Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anyone Gotten the Shingles Shot?

I have several friends that have had shingles. I got the shot.

I thought shingles was a one time deal?

If you don't whether you had chicken pox, I would forget the shingles vaccine and get the chicken pox vaccine. Shingles is painful, but chicken pox will can kill you.

My wife had shingles several years ago and it was really painful for her. She had both of our kids naturally so she can deal with pain but it was bad.

Not long after that I got the shot in the right deltoid and it was no problem.

No it's not. That's why my wife got the shot after her bout with it.

Seems 60 is the census on when to get it. The vaccine, like many, isn't good 'forever'

Rufus, you made my day with that. Wonderful!


My late FIL had shingles, and his bout with it was awful. When the shot came out years later, I vowed to get it as soon as I was eligible to head off getting shingles. And I did.

The shot is not a 100% guarantee you won't get shingles, but it dramatically improves the odds - and minimizes the effects if you do get them.

The CDC says 5 years max. During that time, it cuts the chances of getting it by 51%.

Yep got mine at the VA, free.

Got my shot at 59.

Insurance wouldn't cover it, But i figured it was well worth the $200. I had to pay out of pocket.

Shingles is nasty stuff.

Virgil B.

You can get Shingles after the shot and again after you have had it

Can you just get it every 5 years?

Got it. NBD

That's still a good deal.

Seen some people get it on the face. Read that you can get it in one of your eyes. And it can recur.

My Doc says that the shingles shot is a waste of money.You still have a 50% chance of getting shingles.My BIL got the shot and still got the shingles.I had them last summer.Painful for about two weeks,.Not the worse thing to happen to a person.

The doctor is right...back in the day, they used to have "parties" so all the kids would have it at the same time....I had to google "death by chickenpox" and it looks as though about 7,000 die (globally) each year...

Rufus, you made my day with that. Wonderful!

+ 1,got a good laugh out of that one,,

Somebody didn't like you...

Both parents had shingles, mother in her hair and on her face, narrowly escaped it progressing to her eye. It was exceedingly painful for her, my dad got it on his side and did not seem to complain about it too much. Must have been a mild case, I got my shingles shot at age 60.

All in all, Zostivax is a good idea. The 60+ age recommendation didn't come from research, it came from a bureaucratic decision (IIRC, it was the Feds) because there wasn't enough vaccine to get everyone down to age 50 (which was the age the research said was ideal). You can get the vaccine at any age if you're willing to pay for it, and at $200, it's not a huge expense.

The bottom line is that it reduces your chance of getting Shingles by about 50% (lifetime risk), but more important than that, it reduces the severity of pain and disfigurement by 60-70%, and there does not appear to be a lifespan on that protection. I don't know where that "5 year" number came from, I haven't seen anything to support that in the medical literature on that.

But yes, you can still get shingles if you've had Zostivax. It happened to me... I got shingles less than 6 months after I got the shot, in my left ophthalmic nerve. I reported it here on the 24HCF, but the summary is this: pain came on about bedtime, and by 0400 it was excruciating... burning, throbbing, stabbing pain in my temple area to the edge of my eye which I'd call a solid 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. I took a strong pain pill and it reduced it slightly (to 7/10), and in the morning I called an optometrist here on the 'Fire who called in a Rx for Valtrex. Within 2 hours of starting the Valtrex the pain dropped to 1-2/10, and stayed that way for 5 or 6 days. I went to an ophthalmologist and he said he could see a few very small Herpes zoster lesions inside my eye, but no lesions ever broke out on the skin, cornea or anterior chamber of the eye. He rechecked me a year later and there was no scarring and my vision was unaffected.

Comparison to pre-Zostivax results: my ophthalmologist colleague told me that prior to the vaccine, he had never seen anyone with ophthalmic shingles have as good an outcome as I had; and since he saw me, he's seen half a dozen more similar cases.

Consider that of the locations that shingles breaks out, the ophthalmic nerve is second most common (most common is the chest/high abdomen), and without question the most painful. I've had people on high-dose narcotics, steroids, and nerve agents for 6 months after an attack of ophthalmic shingles. No thank you, I'll take the Zostivax!