I just got my first shingles shot, which was actually my second shingles shot. They’ve shined up the vaccine since I got my first fifteen years ago, so I topped myself off. There’s a bonus one coming up sometime too. I am plump with vaccine.
I got a pretty good reaction from it. My arm swelled up and was tender for days, and three weeks later I’m still a little lumpy. I don’t mind. When you send the kids out to play, you want to hear that ruckus in the background. If it’s too quiet, they’ve either gone missing, or they’re up to something.
I don’t really get out that much now except to go get shots. I had my fourth COVID shot last September and a flu shot to go with. They tend to make me feel a little “off” for an evening or so. This doesn’t bother me because I’m expecting it.
They assume if you’re over a certain age, which certainly includes mine, that you have been exposed to the virus that causes shingles, and you’re advised to protect yourself lest half your body burst into flame, go scaly, or otherwise dragon-up. I know I had the virus. My doctor gave me the go-ahead for Camp Mawavi even though I had all these itchy bumps, because I didn’t feel sick and was already locally famous as the princess of poison ivy. Off I went and merrily infected the whole camp. Everyone came home with a gimp lanyard and a fever. I still have a scar from one truly volcanic Pock on my ankle.
I assume the first vaccine I ever got was the smallpox one. I don’t remember it so I must have been really little, because that’s some scar. By 1968 they were using two forked needles and stabbing people with them fifteen times, and that method replaced whatever they did to me. The vaccine was not designed to be intramuscular, but rather introduced sidewise into the first layer of skin under the birthday suit. For all I know the scar is not a mark of injury per se, but rather a little permanent stash of dried-up pox virus. A little head-on-a-pike for roving smallpox virus gangs.
Not sure what other vaccines I’ve had because mostly I just went ahead and got the diseases. But I’ll roll my sleeve up for beri-beri vaccine if they have one. Quinsy. Flux. Mad Cow. Bring it on.
Anyway, I have a number of vaccines running around my system and I like to think they are mingling nicely with the resident germ population and having lively discussions around the punch bowl. Because I know there are some bad actors hanging out in the parking lot and I don’t want them out-debating my vaccines. It’s all Jets and Sharks in there.
For instance. Someone very close to me once pointed out a sore in a highly personal area of mine and suggested it looked like herpes. What! I protested. What was I being accused of? I couldn’t possibly have gotten herpes unless I got it from him. The very nerve! This isn’t herpes, I huffed. This is just a little sore that lasts for a couple days. I’ve been getting them about once a year for the last forty or so…oh…wait…Huh. Well, I’ll be. Herpes, huh?
Soon enough, once the scales fell from my eyes, I had mentally traced the offending recurrence back to a specific evening in a specific apartment in London in the fall of 1972, although there were several dozen possible virus donors in that room and I am not able to narrow them down, nor could I have the next day. Very soon my nethers were itchy and painful and looked like fried salsa for weeks and I concluded it was because I wore jeans without underpants. I’m not particularly proud of any of this, although it’s kept me out of politics, but let’s say my capacity for obliviousness is world-class.
Similarly, after about the twentieth time I developed two adjacent itchy pimples on the exact same location on my butt—again, an occasional event—and got ready to give it the usual explanation, I stopped for a moment and thought: seriously? How likely is it I have rolled over and sat on a spider in exactly this same spot every time? And I looked it up. It’s some kind of pustule that often appears in pairs with a cool little plumbing tunnel between them so they can converse with each other, and it’s due to some mild itinerant virus that makes its home in my tissues and pops up now and then for a little how-do-you-do.
So along with my fine platoons of bacteria (all beneficial or indifferent) I am hosting a number of life forms that aren’t all that interested in my well-being, and if I can introduce a countervailing army in my defense, I’ll do it every time. Those vaccines can give me any fool reaction they want. Keep it down in there, I’ll say, but fondly.
I have no idea how to cure raging self-deception.
Well, this was certainly an interesting read! The lobe in my head with the memories of my youth and where I’ve still got a few hormones socked away wants to hear all about London in 1972, my older more practical side wants to compare notes on the shingles shots. Got mine last summer and they were a real humdinger, Both made me sick as a dog for a couple days! D*** i*. I’m trying to comment here with My new samsung galaxy tablet and it is proving to be a real pain in the butt. Like those sores of yours 😉
Yeah, I’ve heard several of my on-line friends tell of getting the shingles shot and getting SO sick and having so much pain that I am reluctant to get it.
Oddly, my first 3 covid shots were Moderna, and I was literally sick and tired for a day after them. My 4th shot was Pfizer, and though each subsequent shot I had made me feel worse, so I expected to feel EVEN WORSE with this shot… the Pfizer shot did not faze me all. I’m going with Pfizer with those shots from now on.
