SHINGLES!!

Shirlann · March 2012

A lot of women end up with Shingles, if you had chicken pox as a child. Your immune system is compromised. Well, they have a VACCINE!!! Before chemo or rads, get this shot, it can save you weeks of pain and suffering.

Gentle hugs, Shirlann

LuvRVing · March 2012

I agree. I got the vaccine the day after my first diagnosis. Shingles just adds insult to injury.

FireKracker · March 2012

bump

Leah_S · March 2012

If you've already had tx or are currently having tx, ask your onc what he recommends. I finished chemo in April 2009 and I'm currently taking Femara and Aredia (I have bone mets) and my onc said no live virus.

Otherwise, it's a good cautionary measure.

Leah

IllinoisNative · March 2012

I wish I did this prior to treatment. Chemo not only brought out shingles with me, I broke out with TWO cold sores. My immune system was non-existent. If there was something dormant in me, it came out during chemo. lol

diana50 · March 2012

does the shot help you if you have chronic shingles? any info would be helpful. i have had shingles for years since my treatment. i take valtrex....daily...but still get outbreaks.

SusanHG · March 2012

Funny to find this thread. I went to the doc today because I thought i had shingles (I am almost 10 months post-rads). She said I have all the pain symptoms, but my rash looks more fungal. I don't have blisters, I have tiny pimples with no fluid, and only about eight of them over the area under my breast (lower rib cage). Also, my red stripe is just solid red (no blisters--like a burn almost) under my good breast, more in the crease, so probably fungal. Went on a 5 day course of steroids a month ago and came down with the red stripe a week after finishing. Anyone have shingles without the typical rash? I think the pain pattern I'm feeling is also gallbladder, so if I have no luck with the meds, I will investigate to give myself piece of mind at least, even though I already been dx. with a dysfunctional gall bladder.

FireKracker · March 2012

Diana50---I never heard of chronic shingles...that looks like what you have...wow I feel your pain.I had shingles way before bc.it was in my eyes and i was hospitalized for 5 days.It is very catching therefore i was in a special room alone.not even the nurses would come into my room.

when I got dx with bc i took the shingle shot.You cannot be in active tx.and get the shot you have to wait about 2 months.My Dr told me I WOULD NEVER GET SHINGLES AGAIN ONCE I TOOK THE SHOT.

and yes you can get it over and over again....

A second opinion would be a great option....No one should suffer like that!!!!!!That pain is worst than labor pains.Im sooo sorry you are going throu this..i wish you pain free days.huggs K

diana50 · March 2012

thanks granny dukes. i didn't have shingles until i finished treatment...they started like a year after chemo and rads. i take a gram a valtrex every day which seeems to keep the virus more tolerable. i have pain but mostly when i have an outbreak i just feel like i have the flu. cancer; the gift that keeps on giving. thinking i will get another opinion on the shot. the shot is putting the virus in your body so you can develop antibodies; i alrealy have the virus in my body. hah Cool

yikes*

Galsal · March 2012

What a bummer to hear this has been happening for you all! A question, if you will?

Is there an age similarity with those of you experiencing this as might be common with Shingles or is this willy-nilly from the chemo?

Thanks,

Sally

diana50 · March 2012

i believe my shingles are from chemo/rads/treatment. some people get shingles during trreatment (which i didn't) and some get them after treatment. i was 49 when diagnosed with cancer and 52 when the shingles started coming on. maybe it is all related. age and treatment. my white count was pretty much destroyed during the clinical trial i was in for cancer.

SusanHG · June 2012

Hi all! I figured I would post again to see if anyone else out there is having a problem with chronic shingles. I did not have chemo, just 35 txs. of radiation. My neurologist just put me on a daily acyclovir because my shingles just won't stop coming on. i have had three outbreaks since the end of February (yesterday was my one year anniversary for finishing rads). Most of my outbreaks have been on different areas of my chest but on the opposite side from rads. My most recent was higher up on the bottom of my neck (c8). Feeling better now and hoping to get off the gabapentin that I am taking for pain. Anyone else problems with shingles who would like to chime in?

Susan

Blessings2011 · June 2012

Boy, this would be really good info for newly-dx'd newbies.

The day after my BC dx, my PCP insisted on giving me the shingles vaccine, because we didn't know what my treatment would be, and he said that once I started, I wouldn't be able to get the shot.

I'm so glad he did that. I watched my mom and my aunt suffer from shingles. Sooo painful!

proudtospin · June 2012

Blessings, I like the way your doc thinks. Mine had wanted me to get the shot for a while but I was not 60 at the time and did not want to pay for it out of pocked

flash forward, 6 months after finishing rads, I get shingles just as I was leaving for a vacation...on boat...of the coast of maine~~~I suffered through the trip and ran to my doc for treatment as soon as I got home

then when cleared by my onco I got the shot

note, my brother has hodgkins and has what I guess would be called called chronic shingles and I know he takes the meds as part of his...life

Jomama2 · June 2012

Shingles is what brought me to the doctor's office in the first place, setting off a chain of events which resulted in a lumpectomy & SNB w/side of radiation. I thought a band of spiders had gone to town on my derrierre (sp?)...but it turned out to be a small outcropping of shingles. I was thinking about asking if I should get the vaccine, but I don't know if it would be effective...should someone who has already had an outbreak get it?

Blessings2011 · June 2012

proudtospin - I really like my PCP, and I think he was spot-on with that recommendation.

Jomama2 - Yes. You can get the vaccine if you've already had shingles. It can help prevent future outbreaks, as well as post-herpetic neuralgia (that awful nervy pain that doesn't go away.)

Here's the CDC info:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/shingles/vacc-need-know.htm

(Just thinking about the band of spiders going to town on your derrierre!!!! Surprised )

SusanHG · June 2012

My PCP will be giving me the vaccine after we know that they are gone. I am feeling much better now and hope if I stay on the antiviral for a little while, they will stay away. I just did a little research and I guess T-cell counts (the white blood cell that fights shingles) stays low for 10-11 years after radiation!!! Why they don't tell us these things, I'll never know...

SHINGLES!!

Comments

Categories