shingles - Who's gotten vaccinated?

[RedRyder]

Man it seems like the Forces of the Universe are trying to send me a message and the message is "DUDE trust me on this - get a shingles vaccination." 2 weeks ago, we had a guy and his wife over and the wife started telling us about the shingles outbreak she had just had in March. Horrific pain, she said. Laid on the couch at night crying with the pain. So, I'm getting the idea that maybe I should get the new 2-shot vaccine they have out.

Fast forward to 5 minutes ago when my brother calls and says that he was just diagnosed with shingles. He'd never had shingles before. He said the pain is...bad. They gave him oxycodin but according to the woman of two weeks ago, pain killers don't work so well for shingles. Swell. Great. Crap.

So I've never done the vaccine thing. Not for the flu, not for this, not for that. Just don't trust vaccines. I gotta' say though boys, this could be one time I go for it.

Anybody else get the vaccine? Did it work?

 

[1J04]

Do it. Here we go with more health stuff, but do it. I had Chicken Pox in my 30's. BAD shit. Huge candidate for shingles. One our Cooks at work, in her early 60's just got them. I've known others with them. You do not want shingles. Another thing that 'if' the vaccine does it's job, you're good. If you don't, you roll the dice. I gamble with money, not my life. I'm getting the vaccine. Period. There is zero discussion to be had.

 

[CRT2]

I 've had it. Know that you can still get Shingles but they will be much less painful - pain is relative. I do not like vaccines either, exempted in the Army from taking flu shots - allergic reaction. Also, being 70 have had both pneumonia shots - I hate shots.

 

[Yasherka]

I had shingles late last year. It fucking HURT. It felt like a bad sunburn on my right leg, then expanded up my stomach and around my lower back. Went to the doc and got some medicine for it but the whole iteration lasted almost three miserable weeks.

Get the vaccine

 

[jrassy]

I got the vaccine, I worked with a guy that got them in his thighs and balls, he spent 8 + hours in a cold Water filled bathtub, and drank jack Daniels non stop, one miserable fucker for weeks.

 

[2ndamendfan]

Vaccines exist for a reason.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...1c.1.64.img..6.6.406.0..35i39k1.0.hN6Cvo1nWNo

 

[powdahound76]

Do it. I have seen a lot of folks in some serious discomfort from shingles.

Shots are minimal compared to the issues of dealing with an outbreak.

 

[Alphatreedog]

I had shingles at about forty two . Yeah burned on my neck but not the end 9f the world . Pain is relative . Pretty sure I have a weird high tolerance . Broke my middle finger in half up the center lenght ways . Meh .

 

[mikehotel]

do it

 

[RedRyder]

I got the vaccine, I worked with a guy that got them in his thighs and balls, he spent 8 + hours in a cold Water filled bathtub, and drank jack Daniels non stop, one miserable fucker for weeks.

Damn, there IS a hell.

Yeah, I'm a bit over 60 and I've had chicken pox. Got 'em from my niece when I was 16. Man, that was a major drag. Think I'm going over to CVS pharmacy and if the one pharmacist I trust is working, I'm going for it.

 

[fx77]

I had it several years ago --the original vaccine...had myalgias for 3 days and low grade fever..but glad I did it

 

[sirhrmechanic]

I got a very mild case in my '30s.... and it SUCKED. Patch no bigger than a golf ball. It SUCKED.

Vaccination... all gone. Never since.

Do it. I had zero reaction. No shingles since.

There is a neat historical context for shingles... Admiral Nimitz got them on the eve of the battle of Midway. He was so miserable and impaired, he sent "Bull" Halsey in his place. Halsey was a combat-loving animal... and he gutted the Japanese. Good thing shingles laid Nimitz low on the eve of the battle. Nimitz was far more cautious. But if he 'stayed home' due to shingles... and missed the biggest potential battle of his career... you know they sucked.

Anyhoo.....

Get the vaccine.

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[Veer_G]

1-shot job last week called "Shingrix" or some such. Arm hurt for three days like I got a six-inch punch. Don't think I'll be missing shingles.

