I got a Zostavax shot in late summer of 2017, and on October 3rd of that year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The stress of that, and the immune suppression caused by my radiation treatments, ordinarily might have precipitated a shingles attack, but it didn’t.
Having had the shot didn’t hurt, anyway, after the needle was pulled out. I had no side effects from it.
My brother put off getting the shingles vax, and broke out with it this summer. I do know what most likely led to it: One of his kids spent the summer as an exchange student in Indonesia. In this case, it was positive stress, but still, having a kid on the other side of the world, regardless of why, would stress out any parent.
p.s. Aceplace, are you sure your mother’s illness was from the shot, and not from some GI bug she would have contracted anyway?
The symptoms that Aceplace reported are consistent with what those that the CDC describes in the link I provided in the second post - albeit explosive diarrhea sounds severe. CDC also say that the side effects are common, anecdotally supported by posts from others who have had the shots here.
I finally got the second shot. I was in the pharmacy picking up something else and just asked the pharmacist. She had one dose left so I got it right then and there. Some soreness at the injection site, and a little general tiredness, but I’m done with this.
“Most people got a sore arm with mild or moderate pain after getting Shingrix, and some also had redness and swelling where they got the shot. Some people felt tired, had muscle pain, a headache, shivering, fever, stomach pain, or nausea. About 1 out of 6 people who got Shingrix experienced side effects that prevented them from doing regular activities. Symptoms went away on their own in about 2 to 3 days. Side effects were more common in younger people.”
I don’t see diarrhea there at all. I’d think that would be specifically listed.
Why just ignore what I linked to and quoted on the Shingrix commercial site in an attempt to clarify? Do you think “upset stomach” is a narrow term that excludes diarrhea? It seems to me that it’s a fairly general term for GI symptoms.
Digging this thread up again to say I got the second Shingrix shot a little over a week ago. I was prepared for the flu-like symptoms this time and took the day off–as before, I went to bed in the midafternoon and slept until 7ish, when I woke up and felt better, but not well enough to bother getting up again.
This time, I also had a large red swollen patch just below the injection site that began to worry me when it started to spread down toward the bend in my arm over the next two days. Ice and cortisone cream helped a bit. When I mentioned it to the pharmacist, he said that it was not an out-of-the-ordinary reaction in the “redness and swelling” category. It took a couple more days for the puffiness to recede. The skin is still slightly discolored, like a bruise that never fully developed.
My wife and I both got the first Shingrix shot about 10 days ago. It’s recommended for anyone age 50 and older.
I had one of the worst reactions I’ve ever gotten from a vaccine – and with that said, it still wasn’t that bad. My arm was very sore, like a bad bruise (but no actual bruising). It was also a little puffy and swollen, but not enough to worry about. The skin was very irritated from the band-aid after the shot. I might have felt a little fatigued, but nothing else. No GI symptoms that I noticed. The arm soreness lasted 3-4 days. My wife had less of a reaction than me.
We’re supposed to get the second shot 2-6 months after the first.
You can get shingles again, because just like chickenpox (which is caused by the same virus), your immune system apparently never completely clears the virus from your body.
For what it’s worth, the Shingrix shot does not contain live virus. It is an inactivated recombinant, adjuvanted (non-live) vaccine. The older vaccine (Zostavax) is a live attenuated vaccine.
P.S. The last link has answers to just about any question you can think of regarding administration of the vaccine. Some of the questions cover people with history of shingles:
This is me exactly. From stories I have heard about shingles, it is well worth it. I don’t know whether the fact that I had the worst case of chicken pox (at around 15) that our family doctor had ever seen made it more or less likely that I would have a severe reaction. But I didn’t.
Diarrhea is not listed by the CDC as a side effect.
Web MD lists diarrhea as an ‘infrequent’ side effect with the caveat “If experienced, these tend to have a Less Severe expression”.
I strongly suspect that aceplace’s mother picked up another bug on Saturday or earlier that led to the explosive diarrhea.
After my last doctor’s appointment, he planned to give me the vaccine starting at my next visit, which was today. However, due to the ongoing shortages he had to postpone until sometime in the future when it becomes more available.
For a stupid typo seven years ago? That’s a hit harsh don’t you think? I have over 25,000 posts. There’s going to be the occasional mistyped word. Auto correct probably screwed me in that post. Just a guess, who knows after 7 years.
I’m waiting until this Fall for my Shingles shot. Hopefully the shortage will be resolved by then.
I got the shot, and didn’t feel sick afterwards. And I never get a flu shot, because they make me sick every time.
My then-88-year-old mother came down with shingles, and based on her experience, I don’t ever want that to happen to me. Get your shingles shot.
In this case, it was positive stress, but still, having a kid on the other side of the world, regardless of why, would stress out any parent.