Sorry you're dealing with this. Unfortunately, Shingrix isn't 100% effective - but I hope it helps with the severity. Hoping it stays out of your eye!!!

Here's the efficacy data from the Shingrix website, for anyone who may be questioning it:

https://shingrixhcp.com/efficacy-safety/efficacy-data/

Hopefully, the fact that you had Shingrix makes it a milder attack in your case. I had a vicious case of shingles 9 years ago, just a few months before Shingrix became available. I had gone through a 38 hour long labor without epidural (and another 6 hours with epidural), and can say the shingles pain was far worse. Took gabapentin for over a year for the nerve pain and was still taking it as needed for a few years after. Hope you heal well and soon.

Question:

if a child gets the Chicken Pox vax, can they later get shingles (say as an adult)?

Annie, I wonder if you’d benefit from lots of sleep, sunshine and fresh air, floating on a raft in a beautiful pond, a winning $1 billion lottery ticket, delicious meals or soup delivered to you, a lot of laughter with friends.

I looked this up since I wasn’t sure how long Shingrix protection lasts.

Protection Over Time

• High efficacy: Stays above 80% to 90% in the first few years after the second dose.
• Long-term data: Research shows strong protection lasting up to 10 to 11 years.
• No boosters needed: Public health agencies do not recommend an extra dose after you finish the initial two-shot series.

hope your case is mild and you heal quickly!

Chloe, I too have seen the "strong protection lasting up to 10 years" - so the advice not to revaxx after that time confuses me. I have seen how badly shingles hurts, and can leave people with lifelong issues - I don't want it!

I keep meaning to ask my doctor. I am good for another 5 years or so, but it interests me.

petalique, yes they can but the risk is much lower and cases much milder.

" I too have seen the "strong protection lasting up to 10 years" - so the advice not to revaxx after that time confuses me. "

A possible answer: The medicine was released in the U.S. in 2018, and demand wasn’t nearly as immediately widespread as with the pandemic vax. Long-term effectiveness isn't known until time has passed and for many people, only 5–7 years have passed. There is no data to refer to to know if a re-do is a good idea at the 10 year point, because it hasn't been in use for that long. Apparently current data shows strong residual effectiveness.

I'm sure it's being monitored and recommendations for re-dosing are likely reassessed as the years go by. It's certainly in the interest of the drug company to see if effectiveness wanes, because that would lead to a recommendation of the need for boosters. But that needs to be based on factual findings, not marketing efforts.

Good info Elmer. I think I had both my doses toward the end of 2019 along with Prevnar.

Walgreens is already calling people to schedule appointments for the flu shot. I'll wait until October.

I had a periodic appointment with my doc a few weeks ago. She told me that a new flu product will be available this year, a first time ever one done with the mRNA approach. Produced by Moderna, it's expected to be more effective than those from the traditional process using eggs to grow viruses.

I too usually wait a bit, until late October or early November. But I've read that two added factors that affect the likelihood of getting the flu is weather and geography. The incidence of winter flu is higher in colder winter periods and areas where people spend more time indoors. And lower in places like where I am where mild temperatures allow a fairly consistent amount of outdoor time and outdoor activities to continue through most of the year.

I had forgotten how new the 2 dose Shingles vax is. Interesting...

Several years ago I had Shingles exactly as you describe yours – it was very uncomfortable. First I saw a dermatologist who identified the Shingles and told me to see the eye doctor immediately – I did and all was ok. Several days later – New Years Day actually - I was still taking the antiviral and I had a couple of alcoholic drinks. I got very, very dizzy – be careful.

Annie, I have not experienced shingles, but my mom did, on her face and her scalp just above her forehead. It was awful. The worst was a very large blister on one eyelid. I wish for you to have a mild case.

donna_loomis, sounds just like mine. Apparently the virus travels along the nerve routes so it probably affected the same nerve as mine. My eyelid is the most painful by far. The rest are more annoying.

raymondz, I stopped drinking quite awhile ago, especially when I'm on meds, so that won't be an issue, but thanks for the heads up!

