Shingles (as in, the nasty chicken pox redux condition)

As a child I had chicken-pox which might have activated shingles in my mum, kindly, giving child that I was. It's most common in older people and is itchy, scaley and painful. But it does go away and pain-killers can help.

Just googling the condition - once someone has had chicken pox, the virus remains dormant in the body but is suppressed by the immune system; but as people age the immune system becomes weaker and the virus might re-emerge as shingles.

I developed shingles on my honeymoon, with hilarious consequences. I was told it may have been stress which weakened my immune system hence letting the virus attack me.

"Shingles is an under-recognized, serious neurological disease that can lead to an extremely painful condition called post-herpetic neuralgia," said Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander, a shingles expert and associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. The new vaccine, called Zostavax, appears to reduce the risk of shingles and the neuralgia and seems to be safe, said Oaklander, who has no financial ties to the manufacturer, Merck & Co.

Shingles, which affects an estimated 1 million people each year, is caused by reactivation of a herpes virus called varicella zoster, the same virus that causes chicken pox. Most American adults have been exposed to chicken pox - and therefore are at risk of shingles. After this infection, the virus hides in nerve cells, then can emerge years or decades later, typically showing up on only one side of the body along the tract of a nerve, often in a belt-like pattern around the torso or in a nerve near one eye.

The $150 vaccine is covered by some insurers and also by Medicare Part D, said Dr. Jeffrey Kelman, a chief medical officer for beneficiary choices at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the government agency that administers Medicare.

The FDA cautions that people who are allergic to neomycin or any component of the vaccine should not receive Zostavax, nor should people with weakened immune systems, because the vaccine is made from live virus. An immunization committee for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to discuss guidelines for use of the vaccine next month.

Shingles can, and should, be treated - with anti-viral drugs such as acyclovir, valacyclovir or famcyclovir. But it's far better to prevent it in the first place, said Dr. Richard T. Johnson, a distinguished service professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "People over 60 should definitely consider the vaccine because post-shingles pain increases with age."

Herpes viruses are very wily little creatures that are likely among the oldest viruses ever to infect humans. So they've had quite some time to master being a lifelong pain in the ass!

when i was in middle school, i got my own case of shingles, but i think it was quite mild as i was nowhere near as incapacitated. it was just more painful and annoying than it was debilitating, so i guess it varies from person to person.

hope your mom feels better soon!!

Interestingly, the doctor shot me up w/cortisone and gave me a bunch of vaguely religious/spiritual pamphlets about mourning and lost loves. Maybe the psychological component in shingles is stronger if you get when you're younger? Anyway, I feel like I got off easy!

Haven't had an outbreak in ten years. Ouch. It itches more this time.

Ugh. I feel like my left side has been in a fight. I am wearing an undershirt under my bra. :P

Revive!

Ugh sorry.

Just started taking xaljanz (sp?) for my colitis and apparently it puts you at increased risk of shingles, so I need to get the shingrix vaccine, which my insurance won’t cover because I’m under 50. Sucks, albeit not as bad as shingles (sorry calstars!)

Just got the first of two Shingrix vaccine injections. It hasn't been available for couple of years until recently. Got it at the same time as I had my flu vaccine and pneumonia vaccine. Both my arms hurt for days, but it wasn't a problem.

I had shingles 13 years ago. It was a really miserable experience so I'm happy to finally get a good vaccine

Had this at the end of 2018/beginning of 2019. All over my back, and on my right arm from palm to elbow. Ultimately I think it might have been a fairly "mild" outbreak, as it wasn't horribly painful as some have described, so much as itching/burning/annoying, plus some neuropathy-type tingling in my fingers. It took about 3 weeks to cycle through.

almost everybody in my family has experienced shingles.

mine was over the right side of my torso, with a neuropathic pain that was hard to describe but was very unpleasant. I was lucky because it was not as bad as what my younger sister experienced, with shingles in her mouth.

people should get the shingles vaccine if they can

Antibiotics seem to be working (on day 4?) — the spread seems to have halted after infecting my chest, neck, and earlobe. Lots of itching with the occasional stab of pain. Yeah

ugh just got this. thought I was young enough I didn't need the vaccine; I guess I was wrong. Probably the stress of teaching through the pandemic set it off.

Not too painful yet but I have gotten lots of dire warnings about what is to come.

one can get shingles more than once. my advice to anyone who's had chickenpox or chickenpox with subsequent shingles is to get the Shingrix vaccine

yeah, seriously, everyone get the vaccine. Don't be like me and assume it's for people older than you.