 

[ZiaHunter]

Was vaccinated with with Zostavax about two years ago and plan getting the Shingrix vaccination within the next month.

 

[PinesAndProjectiles]

I had shingles when I was 22. Shit was bad, but I would take that over passing another kidney stone. Any day.

 

[strat81]

I had shingles at age 32. GET THE VACCINE! You don't want it.

 

[longebow]

Shingrix is the new 2 shot series of recombinant DNA vaccination that is 97% effective. The older Zostavax was an attenuated live-virus and only 60% effective. Get the new one. It is approved for everyone over 50 who had chickenpox previously. If you are not sure, get tested for VZV immunity before the vaccination series.

 

[bogeybrown]

Okay, someone educate the slow kid, please?

I thought shingles was what you got as an adult if you didn't have chicken pox as a kid. That if you'd had a good dose of chicken pox that it served as a sort of natural vaccine against shingles in adulthood.

Am I thinking of something else? Or just another one of those things I thought I understood and lived long enough to figure out I was wrong?

 

[sirhrmechanic]

^^^ Its if you DID have Chicken Pox as a kid.... the virus stays inactive and if it returns as an adult, it is a nerve agitant... that just sucks. Burning, itching, chicken tracks that trace out your nerve paths like something out of Picasso.

If you had Chicken Pox as a kid... get the vaccine.

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[diverdon]

I have had the shot and a booster 10 years later.

 

[mike e]

had it on my face when I was 42, doc's were worried about it getting in my eyel. If there is a vaccine then it would be worth it. Painful is an understatement. I suffer kidney stones and would rather have them than shingles

 

[2ndamendfan]

Okay, someone educate the slow kid, please?

I thought shingles was what you got as an adult if you didn't have chicken pox as a kid. That if you'd had a good dose of chicken pox that it served as a sort of natural vaccine against shingles in adulthood.

Am I thinking of something else? Or just another one of those things I thought I understood and lived long enough to figure out I was wrong?

You just have it backwards.

 

[Rthur]

What if you had chicken pox at 25?
BTW I don't recommend the above.

R

 

[diverdon]

If you have had chicken pox some portion of the virus hides in the lymph system, when it stages a brake-out viola, shingles.

 

[Frankly]

Get it

 

[Sean the Nailer]

I too have had chicken pox as a child. Back before they invented color. Then, in my mid 40's I got shingles. Imagine my surprise when I had thought shingles were both something that 'elderly' got 'back in the day' AND that it had been erradicated with gout, lumbago, and diptheria.

Shit-bugger-damn, was I wrong.

You know it's bad, when you're eyeing up your angle-grinder with a wire cup on it and thinking "this is going to both feel good AND cure/flambe this shit!

 

[500grains]

A friend of mine go the shingles vaccine.

Two months later he got an absolutely miserable case of shingles.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

500, which vaccine did he get? The new one, described above.... sounds "gooder".

 

[500grains]

Sorry I do not know. But it was during the past year. Perhaps it was a coincidence. But my friend suspects that the vaccine gave him the shingles.

 

[Bullfroggy]

I, too, thought shingles was once something reserved for the elderly or those with “compromised” immune systems...until I got it as a healthy, 25 year old. I had chicken pox when I was younger, and was quite baffled when these burning, raised welts appeared along my ribcage on my back. It hurt to lay on my back or anytime my shirt brushed against the skin on my back (which was all the time). I thought it was a case of poison ivy since I had recently been out in the woods bowhunting early in the fall. I was more than a little surprised when the doctor told me it was shingles. It cleared up fairly quickly after taking the antiviral Acyclovir. It did suck though!

 

[Bradu]

My wife is in her mid 30's and has had shingles on her face a couple times now. I also used to shoot trap with an older guy that got them real bad and he ended up shooting himself. It's a no brainer for me, I understand some people are anti vaccination of any sort but if it can help reduce the chances or how severe you get them, then I'm all for it.