Eyelid sounds terrible, and you are probably most limited on doing anything near your eye. Do warm or cold compresses help?

A neighbor who decided no to shingles went with metal, so you have options! Glad you have a sense of humor to help.

I hope you’re feeling better. Hang in there.

Someone above asked about Chicken Pox.

AI Overview+3No, having chickenpox does not make you immune to shingles. In fact, having chickenpox is a requirement for getting shingles. Shingles happens when the chickenpox virus stays asleep in your body and wakes up later

I just looked it up and I have to stop using rogaine on my scalp until it's completely healed. It'll be interesting to see how much hair I lose as a result.

I also think this flare-up has, as a contributing factor, my severe lack of sleep lately where I've only been getting 3-4 hours a night, and much of it restless and interrupted. In addition to other steps, I am going to work on my sleep hygiene to see if that doesn't help.

WWishing you quick relief.

“Shingles happens when the chickenpox virus stays asleep in your body and wakes up later.”

Right. There are some people who think they’re protected from shingles since they never had chickenpox. However, there are ”silent cases” where chickenpox symptoms were mild enough not to be remembered. Definitely not in my case!

Have you ever sought treatment from a doctor with a sleep medicine specialty?

Contrary to what many people think, they don't only treat sleep apnea nor work by having pre-printed prescription forms already filled out for a CPAP, needing only for a name to be added. There can be many causes of sleep disorders, many approaches for treatment, and also many far- ranging severe consequences that can be scary.

If you're not currently under the care of a sleep doctor, that might be a good avenue to pursue.

Good luck.

@lascatx, I recently had Lyrica for back pain but fortunately didn't have the side effects your DH is having. You do have to taper off the medication, with longer and longer time between doses.I ended up going from one morning and afternoon, to one in the morning for two weeks, then one every other day for a week, then one every two days for two weeks, then none.

I had chicken pox as a child and got the vaccines in my 50's. Maybe 4 years later, I developed a small itchy rash on the right side of my abdomen. I thought maybe it was flea bites from my visiting son's dog? But no, I went to the pcp and she said it was shingles. I fibbed and said I just noticed them the day before so that I would qualify for the antiviral. Mine was a very mild case, likely brought on by stress. No pain, more like a slight case of prickly heat.

Annie, lack of sleep definitely take a toll, creating stress on your body and reducing your immune system's effectiveness. It might not have caused your outbreak, but it certainly doesn't help. Getting extra rest now will help you heal - even if it is relaxing (full relaxing/catnapping/let everything go type, not watching TV, etc.) or napping. If this is something new, it would be good to talk to your doctor about it. It could be a sign of something else.

Colleen, yes, I remember the tapering off and he does too. He's just grumpy because they won't let him start until they see him and he had to wait for the Lyrica to get into his system, change dose and wait to see and then wait for an appointment. He's a grumpy patient. Neither of us are sure if Lyrica caused any issues with the shingles. There was plenty for him to be grumpy about and I don't remember him being so tired and out of sorts as much as unhappy about the pain and care of the blisters. Less than a week now...

Ditto to what Elmer said about seeking a consult with a sleep specialty doc if you haven’t already done so. I’m sure you’re aware but poor sleep quality is a strong contributing factor to risk of strokes and heart attacks. I do not have sleep apnea but I am a C02 retainer - meaning the C02 level in my blood is too high so the 02 is often too low.. I don’t do so well with ’out with the bad / in with the good’ air. I wasn’t getting enough quality sleep - deep REM sleep. I was sent to pulmonologist who sent me to sleep doc who sent me for a sleep study. Several issues resolved that seemingly had nothing to do with my poor quality of sleep. Also, stress is a trigger for shingles. A person who doesn’t sleep well has a huge underlying issue with stress. It’s a domino effect. All these symptoms seemingly unrelated but after treatment for them it can sometimes be determined that there’s one underlying issue causing the cascade of problems. It’s the chicken and egg thing. I don’t mean to preach or be pushy but I wouldn’t be here to share all this if I hadn’t followed the recommendations of my primary care doc & jumped through all the hoops of the docs I was referred to. I kept saying ”I feel fine”. I was no where near fine. I am pretty fine today.

