I finally got in to see my PCP for a rash that I had noticed a week ago today. "Did you have the chickenpox?" he asked. I answered honestly with "I really don't know." It's shingles. After I got home I emailed my younger sister and asked if she knew if I had chickenpox and she replied, "We both did but you had it worse." I told her I just remember having the mumps, "Yeah, you had that too." I never thought to ask my mother about chickenpox when I got older never thought about it until I started working in the healthcare environment. I would hear all kinds of experiences of how awful having shingles can be. It's no exaggeration either. I asked my husband if he had chickenpox and he remembers he did. Was it so bad for me that I blocked that memory when I was a child, I asked myself? I've been researching shingles and the interesting fact is that the chickenpox vaccine was developed in the Japan in 1970s and was licensed to use in the U.S. in 1995. I think that there are a lot of people like me that are not sure about having chickenpox and should be made aware of these facts so that they can get the shingles vaccine. I wouldn't want any one to experience what I'm experiencing today.
I got the shingles vaccine after I saw the hell my ex went through with it. Next thing I'm getting is the flu shot....I never want to be as sick as I am now. Hopefully you'll be one of the lucky ones with a mild case...they're not all the same.
@Von Jones Ooooohhh, sorry to hear that. I definitely remember having chicken pox as a child. Got the shingles vaccine a few years ago.
I don't know what diseases I had as a child. I don't think I had very many, but I am pretty sure that I didn't have any that I saw a doctor for, unless I was very young. I remember one long sickness, but I think that was the flu although, like most everything, diseases were parent diagnosed and treated, rather than doctor diagnosed. I can remember my older brother having the measles but, despite measles scares that we hear these days, I am fairly certain that no doctor was consulted. I don't think I have had any diseases that involved hives or anything of the sort. I don't think I have had chickenpox, but am not sure. Shingles is a vaccine that I might consider because my oldest brother has it, and an aunt was miserable with the shingles before she died.
I also read that once you have had shingles that the chance of it recurring again is very slim but still possible. Only two known cases of a second bout has been recorded.
I'm not an expert, but I believe it's more common than that. WebMD says that the risk of getting shingles again, once you already have it, is about one in three. People who suffer pain from shingles for 60 days or more after their shingles attack are five times more likely to suffer a recurrence. I know that both my brother and my aunt have had recurring bouts of shingles.
Small comfort, I know, but folks who have died from the first dose, have never been known to come down with second one.
Awww sorry @Von Jones to hear you've got the dreadful painful shingles. I'm fortunate that I never had chickenpox as a child...I had Mumps... My daughter had chickenpox as a child..perhaps I should tell her to get the shingles shot. I wonder if at 41 she's too young for it tho".. I do wish you a very speedy recovery..I'm not going to depress you with horror stories, but I really do know how horrible shingles can be at its worst..
In 1980, at 38, I was working beside our dirt road out front, and they were spraying some kind of oil on the gravel. Somehow, a splotch of that oil struck my bare chest. The stuff stank like Creosote. Within a day, my upper chest had blotches forming, which became blisters, quite painful. This progressed across, under my arm, the armpit becoming torturously painful. From there it spread to the upper-right part of my back. Somewhere during this process, I went to the doctor, who denied any posibility of the smelly oil bringing on the shingles. He said it was caused by a virus, Herpes Zoster, which I harbored in my body since childhood. He gave me two steroid shots, and that helped, eventually; it lasted several weeks. moving my arm was quite painful to the armpit. Frank
Do you recall if either had, if available then, gotten the shingles vaccine? I read that the vaccine would lessen the severity if shingles returned.
I've seen photos and I think my case is no way near as bad as those photos but the pain is so, so discomforting. I've been taking the medicine for almost four days now and see improvement with the rash shrinking and in some areas turning to scabs.
I don't know if there was a vaccine when my aunt had shingles, but my brother hadn't had the vaccine.