Is Kaiser your insurance company or the drug company? I guess guidelines have changed, and some insurance companies are covering it post-50... Perhaps you can check around?Quote:
Originally Posted by divingbiker
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Is Kaiser your insurance company or the drug company? I guess guidelines have changed, and some insurance companies are covering it post-50... Perhaps you can check around?Quote:
Originally Posted by divingbiker
Oh it is indeed miserable. Kaiser needs to read the newspapers because the age guideline was dropped just recently to 50. I'll see if I can find a link.Quote:
Originally Posted by divingbiker
I am going next week to get my shot. Thanks for the information!
That would be great. Not sure how to navigate the bureaucracy of Kaiser to get to the right person who can change the age cutoff, but it might be worth a shot.Quote:
Originally Posted by withm
And Kaiser is Kaiser Permanente, my HMO. Overall it is great--I've had the same fantastic endocrinologist for almost 20 years, which doesn't happen often in HMOs.
OK, here is the link from the FDA approving shingles vaccine at age 50:
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsro.../ucm248390.htm
And here is a blurb from WebMd:
http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-a...-age-50-and-up
If the vaccine really does work as reported, and prevents a few cases of shingles, that's all the better. Those that never get the disease will not fully appreciate how lucky they are. But all you have to do is look at images of shingles on the internet and I expect you'll be convinced pretty quickly that not getting it is a good thing. (Fortunately my blisters do not look that bad - yet. Then again I get terrible poison ivy every year so I'm used to blistering.)
Of course you can't photograph the pain, and I can't begin to describe the stabbing pain that seems to go straight through your body like a dagger. The nerve blocking drugs help a lot, but there is still considerable sharp pain and generalized achiness. It is not likely I'll be on my bike in the next week or two.
The Harvard Family Medical guide raises some questions about the vaccine, mostly about the cost and logistics of obtaining it. This piece is also from 2007 so it's probably out of date.
http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/up...-vaccine.shtml
I'd recommend doing your own research, talking with your Dr. about this. For myself though I'll be first in line to get the vaccine once my Dr. says I'm cleared up. Some websites suggest a few weeks after a shingles attack, but I found one that says to wait a year. Whatever - I'll do it.
Oh, and if you look at the shingles pix on the web... warning ... some are very gruesome, esp outbreaks on the face.
The change from 60+ to 50+ occurred because the company did a study with over 22,000 people in it (half getting the vaccine) and showed that it was safe and effective in a patient population between the ages of 50-59. The approval initially was based on a study in people over 60. The way drug approvals work is, you only get approval for the patient population you studied. So the company had to do another study in order to get approval for the vaccine in patients between 50-59. It wasn't pressure from Merck but actual data that got them the change in the label to include younger patients.
The FDA website contains information about the approval of drug and biologic products that the public can read.
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Biologi.../UCM249230.pdf
When a relative came down with shingles, that inspired me to get tested to see if I had immunity to chicken pox. I found out that I didn't, even though there was another case in my household when I was a kid, and you can get CP from someone with an active case of shingles if you didn't have CP already. So I got the CP (varicella) vaccine. It takes two visits, since the shots have to be given 28 days apart.
So if you don't think you ever had CP or aren't sure, you might want to look into that. CP is worse for adults than kids usually, and if you can avoid CP, you should avoid shingles later on. The CDC's info on both vaccines is available here:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/default.htm
I just tried to find a doctor to give me a shingles shot that is covered by my insurance - the insurance gave me a list:
Doctor #1 (in my area) works in a nursing home.
Doctor #2 and #3 do not give shingles shots.
the local pharmacy does not play well with my insurance. (but they give shingles shots)
so back to calling the insurance company.. (sigh)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/he...2shingles.html
Article in todays New York Times about the shingles vaccine, and the difficulty in actually getting the vaccine, drug shortages, etc.
OMG - shingles is by far the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. I continue to have post-herpectic neurolgia. My outbreak occurred Christmas of '09. It was across my back, along the bra line, under the insdie of my left arm going down towards my elbow and across my left breast. My doctor prescribed Valtrex, gave me some pain patches and Lyrica. I don't know if the Valtrex helped or not, my outbreak was very bad and I remember crying for three weeks.
My PCP states that the likelihood of getting shingles a second time is not that great. He also said that since I had the shingles I couldn't get the vaccine.
I see the advetising signs at Walgreens all the time offering the vaccine. I am so tempted to go in and get the vaccine. I don't care if I have to pay for it myself -- I don't ever want to experience that kind of pain again.
The post herpetic neurolgia (PHN) is bad, but no where near as bad as the shingles pain. The PHN seems to flare up when I'm under stress.
If you can avoid this horrible outbreak, do so by getting the vaccine.
I had shingles when I was 25. Didn't know it until I had a doc appt for something else and he said the rash was shingles and was surprised I hadn't come in 3 weeks earlier. I just felt flu sick for a couple of days and then had the lesions for about 3 weeks. I just figured the rash would go away and since I had been clearing the nasty weeds behind my house I thought they were bug bites.
I'm grateful it was a small outbreak and just stayed above my hips.
My first thought was I had a spider bite. Then when it grew, figured it was poison ivy, which I get pretty regularly. It didn't really look like PI, and was in a place that would be pretty difficult to get PI, not to mention that I had not done any gardening nor had I knowingly been near any PI recently. But when the nerve pain hit I knew something ain't right and went to the Dr. who readily diagnosed shingles. Now almost 4 weeks later, blisters are gone, but the nerve pain.... continues....Quote:
Originally Posted by Bethany1
ah withm get well soon.
I'm getting my shot tomorrow. A coworker's mother just got Shingles and she is scared to death.. We are going together to get our shots!
... the vaccine only has a 50-50 chance of working???
My dad had shingles and it was awful - I think he's still dealing with the pain, it's just dwarfed by the pain he has from other things right now. He's lucky that we were on vacation in Austria when it struck him and he was able to get great medical care to keep it from blinding him - even though changing his flight and going home early in that kind of pain can't have been much fun. But vaccines aren't without risk, and 50-50 just doesn't seem worth it to me.
what i read is if you get shingles after getting the shot it will be a much milder case. I'll hedge my bets!