My lesions are almost all dried up and some of them are starting to get smaller and disappear... Still absolutely NO pain or burning itch.. I am still taking those pills I was told to take and they must be working wonders … No side effects .. Just relief..
UPDATE on my Shingles.... The lesions are gone completely but the scars are still there.. No more bumps.. When I pass my hand over them, it is smooth with the skin.. There are still the dark red marks on the skin and there are less of them as time goes by.. Somehow they are slowly starting to disappear.. Still no discomfort such as pain or itch, but the area is still a bit sensitive to pressure.. I keep them out of the sun as heat is not the best thing for them.. I always wear a T shirt when outside.. I am still taking my Gabapentin 200mg every 8 hours......
Yes John.. What an ordeal is right.... Imagine if I had NOT taken the vaccine ?? I would be in severe pain and it would last for several years.. Taking the vaccine doesn't guarantee you won't get the shingles.. It just ensures that you will get an extremely mild case of it as I have..... No vaccine, ………………….….. GOOD LUCK !!!
Plenty of people who haven't gotten a shingles vaccination haven't gotten the shingles at all. In that way, vaccinations aren't much different than home remedies. There are always people who will swear that they avoided disease because of vaccination or because they drank snake oil, and there will be anecdotal evidence to support whatever someone wants to believe. If I don't get shingles, will it be because I didn't get the shingles vaccination? If I do get shingles, could it be because I refused to wear a copper bracelet? I have never had a shingles vaccination, and I have never had the shingles. You have had a shingles vaccination, and you have had the shingles. Personally, I believe that the shingles vaccine may do more good than harm for some people, and I think about getting one every now and then, but I don't believe that it's wise to get every vaccine that the pharmaceutical companies want to sell you because, at some point, the poisons can be more dangerous than the things they're supposed to protect you from. Plus, I don't think I have ever had chickenpox. I am glad that you are over the shingles, and it might be that the vaccination helped with that. But it's equally possible that it may not have.
I did get chicken pox as a kid.. I was tested before getting the vaccine if I was a suspect for the virus and it came back positive.. I took the vaccine and was OK for about 5 years when suddenly the virus decided to come out and give me the shingles.. I had absolutely NO control over the timing but just take whatever happens.. Had I not taken the vaccine, would the case be as easy or more severe.. We will never know however the fact I had the vaccine sort of makes me think it could of been a worse case.. Not necessarily, but perhaps..
You might be right, Steve. I'm not arguing with you. I don't think I've ever had chickenpox. I'm not sure because I haven't been tested for it and I don't think I ever saw a doctor about anything until I was in my 20s and a physical was required for a job. I think I had the flu once when I was a kid but I don't think I have had any of the other childhood diseases that others went through. I didn't see a doctor for that, either, so I don't know for sure that it was the flu. That was my mother's diagnosis. I jumped off a shed once and put a rusty nail all the way through my foot, and my dad filled the hole with iodine and bandaged it up. My older brother went to the hospital when he flattened his hand in a clothes wringer one summer but that's the only doctor's visit that I can remember for any of my siblings.
The virus never actually leaves your body when you have chicken pox; it lurks around your spinal cord/nervous system and one day decides to make your life hell by turning into shingles. I "assume" that if a vaccine is produced by live cultures, the injection would introduce the little bastards into your body. (And this is totally based on supposition. )
Ken... There is NO argument here.. I don't like to argue.. I know I had chicken pox as a kid... Today the kids get a vaccine against most of the deceases such as small pox, polio, measles, scarlet fever, chicken pox, just to mane a few.. In my day, there wasn't any of those vaccines.. Well, we had some but not as many as today.. For whatever reason I have a mild case of the shingles is another thing.. Is it because of the vaccine, my age, my health, where I live, or perhaps just pure luck.. Whatever the answer, I accept a mild case and I am thankful it isn't severe.. We both know people that have had the shingles and have suffered terrible for a long time.. Beth.. I believe you are quite correct about the virus sitting in the spinal cord and it just sleeps there till it decides to come out.. Sometimes it never comes out.. Yes the vaccine is a live vaccine.. I had absolutely NO reaction to the vaccine..
I had a severe case of chicken pox as a youngster. Shingles reared its ugly head a couple of years ago, but not as bad as some I've seen. I still have some active spots so they will not give me the vaccine until it all fades away. The scars remain however.
My doctor has now put me on a reducing way down, off those Gabapentin pills.. They are a nerve pill.. I now take one less pill a day for 4 days and then reduce one more pill for another 4 days till I am off them completely... Should there be any pain, I am to go back up one level and hold ..... I doubt I will have any problem with pain .....
I saw my doctor yesterday about my shingles... They are almost all gone and like he said, its almost all over.. They didn't last that long and it wasn't a bad case.. Some people that didn't get the vaccine can have that awful disease linger on for years with the pain being very bad...
Steve...so sorry you are going through this..I would really be po'd if I had the shot and still developed shingles.. I never did take the vaccine and did get shingles. I told myself ..my fault, I should have known better. It was painful but I honestly can't remember how bad it was..I must have blocked it from my memory I am really reluctant to take any vaccines and am now struggling with the decision of taking the flu vaccine which will be developed for Covid...I have never taken a flu shot and have never had the flu but..... Steve, maybe you can take comfort in the possibility it could have been a lot worse if you had not received the vaccine... Hope all discomfort goes away quickly...
Joan... Taking the shingles vaccine definitely doesn't prevent you from getting shingles... If you get shingles after the vaccine, it will be a very mild case that won't last long and won't be painful at all.. Yes, I had the vaccine about 4 years ago, and my case of shingles was extremely mild and painless.. As far as the flu vaccine goes, we up here get the flu vaccine every year and I have been getting it for about 35 years with never any reaction.... I NEVER got the flu within all those years.. Some people I knew didn't get the vaccine and unfortunately we ended up burying them.. They thought they knew better and didn't believe in the protection.. As far as the Covid vaccine goes, I would wait till it has been 100% proven that it works with no side effects.. I will NOT be the first one to get the vaccine..