Wow just saw this and so sorry you are dealing with this, Annie. I did get the2 dose vac-and just looked it up. I got it in 2021.

KW, my good friend who is my age, had a major heart attack in March. Heart problems run in her family so it was only a matter of time for her. Anyway, it shocked me so the next day I went out and got an Apple Watch. It does have an app to tell you if you have A-fib and I used that alot in the beginning but soon tired of seeing "no A-Fib detected".

But what I did start using every day is the Sleep app. It's like a game for me to see how high a score I can get. I usually do pretty well. Today was 96 (out of 100). It tells you Awake - 25 minutes REM 1 hour 51 minutes Core 5 hours 46 minutes and Deep 42 minutes. My total was 8 hours and 19 minutes. I really dream a lot. The dreams are stressful and I wondered if it would show that. It does show that I have a lot of dreams. I remember quite a lot of them and if they are stressful, as I wake up I acknowledge that and let them go. This watch has also gotten me to go to bed at 10 instead of staying up until 11 or 11:30. So some good habits have come from having this.

murraysmom - that’s a great tool to have! IMO the emergency fall feature is the most important one so I hope you have that activated. For a single person living alone it’s doubly important. The sleep app is interesting & might make a person aware of a potential problem that they were not already aware of. See my reference to ”but I feel fine!” 😁 Sounds like you’re managing your stressful dreams well but maybe the fact that you have them so often might be worth a mention to doc at next visit. It’s a great thing that the watch is encouraging you to have better sleep hygiene! That’s worth the price of the watch IMO. I never have trouble falling asleep - it’s the staying asleep & getting back to sleep when I wake up too early that’s a problem. Getting a decent night’s rest really impacts how I feel the next day.

KW, also no problem falling asleep. Within a minute or two as long as I am not mulling something over but even then it's pretty much right away. And I, too, end up staying awake if it's not far from the alarm going off. I usually wake up just before the alarm.

Fall Detection is always on. Very happy to know that.

I am just finishing my second case of shingles, which started 4 weeks ago. For two weeks I thought I pulled a muscle in my back, then I rubbed the area...found the rash.

It was too late for an antiviral.

Pain is down to a 2.

My first case was horrific, 12 years ago. Pain was a 9 out of 10, couldn't sleep, had to retire. Antiviral didn't work, too late

I did get Shingrex, which worked by vastly reducing the severity

Btw, I was under a lot of stress...

Alarm? Who needs an alarm when anywhere from 3-5 a.m. seems to be the wakey wakey hours! 🤣 Of course, I have unexpectedly slept to a more normal waking hour when I actually needed to be up very early so there’s that odd chance that makes me set an alarm.

I bought an Apple watch specifically to monitor my sleep time and phases. I've been trying for many months to improve my sleep quality and duration, so I've been trying different things to see what makes a difference (result: not much). I'd do weeks of no screens before bed, weeks of no caffeine, weeks of trying a grounding mat, weeks of protein before bed, etc. Then I could look back on sleep patterns and see what might have made a difference.

I do have a CPAP, and the sleep doctor is thrilled with the improvement in my oxygenation, which is good, but could offer no new suggestions for improving my quality of rest and why I'm always still so tired in the morning. Right now, extra pain meds help me get to sleep faster and wake up less (knee surgery is in 3 weeks!), but it doesn't make me any more rested :( It's been this way since perimenopause started <10 years ago :(

A few years ago, my wife asked for an Apple Watch for her birthday to try out. She loved it immediately and wears it daily. Mainly for notifications—texts, emails, and calls—so she can quickly screen them without pulling her phone from her purse.

A month or two later, she suggested maybe I would like having one too. I tried it, but after several days spent disabling Apple's various apps and automatic features they decide the user wants without asking first, I found it largely pointless. I prefer simply glancing at a traditional watch for the time without having to twitch my wrist first. Since my phone is easily accessible from my pocket or left on a table when I'm sitting, the Apple watch offered no added functionality I could use.

