Yesterday, we had discussion of whether or not to take the shingles vaccine. For our hosts in the UK, just what is the shingels vaccine? I supplied some links that provided information and this is just one that popped up today. Hope it helps.
Newsmax Health <newsmax@reply.newsmax.com - scroll down a bit and the first subject is entitled, "Say No to Shingles Vaccine: Boost immunity naturally".
Smiles,
Canary
Yes - sorry Canary, but does not work on mine. Mary F x
So sorry ladies, I probably made a silly mistake.. again. I Googled, Shingles Vaccine and got most of them but I used cut and paste and maybe my new eye surgery skipped something. I won't bother again if you think it is of no value. Today's was just newsmax.com and it was one of the first articles. That's a free publication you can get for yourselves. He is a very homeopathic doctor, very informative.
I shall now take a peek! AND I am always posting people links that don't work, it is a speciality of mine! Mary F x
webmd.com/vaccines/what-you...
mayoclinic.com/health/shing...
foxnews.com/health/2013/01/...
cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/sh...
Call me an irritating perfectionist, but I was able to pull every one of these up on google.
I must have done something wrong yesterday. I am so sorry to have wasted your time. If these don't work for you (pretty accessible sources) just let me know and since you don't feel it is important I will not try again. Hope it works for those who find some value in it. Even if it is only to answer the question, "do I have to worry about it?". For the UK, apparently not. For the US, maybe.
Nice to see you ladies are right on top if it!
Smiles and warm wishes,
Canary
And thank you for the correction.
Hi APsnot:
This part might be a little important as don't we ALL have compromised immune systems?
Some people should NOT get shingles vaccine.
A person who has ever had a life-threatening or severe allergic reaction to gelatin, the antibiotic neomycin, or any other component of shingles vaccine. Tell your doctor if you have any severe allergies.
A person who has a weakened immune system because of
HIV/AIDS or another disease that affects the immune system,
treatment with drugs that affect the immune system, such as steroids,
cancer treatment such as radiation or chemotherapy,
cancer affecting the bone marrow or lymphatic system, such as leukemia or lymphoma.
Women who are or might be pregnant
To my ear, the above reads that no Hughes patient should receive this vaccine. Is that what the Administrators read?
Canary
The above quoted from cdc.gov
I would think better to ask your doctor about that one.
Isn't shingles caused by the same pox as Chickenpox? If so then it is probably the chickenpox vaccine.
Actually Canary, we don't have compromised immune systems-- we have stupid ones. They still come out swinging, they just don't discriminate between friend or enemy. Compromised would be someone with HIV or on chemotherapy or steroids because in those situations the immune system is upstairs in bed, weak, and unable to defend the house.
My original query was rendered due to the possibility that whatever pathogen or environmental trigger that first confused our immune systems into confusing enemy with our own blood components might be that very virus the that causes chicken pox and shingles. And I know that no one has the answer to this question, but if a lot of us Hughies had seen a worsening of Hughes symptoms after getting the inoculation , then that might indicate that yes, the 2 are in a cause and effect relationship.
As I stand now, because here in WV one can not get the shot from doctors but must go to a pharmacy, I had to spend a lot of frustrating time in back and forth among insurance company, pharmacy, GP, allergist and rheumatologist. By the time I was ready to get the shot I was too close to my steroid injection time, ( the start of a duration when my immune system checks out and retires to his bedroom to watch TV,) I.e, when I will meet that "immunocompromised" definition.
The original concern which prompted my GP to strongly recommend the shot is that, odd and rare as it may sound, I nearly died of the chicken pox. So, to the English major housewife, this suggests that either I am
1, so skilled at fighting this virus I will carry that child acquired immunity well beyond the time enjoyed by most people and will never need the shot;
Or 2 , my body is flooded with tons of inactive,' just waiting for the right moment to wake up and wreck havoc ( such as after getting a steroid shot,) viruses,' in which case I really need that shot.
For now the die is cast. But I will bring this issue up with my rheumatologist when I see her this fall.
And thanks for all the input. ( I couldn't open the original links either, but I navigated around and found some of them.)
Hi Gina: Thanks for the chuckles, by the way. You're writing style always makes for interesting reading! I hope the second posting helped. They are pretty standard sites.
I hope the cortisone injections help - your knee is it? When I worked in the Spine Center they were used by a great many eternally grateful people. Here in the States, they are limited to 3 a year and they save one of those for accidental exacerbation. People swear complete loss of pain from them (about 3 days for complete effect usually lasting 4-6 months depending on the extent of injury/disease). It enables a lot of immobile people to go back to absolutely regular lives. (Including a little spark in the bedroom having pain removed) That's just the problem, they feel great and do things like, shovel wet snow, rumble tumble with kids, walk a dog that pulls; This one always really baffled me, the patients would go horseback riding! All things that exacerbate the problem. They are warned 100 different ways not to do this. But they are literally drunk with wellness. Does wonders for pain in the rotator cuff as well. Some people with fibromyalgia get them at the "trigger points". I worked with an 86 year old woman who had a terrible case of rheumatoid arthritis in the hands. Very distorted. She received cortisone injections right in the joints of her horribly disfugured fingers. She said by the next day she felt as though she never had disease.
