Another Word About The Shingrix Vaccine

I don’t want to sound like a broken record but neither do I want any of you readers to suffer from shingles.  If you had chicken pox as a child, you have the shingles causing virus in your body–it can make an appearance at any time.  After writing the blog about the vaccine I’ve heard from so many people who have either had shingles or had a relative with shingles–

My uncle got his (vaccine) recently and it made him feel terrible. But, after mom suffering 17 years with face/eye shingles and losing the sight in her eye, I have to buckle up and do it. Hard when one already suffers a chronic illness to sign up for more pain and sickness.  from my high school classmate Karen.

My mother had shingles and the doctor said it was the worst case she’d ever seen. Think of the commercial on tv and easily double it!! She suffered for approx. 10 years until she died. At that time I said as soon as I turn 60 (that was the age back then) I am getting the shingles shot-it was zostavax at the time. Hubby and I got the shot and we were given the impression that it was good for life. Later (too late) we found out it was only good for approx. 6 years and was only 50% effective to start with and decreased as time went on. By 6 years it was useless. Well, 61/2 years after the shot I got shingles. I didn’t even think it was shingles as I’d had the shot. Well. here I am 22 weeks later, the shingles became phn-postherpectic neuralgia. I”ve been on gabapentin all this time and I’m told I have to have 5 days straight with no pain before I can go off the meds. I’m still waiting for one day without pain!!! I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy! Needless to say hubby got the shingrix shots as soon as they were available. I can’t have it until I am free of this for one year! Please, please please, everyone, get the shingrix shot. A few days of feeling like crap are nothing compared to what I am going through.  from Janice, a blog reader.

As I said in the “shingles blog”–my grandfather had shingles and went blind in one eye from the virus, my brother had shingles and now my poor mother has them.  Nat had shingles and he will tell you, “they made an old man out of me.”  The Cowboy was going to get his vaccine at Costco today–he is so dang healthy (takes no meds and has a blood pressure of 112/80!)  he does not have a Medicare drug plan thus his insurance won’t pay for the shingles vaccine.  Costco is the least expensive place–$171/injection.  But, Costco was out of the vaccine as was Walgreens.  Our local clinic has the vaccine–now how is that possible–small town clinic has Shingrix but not Costco???  But, the clinic wants $271 per injection.  The Costco pharmacist told the Cowboy to keep checking–some days they have the vaccine, some days they don’t.  We will be back in Billings next Wednesday and will check again.

Wednesday we attended a hospice care conference with the hospice providers at Nat’s.  Thursday I went to yoga in town, checked on Nat, came home and fed us then went up to Ken and Leslie’s to check on their kitties–they were in Moab ATVing.

Chilly, rainy fall weather–our high today was in the low forties!!  We made a Billings run for Costco, Walmart (still LOVE that app), RV parts and the perfect fabric for making new valences in the motorhome.  And the fabric was the perfect price–40% off and I had a JoAnn’s coupon for 25% off my entire purchase!!!

It seems as if the entire population of Billings had a cold today–the young woman who brought out our groceries at Walmart, the checker at Petsmart–isn’t it a little early???  I had the hand sanitizer out and applied after every stop!