I don’t go out very much myself, except to run errands, but my husband is a bartender at a popular place, so he gets a lot of people in his face, and I, of course, live with him and don’t take any “precautions” with him. Yet neither of us get sick very often. Either it’s immunity from being exposed, or it’s clean living. Naaaah! It’s not THAT!
They’re more of an itch in the butt, Doug. No, not IN…ON. Oh dear. I’ll stop now.
Mimim, from what I can tell nothing a shingles shot can do to you can compare to what shingles can do to you! I’m going in for my next COVID shot on Monday–fourth? Fifth? I’ve lost track.
I’ve had the two dose shingles vaccine and don’t recall any reaction. Had the initial two Moderna vaccines and three Pfizer boosters. The first Moderna knocked me on my butt. Second I think I only had a sore arm. Only sore arms with the Pfizer.
I had COVID last June and that knocked me on my butt, borderline pneumonia. Lung capacity isn’t what it used to be and an afternoon nap is very appealing.
I’m so sorry you’re still having consequences, Bruce. This damn virus is all over the place symptom-wise and otherwise. Dave and I are still clean but we figure it’s a matter of time. I’m certainly not as careful as I used to be.
Let’s talk about not going anywhere. I don’t go anywhere, either.
Some day, Nance, you want to not go anywhere with me?
Nobody I’d rather stay put with!
Mad cow disease… sounds sexist to me unless bulls don’t get mad disease. If not, what is all their huffing, puffing, and pawing at the ground about?
That’s what they do when they get mad. When the cows get mad, they quit talking to you.
Intrepid as always… ain’t no topic out of bounds for you!
I too had a second Zooster vaccine with a resultant fever and chills that night. But that beats a full blown painful Zooster rash that may last for weeks.
As I mentioned, I still have to have that second shot because basically no one is impressed with the one I got fourteen years ago. But I was in the vanguard for that one because I joined a double-blind study testing effect on people in their fifties. I had to certify that I was through menopause and of course I wasn’t entirely sure–you never know when that period is the last one–so they tested me for existence of Certifiable Feminine Juju and promptly, I say PROMPTLY, read the results and said “Yeah, you’re done.”
I had that one too, I think it was Zostavax, and it was just one dose. The Shingrex is supposed to be better. Hopefully the cumulative effect of the two will keep me protected.
The Pfizer COVID shots all kicked my butt the day after, but I was prepared for it and was able to just lay low. I heard the Shingrex was bad too, so I was prepared to feel gross; but not prepared for the giant, hot red lump on my arm that lasted for more than a week. That was after the first dose, so I expected even worse when I got the second dose a couple months later. For some reason, the second dose was much easier on me. Go figure. But I had an epic case of chicken pox in third grade, so I’m sure I’m full of the herpes zoster that causes shingles. I was my grandmother’s caretaker when she got a bad case of shingles on her face and around one eye, and she almost lost the eye. I’ll take vaccine side effects any day!
That eyeball stuff is scary, innit? I don’t know anyone in my family that had shingles but then again a lot of them didn’t live long enough.
Same here, but this was my step-grandmother, and her family has the longetivity of sea turtles. She lived to 97, but nobody in my own bloodline made it anywhere close.
And, while most people got the Smallpox vaccine in an arm, I got mine in my left hip/upper buttock and still have that lovely mark to prove it.
I wonder why? Is that the only way they could pin you down?
Probably, I WAS a real asshole about shots when I was a kid.
I work a lot in a hospital and its satellite medical centers. I was scared to death when I started there in 2020, but now less concerned about that then I am about being in the grocery store or attending shows (where I almost always mask up). The hospital employees I work with have almost all had COVID three times.
I’m still amazed that the rest of you shingles vaccine veterans had big reactions. I had chicken pox when I was in the third grade (weird coincidence, right?) and that was back when people had chickenpox parties. I don’t recall much about side effects other than thinking I had developed a third nipple when the first eruption appeared and having eruptions on my scalp.
Third nipple. Yet again, Bruce. Yet again. You are always SO welcome here.
Huh! I had the shingles vaccination (twice), and just got my sixth COVID shot (bivalent booster), not to mention multiple flu vaccinations, pneumonia, etc. With none of them have I had more than a slightly sore arm, and maybe some transient vertigo if I didn’t sleep long enough the morning after. Of course, I didn’t have the reaction to chemo that I expected either. Am I really fortunate or really dull (which are not mutually exclusive)?