I hope you feel better Gina and that the steroid injections help you. Personally, I took 80 mg/Prednisone a day for well over a year and all the distortions that accompany that high dosage and I have had my fill of it. My doctors have promised never to give it to me again. At the time they were treating CNS vasculitis of the brain. They finally put that to sleep but the chemo agent (Cytoxan) that they used gave me bladder cancer, which I am still at war with.
I'm sorry. I'm not having a very good week. I know better than to do anything at all if I make this many errors in such a short time. I just can't seem to shake this flu all the way. It's one that seems to hang on. I was rid of it before minor surgery and after minor surgery it came back and has parked itself on "just not up to it'. running barely 100F. Not really ill but not well either. When I'm not up to it, I may as well just stop.
I wish I could have been more help to you. I find your attitude so uplifting it reminds me I should try harder.
Thanks.
Smiles,
Canary
Contentiously trying to help me when you have a temp of 100? And you like MY attitude!? Get the mirror out sister and give yourself a high five!
Much thanks for advice and encouragement. It's my left hip by the way. 22 days and counting. And I will try to take your post- injection cautions to heart. No 20 mile hikes for me, I promise.
But what about 18? Suppose that's OK? That way can do the Middle Fork/Big Beechy loop in The Cranberry one more time! Just one more. Honest.
Gina
I would permanently live in the forests of Oregon if I had the choice. I think I would make a great wood nymph. I spent one full year camping across America with my german shepard Lefty and my first husband. He was a paramedic so I thought I was relatively safe. During that year I did all the things my parents convinced me I was INCAPABLE of doing. I learned I could. I could climb Mt. Rainer, a real glacier. I made it about 1/3 up Mt. Hood. I was actually there for the Mt. St.Helen's eruptions. And the earthquakes. Now that's a strange feeling! Zero gravity! I felt like my whole house was shaking but I was standing in mid-air. Very, very cool! Second to the miracle of my children those were the greatest days of my life.
But, for you, Gina, experienced camper and hiker of the UK, No, no, no, no, no! No 18 mile hikes unless you don't carry a backpack or any extra weight at all. One well placed slip and bam! There goes your comfort. Now, the pain could come back instantly and cripple you so you can't get back from wence you came, or.... it could come back slowly but surely over a week's time to much worse than it had been originally. It is nothing to fool around with, honest. I know it is hard to give something up that you love, plus you lose the very important exercise and other benefits of walking and hiking. But a well placed fall can do damage they can't fix. Since you feel so good, you'll think you're 25 again (sigh) you are apt to do things you really wouldn't if you used your head. You use your head all the time, I've read it! Ha!
I think you'll feel like a million bucks if the steroids work for you. There are the exceptional cases whereby the patient just doesn't react. You do seem to be the exception to most rules. But those patients are rare indeed. You can't get the injection forever, because even though they can alleviate pain the damage of movement of the hip is still deteriorating it, even though you are not as conscious of it due to lack of pain.
I'd say, and you know I am not a docotor, hike to your heart's delight, but make someone else carry the backpack, do it with a cane and pack emergency pain meds, just in case you do fall. Also, be sure you get a phone with a GPS so they can find you if you get stuck. I'd miss you greatly!
I really wish I was hiking along side you. The next place I would go is New Zeland to study the aboriginees. (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, I just don't care anymore).
Smiles and warm wishes, Gina.
Canary
Thank you so much for adding this exclamation note to your caution.
I am in the US -- West (by God!) Virginia, so most of my hiking is in the Appalachians. We do have some regional differences -- Southern W.Va. (called "the coal fields") has a lot of these ice age constructed "hot knife through butter" ridges and valleys (called "hollers" by the natives.) Hiking down there has been off my list for years now.
My hip (and knee) issues are complex. My long-suffering PT (he keeps treating me, I get better -- then I'm back,) has stressed to me that whenever I get into my lurchy Trendelenberg Gait that I am doing further damage to the hip with every step. For the past several months now each and every step is lurchy so I do as little walking as possible. Some days I get out the crutches -- though the required forward stance of their use tends to make the hip worse -- so whats the use?
I walk as little as possible while still leading a normal life. I have inched up, bit by bit, on the naprosyn pills until I am now at full 3 x a day dose. I know that mixing naprosyn and warfarin is playing with fire and my primary goal of the shot is to back off or eliminate the naprosyn.
So my primary goal is not to hike the 18 mile Big Beechy loop again -- but to go to Krogers and walk my dog in the morning (Hubby -- bless his heart! He never wanted the dog -- is walking her other times in the day.) without relying on the naprosyn.
I am blessed in that riding my bike is actually beneficial. Yesterday I rode 17 miles though Kanawha City (an upscale residential neighborhood) with friends. There is a gated (no motorized vehicles) 17 mile road beside the Cranberry Wilderness which I plan to bike along later this spring. And we also have a 3 day, 77 mile Greenbrier River Trail trek planned in June.
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