Has everyone had their Shingles vaccine?

Posted by jlo2252 @jlo2252, Jun 22, 2024

Hi there. Just had my second shingles vaccine today. I did it because I do not want more pain and I have heard that Shingles is VERY painful!!
The injection itself stung a little bit, but I did not have any side effects from it.
If you are over the age of 50 you need to do this— protect yourself!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) Support Group.

The main thing is to follow your doctors advice!
I’m one of those who gets the flu shots and Covid vaccines every year even though I seem to be already immune to Covid!😂. During the pandemic I took care of my husband and daughter who were pretty sick with Covid and I never got it. I had a couple of bouts of Bronchitis in which I always tested negative for Covid. Whenever I got sick with a cold or anything I was tested for Covid and always negative! And my sister is the same—people around her tested positive and she was always negative! Weird, I know.
I worked in the medical field and didn’t hesitate to take a yearly flu shot to protect our immune suppressed patients!
The only one I was a little nervous about, funnily, was the Covid, since basically we were all Lab Rats with that one 😂.
Best wishes for recovery in your health journey.

REPLY
@jlo2252

The main thing is to follow your doctors advice!
I’m one of those who gets the flu shots and Covid vaccines every year even though I seem to be already immune to Covid!😂. During the pandemic I took care of my husband and daughter who were pretty sick with Covid and I never got it. I had a couple of bouts of Bronchitis in which I always tested negative for Covid. Whenever I got sick with a cold or anything I was tested for Covid and always negative! And my sister is the same—people around her tested positive and she was always negative! Weird, I know.
I worked in the medical field and didn’t hesitate to take a yearly flu shot to protect our immune suppressed patients!
The only one I was a little nervous about, funnily, was the Covid, since basically we were all Lab Rats with that one 😂.
Best wishes for recovery in your health journey.

Jump to this post

Interesting how things work out. To my knowledge, I have never had Covid. I was vaccinated multiple times but my wife and daughter were the first to get vaccinated. They were worried about me because I was the one that was immunosuppressed. Both wife and daughter have had mild cases of Covid and tested positive twice. I'm still looking for my first positive Covid test. I do get sick but I have never tested positive for Covid.

I'm not an anti-vax person but I avoid vaccines whenever I can. I haven't had the shingles vaccine yet. It has been offered to me numerous times. Vaccines have caused flares so I take that into consideration. I don't want my immune system to get overly excited about anything.

I have told my health care providers that I can be talked into almost anything. One doctor prided himself on talking people into a vaccine. He bribed me with more prednisone if I would do a pneumovax. I thought he was creative so I agreed to the pneumovax and turned down the extra prednisone.

REPLY
@dadcue

Interesting how things work out. To my knowledge, I have never had Covid. I was vaccinated multiple times but my wife and daughter were the first to get vaccinated. They were worried about me because I was the one that was immunosuppressed. Both wife and daughter have had mild cases of Covid and tested positive twice. I'm still looking for my first positive Covid test. I do get sick but I have never tested positive for Covid.

I'm not an anti-vax person but I avoid vaccines whenever I can. I haven't had the shingles vaccine yet. It has been offered to me numerous times. Vaccines have caused flares so I take that into consideration. I don't want my immune system to get overly excited about anything.

I have told my health care providers that I can be talked into almost anything. One doctor prided himself on talking people into a vaccine. He bribed me with more prednisone if I would do a pneumovax. I thought he was creative so I agreed to the pneumovax and turned down the extra prednisone.

Jump to this post

I get the pneumonia vaccine too because of my asthma.
My main reason for taking the shingles vaccine was I’ve heard from others that it is a very painful condition.
Interesting that we are both immune-suppressed and have never had Covid!
Medical oddities 😂 or just lucky?

REPLY

Had my first a few weeks ago and it did hit me hard for a couple of days, I felt so cold in bed even with warm pj’s, jumper, thick socks, quilt, blanket and a woolly hat, felt dizzy when I stood up. But third day I was fine, not looking forward to the second dose but needs must. I have had shingles twice and it is not pleasant.

REPLY

I had the Shingrix vaccines a few years ago, and it was before I developed PMR and GCA. I always had very strong side effects from the Covid boosters, but for Shingrix it wasn't bad at all. The side effects were slightly stronger than for a flu shot, but not much.

REPLY

I had Shingrix shot in April & July of2024. I got PMR in Early December of 2024.

REPLY

Guy I used to work with said Shingles was the most painful disease he ever contracted. So I go my first vaccine at around age 60. I get flu and Covid vaccines annually. I have PMR and Smoldering Myeloma, had bladder cancer last year. No reaction to any of these except for the initial Covids, some slight fever and body aches.

REPLY
@megz

I was surprised to see that influenza vaccine effectiveness in Australia is said to vary between only 30-60% in healthy people and lower than that in older and/or immuno-compromised people - that's us. They measure "effectiveness" by whether or not a person needs to see a doctor when they get the flu, so a healthy young vaccinated person is 30-60% less likely to see a doctor for the flu than an unvaccinated person. Older people like us would be closer to the number you mention (18%), with a much smaller reduction in doctor's visits for the flu after vaccination.
If I sound like I'm against vaccinations, I'm generally not. But some of them don't do anywhere near as much good as most people think they do, and the risks are always underplayed.

Jump to this post

@megz
I’ve been getting the flu shot every year for a long time and I’ve never had the flu.
I’ve taken a total of two Covid vaccines and I decided I’m not taking any more! I’m a Novid. I have never had Covid or tested positive for Covid (and they tested me a lot whenever I had asthma issues or bronchitis!)
I think I have a natural immunity to Covid even though I’m immune-suppressed,. It’s weird, I know . My sister has never never had Covid or tested positive either. When I told my pcp about this she told me her daughter also always tests negative and she’s the only one in family that didn’t get sick with Covid.
And I believe @dadcue here has never had covid either or tested positive for it. Are we medical oddities or naturally immune to Covid?
I still take all my other vaccines, just no more Covid boosters

REPLY

Lo único que me dió fue un poco de dolor en el brazo .

REPLY

I’m feeling ambivalent about the shingles vaccine. I had the onset of my PMR within two weeks of the second dose of the vaccine. Still, as an ER nurse, I saw the worst cases of shingles come in. Folks who were miserable and I wanted to avoid that experience, and hope the vaccine gives me that immunity I need. I’ve become leery about the adjuvants in the vaccines and wonder if that component isn’t what’s throwing some of us into a dysregulated immune response state. It’s a hard one to tease out in the research and I understand there have been only weak associations in good studies. I hope there will be better information available in the future.

REPLY
Please sign in or register to post a reply.