<p>This will sound like I’m a big stinking baby, so I’ll just admit that from the get go.</p>
<p>I don’t even want to get the flu vaccine this year. I went with the rest of my family who hardly felt it and had no issues. To me, the shot was very painful, and my arm was really sore for nearly a week. If I can get the nasal spray I’ll do it, but I’m not getting that shot.</p>
<p>Besides me just being a wimp, why would it hurt me and not everyone else?</p>
<p>^ I can’t answer that question but I can offer some tips:</p>
<p>Take Tylenol or Advil before you get the shot. It’ll dull the pain over the next few hours and if you take it in advance you won’t have to wait for it to kick in.</p>
<p>Don’t tense up when you get the shot. It will go in easier and feel better sooner. (I know, easier said than done when you’re nervous)</p>
<p>Use the arm you got the shot in right away and continue to use it. This sound counterintuitive but I learned it from a nurse. Getting the blood flowing helps with healing.</p>
<p>My one and only adverse reaction to a shot was a really bad case of muscle ache and body stiffness after getting a tetanus booster - the day before a final!!! I knew it was the vaccine and my first thought was, “Thank goodness I got the shot! This is just a reaction to the shot - imagine I contracted the “real deal”!”
Yup, I’m still alive and pro-vaccine (and I got an A on that final).</p>
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<p>For the flu vaccine, I have learned over the years to really, really relax my arm. I don’t look and I do a sort of yoga-like-mind-thing 
where I try to make my arm as limp as possible. Have had almost no pain for the past several years when I do that.</p>
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If you felt that bad after the shot, just imagine what you’d feel like if you got the flu.</p>
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<p>I think people who haven’t had a really severe case of influenza think it’s a “I’ll pop some Tylenol and take a nap” kind of thing. I probably felt the same until I got a horrible flu when I was working in the ICU. We had always given each other the vaccine in the unit, but then they moved all vaccines over to the employee health office several buildings away. I didn’t get the vaccine. I have never experienced such a severe sore throat in my life, but even worse than that and the 104 degree fever was bone pain such as I had never experienced. It was excruciating and I was in shock that my whole body could hurt so bad. I drove myself to the ER at 2:30 am. The doctor had mercy on me and prescribed Lortab elixir for my pain and once it kicked in I decided maybe I didn’t want to die after all.</p>
<p>Yes, the shot hurts, but it in no way compares to the pain that comes with a nasty case of the flu. I have never been so sick in my life. I got a nice case of secondary pneumonia, missed 3 weeks of work, and spent weeks after that tired and out of sorts. I will never skip a flu shot again.</p>
<p>Why bone and muscle pain?</p>
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<p>FYI, there is nothing magical about turning 60. It will very likely work just as well when you are 55 or even 45. Age restrictions on the use of medicines and vaccines are imposed by FDA rules and are simply a reflection of the population that was enrolled in the clinical trial that was used to gain FDA approval for it.</p>
<p>Labeling on vaccines, drugs, and medical devices always reflects the clinical trial population. For example if for some goofy reason you enrolled in the clinical trial only people who were blond-haired, green-eyed, left handed, and of Armenian ancestry then the FDA would require that the drug label restrict the use of the drug to people who are a combination of blond-haired, green-eyed, left handed, and of Armenian ancestry, even though logic would suggest that it might work in right-handed or blue-eyed people too.</p>
<p>The ages that drug companies enroll in clinical trials are driven by a combination of which age group has the greatest medical need, which age group constitutes a big market, and which group of test subjects are easy to enroll in the trial. When an age limit gets raised or lowered, that means that the company did a follow-up trial and showed that it worked in that group too.</p>
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<p>Nothing magical except that is when insurance will likely cover it… The CDC says on their own website that:</p>
<ul>
<li>Shingles occurs most commonly starting at the age of 50</li>
<li>The vaccine is approved for use starting at age 50</li>
<li>They recommend the vaccine starting at age 60</li>
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<p>Which insurance companies pounce on and say they are just following the CDC recommendations for their coverage. :(</p>
<p>^^^That is just weird!</p>
<p>If the problem MOST commonly starts at 50 why why why would the powers that be - the CDC - recommend starting the vaccine at 60? That makes absolutely no sense.</p>
<p>For shot-o-phobes, try putting some Emla cream or lidocaine on that area of your arm first. Emla was developed in Sweden to help children cope with vaccine injection pain. You need to put it on at least 1 hour beforehand and cover it with plastic. </p>
