@TiggerDad DH has had shingles 3 times , so we have had a lot of experience in trying to reducing the symptoms and risk for long term effects.
I’m so sorry your wife is still suffering. I would like to suggest some supplements that may or may not help, but I know that when you are in such a bad place, you will try ANYTHING.
Please do some internet research on these products so that you can understand their action beyond my brief explanation.
Monolaurin - antiviral
L-Lysine - anti viral to the HSV family (including shingles)
Vitamin C
There are others that may be helpful for nerve repair, but after a certain point, the taking of so many pills becomes cumbersome and one is unlikely to comply.
After our experience, I did a lot of research into the shingles virus, and the herpes family of viruses as a whole. Latent viruses are scary!
I’ve done Internet researches out of desperation. It’s been miserable for me, as well, in that I felt totally helpless, unable to help her much. Thank you for the recommendations. I’ll relay that to my pharmacist wife. She should know what they are.
@thumper1 I just called the Big Y Pharmacy in Bethel, (4pm) and they have the shingrix vaccine available. You may want to see if there is a Big Y near you and try them. Good luck.
Thanks @ECmotherx2 I will try them early next week. BUT I’m not sure my insurance will cover if a pharmacist is administering…they won’t cover at Target for that reason because BC/BS doesn’t view a pharmacist as a “health care provider”.
@thumper1 You might call BCBS and ask if they are making exceptions with regard to the provider due to the shortage…especially if you do find the second shot is avail in your area at a pharmacy (or other site that is not normally covered)
BCBS make an exception? That’s sadly funny. Its taken me over a year to get them to correct billing errors they made that they processed incorrectly and refused to fix. Fortunately, persistence (and a complaint form the head of Benefits/HR) finally helped move it along, but they are unlikely to make an exception to what willl automatically process as denied based not eh location code of the “provider”.
I also have BCBS and will wait ‘til the minute clinic has it in stock.
Same here @thumper1. I am beyond baffled on why they can’t ramp up production. I understand batch manufacturing and the theory of constraints and that they may have other more profitable products to get out the door, but this is ridiculous. Pharmacist told me they are only creating and distributing small batches and he couldn’t explain the shortage of a drug in such demand.
@intparent – you’ve done the near impossible, made me laugh about Shingrix and highlighted the adage “Every time you find some humour in a difficult situation, you win.” (Snoopy pic) So true about the cars!
@TiggerDad – I can’t begin to imagine how difficult all of this is for BOTH of you – physically and emotionally. I hope that you have some additional caregivers that can help. When we’ve gone through some valleys, we allow ourselves free “Not Today” cards for whatever we can’t deal with – no reason, no excuse, no justification – just Not Today. It’s okay to not feel okay. I hope everything/everyone gets better soon.
Arggh, typos! Insurance claims have a column where the “location” of he provider is noted, and if its coded as something the insurance company doesn’t cover (like the pharmacy) they will deny. They are not likely to change their programming and manually override the system and change the policy, even if ethically it is the right thing to do.
My BCBS has insisted that I get it at a dr. office. Good news is that my MD seems to have the ability to get a single dose ordered without a big delay. The first one came in a few months ago when everyone else was reporting shortages online here. They ordered the second this week.
@TiggerDad So sorry your wife is having a rough time with it. (I suggest that anyone dawdling on the shot Google photos and online accounts of it, and they will be next in line for it).
I keep thinking that the next generation could be spared this if parents will just vaccinate their kids for chicken pox, which wasn’t available when we were kids.
PPO. Medicare Advantage PPO (it’s a deluxe plan…very high level). It’s a 40,000 member group plan through through our state teachers retirement board.
They don’t cover any shots given by pharmacists…including the flu shot and pneumonia.
But I will say…before I was on Medicare, I had a BC/BS PPO group employer plan…excellent coverage also, that didn’t pay a dime for shots given by a pharmacist.
I just called BC/BS and they were very nice…but told me that Shingrix is actually covered by Part D. I have Express Scripts for that…so I called them. Our Express Scripts Plan doesn’t cover this vaccine…at. all.
My wife and I went to a CVS “Little Clinic” back in August to get our first shot. At that time they held the serum for the second shot for us and put our names on them. We returned late October to get our second shot and it was all ready. It went well. I did not have too many issues with the second shot, it made my wife pretty miserable for a day or so. Our insurance did cover it.
Ahh, the Advantage plans have their own benefits & restrictions.
fwiw: a good friend has Medicare Part B and she said Part B paid her shingrix in full. She’s been in healthcare a long time, and knows insurance, and said that she never gave them her Part D card.
Perhaps its a California insurance requirement? (i’ve gotten my flu shot at a pharmacy for years and its was always paid in full.)
