I realize that the OP is saying they will get it, and just want to be prepared. FWIW I recommend getting it on a day when you don’t have to work for a couple of days afterwards. And if you have regular contact with immune-suppressed people, be sure to tell the doctor and ask about precautions should you see any signs of rash. You may need tomake yourself scarce until the rash goes away (that’s IF you get a rash.)
I had a coworker who went through even worse. It was on his face and attacked his right eye. He had scarring on his retina and lost most of the vision in that eye. No depth perception, so no driving. Even worse though was the neuropathy. His right eyelid was still in burning pain - literally as if it were on fire or being eaten away by acid - a year and a half later. It may never get better. He seriously begged his doctor to just take out the eyeball so he could amputate the eyelid to stop the pain.
For those of you who got a shingles shot last year or two years ago, was that the new one, Shingrix? I thought that one was new like as of this year. The new shot and the old one are very different.
I haven’t had it yet, but I intend to get it. I heard today that the husband and wife friends of ours, similar in age to us (mid-50s) got it this week, and she was fine, but he felt feverish and kind of crappy for a day or so.
Well worth it, IMO. Shingles pretty much killed my dad ten years ago. He had the neuralgia for the better part of a year, then his health deteriorated and he died a few months later.
OK, I just looked it up, and Shingrix (the new vaccine that people are getting now) was just approved by the FDA in October 2017, so if you got it last year, it was almost certainly the old one.
A key difference with Shingrix is that it includes an adjuvant to get a better immune response. The adjuvant basically provokes an immune response from your body, so that it will work harder on making the antibodies. And that’s why it can make you feel feverish.
So I have a question. This is twice now that I’ve had a vaccine that promised to be the last vaccine I would ever need. The other one was pneumonia. I got the pneumonia vaccine in 2007, and the shingles vaccine in 2010.
Now I have had recommendations for yet another last pneumonia shot I will ever need and a recommendation for another last shingles vaccine I will ever need. But do I really need these? These have both been plenty effective in that I haven’t gotten pneumonia or shingles, and both times I was told I only needed one shot, forever.
To answer the OP no side effects except maybe my arm was sore, I don’t remember. Sometimes the flu shot makes my arm sore, sometimes it doesn’t. But I always expect soreness, sometimes it happens, and I don’t remember which one might have been worse.
I got the Zostavax shot last year, shortly before I found out about Shingrix. No pain besides that from the injection itself, and I’m sure glad I got it when I did because I was diagnosed with cancer shortly afterwards. (I have an excellent prognosis.)
As of right now, I don’t plan to get Shingrix because I don’t feel I need it. That may change in the years to come.
If so it would be the first time I exceeded expectations in my life!
No, when I got the shot in 2007 I was told, “this is a one-time shot.” And when they tried to give me the second one it hadn’t even been 10 years, not that the guy knew how long it had been (a Walmart pharmacist).
Bringing this thread back up to mention that I did get the first of the 2 Shingrix shots yesterday, and today feel like I’m coming down with the flu–tired, achy, and a bit warm… except that I got my flu shot 2-3 weeks ago.
But the site of the injection doesn’t hurt very much.
I got my first Shingrix about a month ago. I found the injection site to be quite achy for about two days. Like somebody socked me in the arm. The nurse said to expect it, and it’s really no big deal.
I got my second Shingles injection last Friday. My arm was pretty sore and I felt pretty crappy all day Saturday, but the symptoms cleared up by Sunday.
Shingrix. My wife and I got the Zostovax a few years, but our doctor strongly advised us to get the new one and we did. It was two doses about 2 months apart. The first dose had no particular reaction, but the second left us both with a sore arm for a few days, my wife’s worse than mine. Whatever, shingles at our age is no joke and I will do whatever I can to avoid it.
I felt awful by yesterday afternoon, feverish and that kind of muscle-achiness where it’s an effort to move so you don’t unless you really have to. I haven’t felt like that since I had a weird non-respiratory virus a couple of years ago and didn’t get up from the couch for 3 days. I was developing a migraine too–but I think that had more to do with sleeping badly the night before than the shingles vaccine.
So I took a hot shower and went to bed very early. I woke up sometime later in the night, and the fever and muscle aches had gone. Feeling a little wrung out this morning, but okay.
I went for my routine medication review in September and asked for the flu jab since I was there, and was told that as I was 70 I could also have the one-time/lifetime shingles jab too, especially since I did have chickenpox as a child. So each arm was injected.
No side-effects at all, I’m glad to say. I must be lucky.