Too true - my son got shingles a few years back, when he was 34 or 35. The doctor speculated that with so many kids having received the varicella vaccine, younger people who had chickenpox before the vaccine became available were at higher risk due to their immune systems not getting the occasional hit of the virus from the environment. No idea if that's valid. Really sorry you are having to deal with this Lily, and hope it stays mild.

i somehow assumed if you had HAD chickenpox you were immune. based on zero data. anyway. maybe i need that vax afterall?

you should get it. after initial the chickenpox infection the varicella zoster virus remains dormant in the body but it is not gone. shingles is a later reactivation of the virus

what age are people supposed to get it at? i had chicken pox but have never been recommended to get the vaccine

50 or older, unless your immune system is weak, but I don't know of any problems with my immune system and I just turned 38. So I'd say get it now.

yeah i was just looking it up. i am 37.

my friend got it a few years ago while pregnant, probably around age 32

i am 46 [cue “psycho” violins]

read this thread title as "nasty chicken pick only ten"

I really really need to get the vaccine. I'm 52 and have had several friends get shingles and all of them were varying degrees of miserable. Sorry, Lily!

pick only ten nasty chicken viruses

I didn't know you *could* get the vaccine (in the US) before 50

yeah i think both might be only fda approved for over 50 unless immunocompromised, not sure, just based on my search tonight

Think it's only been tested in 50+ demographic, but yeah I've known people in 30s who got it, and FDA says:

SHINGRIX is a vaccine indicated for prevention of herpes zoster (HZ) (shingles):
in adults aged 50 years and older.
in adults aged 18 years and older who are or will be at increased risk of HZ due to immunodeficiency or immunosuppression caused by known disease or therapy.

Whole page for that, with lots of links:
https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/shingrix#:~:text=SHINGRIX%20is%20a%20vaccine%20indicated,by%20known%20disease%20or%20therapy.

Yeah absolutely get the vaccine if you are eligible. As you can tell from the fact I started the thread, as soon as I turned 50 I made arrangements and got my first shot a couple of weeks later.

nasty chicken pick only ten

irl lol, my brain immediately started trying to make a list of nasty chicken. Thanks for the sympathy, all.

the NHS only gives it to you if you're 70-79

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/shingles-vaccination/

My housemate who's younger than me has had the vaccine, but she got it because she was working in home health care, so maybe she wouldn't have been eligible otherwise. Well, if the US doesn't usually give it to you until you turn 50, I feel less guilty and more annoyed.

A weird side effect of this for me seems to be anxiety. I thought at first I was just nervous waiting for the promised excruciating pain to set in (hasn't yet, fingers crossed), but now I think it's the shingles itself making me anxious. Weird.

This is a weird dang illness. Lately it keeps jabbing an invisible needle into the left side of my chest like I am Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. Could be worse - could be lots of needles! But a very odd sensation.

Sympathy to all those suffering from shingles, must be awful. My first shingles vax shot just jacked me up for 12+ hours and I never have responses to vaccines.

That was me a year ago--I had only fleeting pain after my COVID shots, but my shingles shots messed with my arm for a week afterwards.

I doubled up the shingles and tetanus shots, which was probably not a good idea as it wiped me out for a day and a half. Covid/flu shot combo a comparative breeze.

Yeah zero regrets on getting my shingles vaccine shots two years back but I would recommend you do them on a Friday and plan to do nothing for the weekend.

No regrets for sure. I'll be more prepared for the second shot.

Friend of mine for many years is dealing with the aftereffects of a bout, and recently wrote about it. Just horrible.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/29-07-2024/my-last-normal-day-when-shingles-leaves-behind-an-itch-you-cant-get-rid-of

I wish the vaccine was still only $150. I was quoted $220 the last time I asked about it.

Wow, terrifying and sad read, so sorry for her. I got my first round of vaccine a few months ago, 2nd scheduled for October. Everyone I know who’s had shingles has been miserable.

Getting my first shot tomorrow, while vaccines are still legal. As tipsy said, everyone I know who's had shingles has been miserable.

