Today is my three year anniversary from the date I got Shingles. My hip, knee and abdominal muscles on my right side are still fucked up from the nerve damage it caused.
I'm finally, as of about a month ago, down to a one 75mg pill a day of my nerve pain medication, after a high of 300mg a day for a long time.
Go get your shingles shot if you're eligible (ie 50+ or immunocompromised) and have had the chicken pox. Do it.
@mariellequinton @casseagull @johnefrancis Yeah - I was bummed that it wasn't covered by OHIP (because it should be), but I paid for mine out of pocket last year (in Ottawa) and it wasn't cheap!
I know someone who had shingles on his face and almost lost his eye, so... it made it seem a lot cheaper. 😬
(Great PSA Cassie!)
@casseagull @EricCarroll Eligibility in the UK is an outrageous age 65+!
(I had shingles when I was 11 and it sucked, royally, although not as badly as it does for middle aged or older people.)
@cstross @casseagull @EricCarroll
Got mine yesterday. Had to pay for it, though.
@Anne_Delong
I paid for mine too due to the Ontario age qualification being, like
@cstross 65+
@casseagull I had a mild reaction to my first shingles vaccine, and a pretty hefty reaction to the 2nd one (rash and some swelling), but that was absolutely nothing compared to what I saw a co-worker go through when he got shingles a few years ago.
Complete agreement that everyone should get vaccinated if/when able.
sorry you had to suffer through that and thank you for thinking enough of others to provide the warning.
@casseagull Friday is shot number one.
I hope you can keep reducing that medication! Much support to you!
@GutterPoetry There's a not terrible chance. Mine seemed to have been brought on after a period of prolonged stress (a long bout of food poisoning and then some life stuff).
They've also discovered through an experiment in Wales that receiving the vaccine lowers the risk/rate of dementia, which also seems to have a high rate of correlation with neurodiversity (untreated ADHD specifically).
Yes! Get the shot! You do NOT want shingles!
That said, tho, it's not a guarantee against it. I had my first bout of shingles while I was in my 30s and got the vax a short while later. (This was long before all the restrictions set in.) Despite being fully vaxxed, I got shingles again about ten years later. And on the other side of my body, thus proving just how fucked up my nervous system has become. My doc says I should get a booster now.
@casseagull I got shingles in the (3 week?) gap between my first and second shots for it! 11 weeks of misery, almost no sleep, unable to drive due to the pain in my shoulder and back (made wose by the angle of holding the steering wheel) and living on painkillers.
At the time I thought the pain would never end and my life would never return to normal (fortunately it did), but when I hear stories like yours of people suffering for years from shingles I realise I got off lightly. Good luck and I hope it ends for you soon.
Get vaccinated for shingles as soon as you're eligible and make damn sure your kids vaccinate their kids against bloody chickenpox so they don't have to suffer from this shit.
Here in Australia, the science says get the shingles vaccine if you're 50+
The government says you can pay for it yourself, unless you're 65+
@casseagull and you get these for free
@casseagull I tried. Today. I really did. But at the last minute I was rejected.
Okay, it was for the second in the series, and I did my date-math wrong. I've got to wait another five days before I can get stabbed again.
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