Oh Marti, I am so sorry!
Once you get them, you cannot take the vaccine.

So yes indeed, PLEASE GET THE SHOT. They will only give it to people older than 60 when I last inquired.

But they will now give it at Walgreens, CVS, and probably other places that give the flu shots too.

Marti, just wondering how are you doing?
Are the blisters gone yet?
Honey, you need your own Teahouse.

Much better. I look like I've been shot in the face with a shotgun, and there is still some numbness in my lip, a little zigging pain from time to time, teeth on that side of my face hurt to chew, and loss of hearing in ear on that side. But I hope it will all be ok when the nerves get back to normal.

The days that you two were having this conversation, I was coming down with shingles, too! The head pain started on Sunday the 18th, on Tuesday the 20th, I went to the doc. She thought it was a migraine and a sinus infection, and sent me home with those meds. On Thursday, I broke out in the blisters all over my eyelid, eyebrow, and forehead. In my hair at the temple, too. And in my eye. They hospitalized me for five days when I got so sick to my stomach that I could not keep the antiviral med down. They were really wrried about my eyesight. But after about a month, I was seeing the same as before the shingles. I have a droopy eyelid, though.

Marti, did you get all of your hearing back?

The thing is,,,,, neither Marti nor I are over 60, so we never were offered the vaccine yet!

Nancy, my internist said that after a year of being shingles-free, I can get the vaccine. It's not like anything new was introduced into my system when I got shingles.

Hi Marti,
My Infectious Disease doc I saw in the hospital told me to get mine in six months. But I have a low white count, and I think he is trying to head off another episode of shingles.

I'll ask my dr. Yesterday it felt like someone put a branding iron against my face, and I stopped what I was doing and did some deep breathing and tried to think calm thoughts. It took a long time to go away and I was trying not to worry that it was coming back.