After a week, I returned it. I apologized to my loyal watch, telling it I should never have doubted its usefulness for me. It's a simple, relatively inexpensive Swiss-made analog watch that needs a battery every few years and otherwise keeps perfect time.

I agree the Apple Watch is not for everyone. If it wasn't for the sleep app, I probably wouldn't have kept it either. I finally figured out how to keep it from intercepting my phone calls. A call would come in but it wouldn't ring in on my phone - no sound. But the watch would vibrate telling me I had a call. Drove me crazy. I finally figured out how to make that stop and so I'm back to liking it again.

I have an apple watch but I charge it while I'm sleeping. I use it as my bedside clock at night. I tried sleeping with it on, but I often put my hands under my face and the watch would be most annoying, so I stopped. Last thing I need is something annoying me while I'm trying to sleep.

As far as the phone, I like answering the phone on my watch and then asking the person to hang on while I switched to my phone. My phone is usually buried in my purse and not readily accessible to answer.

I have the emergency fall call on and it must work as one time I hit a really big pothole and it thought I fell. Another time, I was splitting wood and it thought I fell. But then I'm quick trying to stop it from making an emergency call as I'm fine.

No Apple watch for me either although I have an iphone. The watch is too big looking for me. I dont wear a watch at all. At home, my phone is always out.

Hope your shingles are short lived! My husband and I got our vaccines last year.

I love my Apple Watch and never take it off except to charge overnight. I was just talking to my daughter, and I said I think my battery is going, and she said her husband just bought a new one at Costco for $299. If that's true, I'm going to get a new one next week. I would never sleep with it on because of too many interruptions. It did not react when I fell and hurt my back last year, but only my back made contact; my arms were in the air. It did react twice, once when I swatted a mosquito and another time. My daughter slammed her arm down last year when I was over and didn't react to the phone and 30 seconds later, she got a call asking if she was okay. With me hiking alone in the woods on the AT, it could be very useful because it even gives coordinates. It saved the life of a thru-hiker who hung his hammock between two trees, and there was wind, and one of the trees fell on him, pinning him to the ground. His watch pinged, and he got help by reading the coordinates, because he didn't know exactly where he was, and it saved his life. I like that it monitors my heart rate, and the newer ones do even more. I also like it when I'm in the woods, and it gives a weather alert that lightning is near or rain will start in ten minutes.

I tried one for a day, but returned it because it felt too heavy on my somewhat sensitive left wrist- I’ve broken that wrist twice. I wonder if I could get used to wearing one on my right..?

Owww!!

That looks unpleasant. How are you holding up?

That looks awful. Does it hurt or itch?

Yep exactly what I get on my lower back. I am so sorry you are experiencing this. Stress isn’t always the harbinger of a break out. I had huge amounts of stress off and on for decades before it came back. Now if I get upset it rears its itchy self and the Cortisporin always does the trick. Use as often as you want. If you can get the prescription strength it is definitely worth a try . c 🙏

Hang in there Annie -

Gabapentin was a godsend. It helped with the nerve pain that lasts months after the blisters are gone. Hopefully, you won’t have any nervepain since you were vaccinated, whuch could make it a milder case than if you weren’t.

I hope you get to feeling better soon, Annie.

Thinking of you Annie.

Thank you all so much. Yes it hurts and itches but intermittently...but if I touch it, it's very sore. The steriod ointment they gave me does seem to keep the worst of the symptoms more manageable. I've also got swollen lymph nodes on that side by my ear, under my chin and even the back of my neck, and am getting very painful spasms up into my ear which is most unpleasant. I should be getting to the peak today or tomorrow and hopefully after that it will get easier. But I now have a new tender spot on my scalp behind the existing rash, but no rash yet. I thought the anti-virus was supposed to keep it from spreading, but maybe not. So long as it remains in the skin and not in the eye itself! The tylenol seems to cut the edge off some too. I just can't imagine how awful it would've been without the vax!