First shot received! Had trouble sleeping last night because I was cold and shivering, so probably spiked a fever, but putting on a pair of socks helped.

yeah I got the chills too, but after 24 hours the effects were gone (I got a pneumonia vax at the same time which might have made things a bit more intense)... next up are a TDAP booster and Hep B, ordering the whole menu while I still have a job

well this sucks

Yes it really does

And get well soon

Painful one for sure. Hope it's not too rough a dose.

knock on wood but i think i have a mild case. the rash is small relative to the pics online and i got on the meds within 5-6 days of it becoming visible. plus i don’t have much going on atm and i’ve been able to take time off and tend to myself. so far i’ve experienced only a very minimal amount of the ‘electric chest pain’ symptom that people describe. still very unpleasant though!

thanks for the well wishes xp

i likely would’ve clocked it sooner but i first noticed the rash when i was in the woods and my mom and stepdad very authoritatively diagnosed it as poison ivy. i figured the pain in my ribs was something else unrelated, only a few days later when all the symptoms kept intensifying in unison that i turned to google and within seconds of reading was immediately like yes of course this is shingles lol

I had it when I started college, circa 2001, my parents were away and so it was initially quite scary as I was p young. I think it was mild enough relatively tho for a while was very hard to tie my shoelaces, a lot of pain in the rib area. Like you I was thinking have I broken a rib or something then the rash appeared and I was like o shit. But as I recall the severe pain didn't last long and it generally felt a bit like recovering from a muscle injury.

just had a first round of the vaccine yesterday.

I'm into week three of this and the rib pain is only just starting now. Before that it was vertigo, rapidly followed by tinnitus, then the rash (which I thought was some fungal thing to do with summer, until I clocked that a) it felt like I had fallen in a patch of the worst nettles ever, and b) the rash was only one side of my body). I also only have a mild dose, judging by the horror stories I've heard from other people, but it's uncomfortable and annoying and painful and I'm so bored with it now. Plus I had to loudly say in the chemist's "what do you have that's good for SHINGLES pain, because I have SHINGLES," because the prescription meds are exactly what you would give someone who has genital herpes.

Weird, I had the pain for a while before rash. I freaked a bit thinking I could have meningitis or something, as a clueless home alone teen.

I wouldn't have even known the pain was a shingles symptom without this thread. I thought I had maybe pulled a muscle in my sleep trying to get away from the feeling of my skin burning.

because the prescription meds are exactly what you would give someone who has genital herpes

kill two birds with one stone

jk, shingles solidarity trish :)

You too, fellow shingler.

i’ve been experimenting with how to explain shingles to people i talk to who are unfamiliar with it (as i was 48 hours ago), converging on “it’s kind of like adult chickenpox, but it’s also herpes”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Shingler

Prob good getting it out of the way cos an elderly grand aunt of mine got it in her eighties and it seemed a desperate dose for her.

Yes it gets worse as you get older

i thought read it’s possible to get it more than once?

I got the vaccine last year... I thought it was good for forever but only lasts about a decade :-(

I thought it was like chickenpox, one and done? But could be wrong.

Google says usually only once but possible to get it more than once.

yeah it is absolutely devastating for the elderly, i have two close friends who both lost grandparents to shingles, or complications thereof. nasty stuff.

sending big love & loads of sympathy to flopson & trishyb!

I swear I think I had to get a pal to tie my shoelaces one or two days in the middle.

it is, the virus stays dormant in your body forever once you get chicken pox and a shingles flareup is what results from your immune system being too stressed by other stuff to keep it in check (it's more complicated than that but basically). my mother was taking immunosuppressive drugs and got shingles more than once.

xpost the Shingrix vaccine has only been clinically shown to protect against shingles for at least ten years, my doctor said it probably confers even longer protection but they can't claim that yet

Google says usually only once but possible to get it more than once.

― LocalGarda, Friday, 11 July 2025 12:59 (forty-five seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

not sure how they calculate those stats though. i read that 30% of people will ever get shingles, most get it when old, and then around 5-10% of those who had it once get it again. 5-10% is lower than 30% but im not sure how/if they accounted for the fact that a lot of the old ppl who got it once died before they had a chance to get it again. it’s a censored data problem, there’s methods (grimly names “survival analysis”) to calculate the odds under reasonable assumptions if you had data on # of people who get it once and twice by age, i just don’t trust that that’s what the number that popped up on google represents

xp Ah okay - yeah, Shigrix is what I got

First dose I barely noticed, the second dose kicked my ass a little.. I've heard the opposite for other people

Jimmy Shingrix

is this enjoying a moment? mrs mac had it earlier this yet

I got the vax because the medication I'm on puts me at higher risk for contracting shingles - I think most people don't need it until later in life

ha, I just saw a shingles ad on the Guardian site with an AI actor who looked very AI

My mother has been dragging hers for 10 months now, and there's no indication that it's going away yet (potentially it could never go away).