As far as I have ever been able to tell, nothing bad ever has any effect on you!
I need to suck it up and get my singles vax. Lousy reactions to mRNA vaccines so need to time getting sick. My husband is just over shingles in spite of the OLD vaccine. 4 weeks of pain and misery. Herpes might be more fun.
Hi, Holly, and wishing Himself better!
Shingles vax gave me a red raised arm for several days but no complaints here- I’m with Murr on any and all vaccines. #6 Covid Bivalent will be in that arm soon and whenever recommended after that!
Dave and I just got our COVID boosters yesterday. I really thought it was #5 but maybe I’ve just lost count.
Shingles! Argh. I hate spell correction!
Shingles! I suffered through that in (about) 1977, and don’t ever want to be that miserable again. I later had the one-shot-for-life shingles vaccine — are you telling me that we need boosters?? If that were the case, you’d think that Kaiser-Permanente would be cheerfully hounding me with their robo-calls and texts. At any rate, if at my age I ever break out with evidence of something transmissible, I’ll have to remember the jeans-with-no-underwear rationale. I like that one.
The first shot was much less effective than the new one, Shingrex which is two injections. Nobody needs shingles!
I had my shingles shot a month ago and the arm was sore for a couple of days but that’s about all the reaction I got. I thought it was a one and done thing, but now I shall ask my doctor if I should get another one in a few years. I also get every other vaccine available, I’d rather not get sick and pass anything onto the twins.
I have to say if my nethers had ever been itchy and painful and looking like fried salsa I would have been at the hospital faster than an ambulance could get me there!
You have seriously underestimated my ability to rationalize things. Although I DID go to the hospital for something in a similar area that year–now that I think of it, that was not my best year.
Also here in Australia the shingles is a single dose, not a one-two. Maybe ours is stronger? Or just a different variety.
The first shingles vaccine (Zostax? something like that) was a one-shot but the new improved one takes two. I don’t remember how soon you need to get the second one though.
You should get the second dose two to six months after the first.
I watched my mother suffer from shingles, so as soon as it became recommended/available I hopped right up for the double dose. Also, thought I was the only person with mystery spider butt bites.
Even tough Google says that spider bites are rare, I get them all the time. For one thing, we have lots of trees and shrubs, and we encourage spiders. We either escort them out of the house or we tell each other where they are so that we don’t disturb them when we are cleaning: “There’s a spider next to the corner by the bathroom sink.” If we accidentally wipe them out… OMG… we are so sad. I once had a spider in the bathroom (for some reason they LOVE the bathroom!) and didn’t see it for a while. I climbed up on the toilet to open the cupboard to get something from the top shelf. And there it was, smashed against the door. I cried like hell.
They do like bathrooms. I think it’s the atmosphere.
On a completely different topic, but one I believe is a favorite on this here blog, here is a link to a wonderful Oregon Wild webinar on Oregon salamanders from last week – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSbXi0S1r4&t=2s
Why, thank you!
My actual doctor, a real live MD, advised me not to get the bivalent vax yet. I’ve already had 4 Covid vaccines as well as a case of Covid, which I got three weeks after getting my fourth booster in 2022. I am not sure whether to get it anyway (what do I say on my next visit?), not get it at all, or get a new doctor.
I wonder what the reason is?
I have heard nothing but horror stories around the shingles vaccines, so I got myself tested to see if I need one. It came back negative, so….dang, I forget what that means! My partner thinks that means I don’t need a shot. That’d be great!
I had an online friend who had the shots, and still got shingles, not once, but several times. I don’t know if she was particularly susceptible, or if shingles just LOVES people with multiple tattoos.
The vax is not expected to eliminate shingles but mitigate it. I wonder what test could come back negative–can they determine if you have the chickenpox virus in you? I did not know that. Anyway, horror stories about shingles vaccines are nothing compared to horror stories about shingles.
I don’t know what you got, Murr, but my first vaccines (November 1941) were diptheria and smallpox. Having had shingles (upper lip and inside nose) in 1986, I got the Zostavax shot ASAP (2007) – before insurance paid for it. Ten years later, I got another Zostavax shot. A month or two later, Shingrix came out, so I got that series in 2020.
Claudia: I’ve no way of knowing in what generation you reside, but our daughters got smallpox vaccinations in their upper thighs. According to the pediatrician, they did that with girls to avoid having the scar show on the arm when wearing sleeveless blouses/dresses – this was before bikinis took hold.
Ooh my goodness! Can’t have THAT!
Ah, maybe that ‘splains it. I’m a 1960 vintage, and am not sure what age I got my smallpox vaccine, but I know I was really young.