<p>You still may get a sore arm later but if you keep it moving and ice it, that may help.</p>
<p>Or get the nasal flu vaccine…</p>
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<p>You can’t if you’re 50 or over. It’s only approved for people up to age 49.</p>
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<p>Right, but if you are dreading the prospect of shingles and are so keen to get the vaccine that you are counting down the seconds, you may wish to get it sooner than 60 (even if you need to pay for it yourself). </p>
<p>The point I was trying to make is that the vaccine will likely work for you, even if you do fall a modest number of years outside the recommended upper or lower age limits. Those age limits are arbitrary numbers dictated by the design of the clinical trial rather than by any evidence that the vaccine won’t work if used outside those limits.</p>
<p>H has sarcoidosis. Lung specialist wrote the script for the shingles vaccine when he was 53 and insurance did cover it. He got it thinking he had to pay for it after much conflicting advise from ins. co. They said it would be paid for if given in a doctor’s office, but not if given in a pharmacy. Two GP’s offices said they wouldn’t give it and it had to be given at a pharmacy. He got it at a pharmacy and it was paid. </p>
<p>I swear one of every three commercials during the evening news is for shingles. I keep thinking someone has to be making a lot of money or they wouldn’t be advertising so often. I’m sure it’s not just in the interest of public health.</p>
<p>I had chicken pox and am extremely susceptible to cold sores. Turn the big 50 this year and am asking for a script.</p>
<p>Shhh. I still give myself the nasal vaccine.</p>
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<p>I have no idea. But please get the shot anyway. By not vaccinating, you are putting immune-compromised people at risk. The potential effects of flu for them are far worse than a painful shot.</p>
<p>I managed to avoid ever getting chicken pox. It’s the silly reason of the day my fianc</p>
<p>Frankly I don’t give a hoot and holler about having to pay $180 (at Costco) for the shingles vaccine. What is beyond explanation is the recommendation by the CDC to receive this immunization at 60 or later even though their own data (as per #348) says the illness most commonly starts at 50!</p>
<p>WHY would the CDC recommend a vaccination for an illness which MOST COMMONLY starts at 50??? This is the kind of stuff that gets the anti-vaccine/conspiracy flakes going at light speed. Really, is the goal to stop a potentially serious illness, to appease an insurance company or to CYA based on cohort studies. </p>
<p>Simply… if it starts at 50 why recommend protecting yourself at 60…this is non-sense. Let’s see, we have to get young people at 12 in order to prevent an issue which clears on it’s own a large majority of the time but we should wait 10 years past the most common onset age of an illness which affects 1 in 3 and has VERY ugly consequences. </p>
<p>THIS is why some INTELLIGENT people question the wisdom of certain institutions.</p>
<p>Ema, please consider getting the meningitis vaccine. My friend’s mother died of meningitis when we were in high school. Her mom was a triathlete, in amazing shape, but by the time they realized how sick she was it was too late. She died at the hospital less than 24 hours after arriving.</p>
<p>From a medical website:
“Of the 1,000- 2,600 people who get meningococcal disease each year, one-third are teens and young adults. Ten percent to 15% of those who get sick with the disease will die, even with antibiotic treatment. Up to 20% will have permanent side effects, such as hearing loss or brain damage. This is why immunization against meningococcal disease so important. It can help prevent this serious disease.”</p>
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<p>I think you are getting carried away. The explanation is simply bureaucratic process - perhaps with a dash of ineptitude.</p>
<p>The CDC made its age 60 recommendation based on the original clinical trial and FDA approval that restricted the vaccine use to those 60 and up. The trial lowering it to 50 was completed in 2011 and the FDA eventually approved that too, but the CDC hasn’t yet updated their recommendation.</p>
<p>The CDC says exactly that on their own website: </p>
<p>“At this time, CDC does not have a recommendation for routine use of shingles vaccine in persons 50 through 59 years old. However, the vaccine is approved by FDA for people in this age group.”</p>
<p>The key phrase here is “at this time.” For the CDC to make a formal public health recommendation is not as simple as a few key strokes by their webmaster. There is a whole formal process with experts, reviews, documentation, reports, and conclusions. Maybe even public and industry comments too.</p>
<p>When the bureaucratic wheels have turned enough, or political pressure is brought to bear, or updating this rises to the top of the list of the umpteen dozen things things on the CDC’s To Do list, they’ll probably change their recommendation.</p>