Hey, have you ever seen a miserable Tigger avatar?
True story #1: when my boys were toddlers, I bought them a tigger that, when you press it down, it springs up and hops around a couple times. My boys just loved that toy!
True story #2: as an Asian-American dad, I was disgusted when I first read the book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” and I hated everything about the Tiger Mom phenomenon. I’ve always believed in hard work, but this Tiger Mom phenomenon went way beyond what I thought was sane. It was out of my resentment that this phenomenon has unfairly colored all Asians that I decided to make a fun of it by adopting the CC moniker, “TiggerDad.”
True story #3: I had no idea, at the time of adopting this cuddly avatar, that I’d find myself actually being a Tigger dad down the road to a son, Princeton Class of 2022!
Seeking information and understanding of shingles. I’m wondering about those who’ve had the CP vaccine, like my kids. Are they more or less likely to contract shingles?
Interesting question. I had a quick browse and it appears that people who’ve had the CP vaccine have a 1% chance of getting shingles, and if they do then it’s a mild case. That’s compared to a ~33% chance for the whole US population (50% for those over 85). So personally I’d get the vaccine (and we did get it for D).
My mom has had shingles three times, the first bout when she was about 8yrs. Old. Her accounts of the pain and sheer misery were enough to convince me to get the most recently approved vaccine. Yeah, it did hurt more than any injection I’ve ever experienced, but I still count myself lucky to have gotten it before Shingles. My pharmacist administered the shot. My right arm was sore and slightly swollen for the better part of a week, but I suffered no other side affects. I’ll get the second shot in a couple of months. Feels like I dodged a bullet. Our insurance covers it 100%.
So far, so good. Got the shot this afternoon (because of this thread, thank you all!). Took a couple of Motrin ahead of time, shot didn’t hurt at all, and my arm is only mildly sore (when I lift it). Hoping that’s all there is, because so far it’s no big deal. Yellow fever shot and flu shots have been much worse.
Very hard to find someone who hasn’t run out of the vaccine and waiting for more, but I found a Bartells drug store who still had it. Covered at 100%. The pharmacist said they are recommending this vaccine even if you had the other shingles shot YESTERDAY.
We called ahead and our CVS pharmacist reserved 4 doses for the 4 of us when they got it in stock and he notified me. We called ahead for our 2nd dose too and he saved us doses as well.
Well, I thought I was lucky to avoid the side effects, but it’s a different story this morning. Woke up fatigued, body aches, mild upset stomach, arm a little sore. If I was going to work today, I would call in sick. It’s not terrible, but a distinct feeling of not being well. I would make sure and not get this shot before something important, with work the next day. Do it when you have time to lay on the couch, just in case.
My S has had shingles twice - once when he was almost 3 and once in his early 20s. Fortunately, his cases were relatively mild, but they were no picnic. My mom had them a couple times when she was older, as did her aunt (who had them in her eye - ouch!!). I will ask my doctor about the vaccine at my annual check up this year.
Thank you. :)>- My wife still suffers from headaches and scalp pains. In fact, last night (I think it was around 2 a.m.) she went downstairs to get a ziploc bag full of ice to apply it to her head. I’m afraid her pains are something she’ll have to deal with for months at least if she’s lucky. I’m just thankful that things are manageable.
^^That’s terrible she has to suffer like that @TiggerDad . It was very considerate of you to start a thread to warn others, and you probably prevented other people from going through what your wife has.
I had shingles about 3 years ago. It started with what I describe as a “crawling” sensation in my scalp in the hairline above my left eye. I noticed some weird blisters the next day and went to urgent care. If the anti-virals they gave me helped, I would hate to see what it would have been like without them. I was off work for 8 weeks. The entire upper left 1/4 of my face into my scalp was covered with blisters. It got into my eye and I had follow-ups with an opthamologist for a year. The headache was so bad that I remember not being able to sleep at night because it felt like someone was driving a stake into my eye. After all of this time, I still have a large area above my eyebrow that is very sensitive to the touch, and I also get those weird "crawling"sensations in my scalp. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Our insurance does not cover the vaccine until age 65, so we have both paid out of pocket for it. I would gladly pay even more to avoid shingles.
After having gone through (and still going through) my wife’s most miserable time in her life, shingles needs to be taken seriously by everyone. She was waiting for the new vaccine and then made a critical mistake of being a bit lazy about getting the shots when they were made available. She didn’t think she’d get it that easily and so unexpectedly. Get your shots everyone!
My H, folks and I all had shingles vaccine at same time plus booster. I and folks were fine. H had to sleep it off. He was in pain and ran a low grade fever from the booster and said his arm hurt. He said it felt like he had the flu with body ache and just felt weak and bad. It lasted about two days until he was better but he said he was glad to have gotten the vaccine because he remembered how awful his “mild” case of shingles was, where he needed a narcotic to sleep as OTC meds weren’t strong enough to blunt the pain.
I’d definitely recommend getting it before a weekend when you have NO plans, just in case you need time to recover. Sadly, H missed a nice dinner party while he convalesced.
I shared my story on a shingles shot thread a while back. I got shingles at 50 and am still experiencing some of the effects 8 years later. Mine started on my forehead, just as pain, no blisters. As soon as the blisters popped out I got anti-virals, but the shingles still went into my optic nerve, unleashing a cascade of visual woes, including uveitis and inflammatory glaucoma, for which I’ve had to have eye surgery. My vision in that eye was very poor and uncorrectable for several years, but is now thankfully much improved.
I had the Zostavax shot and really have to get the new one, although I’m not happy about all the side effect reports.
I also was one who had a somewhat severe reaction to the Shingrix shot, but that said - still better than shingles. I had a large, red swelling at the vaccine site and felt like I had the flu for the first couple of days. My arm was swollen, red, and sore for well over a week. Not looking forward to shot #2!
For those of you saying that insurance won’t pay because you’re under 60: check back again. Since the new shot is recommended for age 50+, it likely will be covered (and is more effective than the old one too). Mine was covered 100%.
Our insurance in theory covers the shingles vaccine if you’re over 50. In practice, when the pharmacist tried to verify on their computers, it showed only covered for 65+. So W called the insurance company and they said to just pay out of pocket and submit a claim manually. So W did, but then the insurance company said they never received it. So W went back and got another copy of the receipt and submitted again, and again the insurance company claimed they never received it.
Just another day with United Healthcare (they’ve “never received” a ton of paperwork from me, too). I want to go get Shingrix too but I expect I’ll have to eat the cost due to “lost paperwork” as well. Fortunately it doesn’t sound too expensive!
Thanks for that information! Probably was hyperbole. I don’t know that he meant that you should have the new shot immediately, but that you should still have the Shingrix no matter how current the Zostavax is. I would hope they would ask that information before giving you Shingrix.
That is awful. I wouldn’t eat the cost of anything, just keep copies and aggressively follow up on things. I seem to have better luck with my insurance when I call ahead of time, and fax the information to a specific person, though they still seem to screw up the reimbursements. BC/BS owes me about $260 from several months ago…instead of reimbursing me, they did an online check to the provider…who doesn’t accept online checks, doesn’t accept insurance, and is an out of network provider whom I already paid. I can’t believe how many calls it has taken so far.