persia
newbie
I got Chicken Pox 50 years ago and haven gotten shingles.
I got Chicken Pox 50 years ago and haven gotten shingles.
I'm 80+. My family didn't keep records, so I'm not sure whether I contracted chickenpox as a child. But I have never had a vaccine & I haven't developed shingles (yet).
On another topic - I had a "flu" shot about fifty years ago. Immediately after, I got as sick as I have ever been (in bed & in a near coma for about ten days). Because of that episode, I have shied away from ever again getting another flu shot. It is also curious that I have not contracted the flu bug in the intervening time (Is it because of that one vaccination or am I just lucky, immune, or ???)
Tdap is what you are now looking for as an adult who will be around children. We got ours when our daughters started having children.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_the-tdap-vaccine-protecting-yourself-and-your-baby-from-whoo_10330333.bc
On another topic - I had a "flu" shot about fifty years ago. Immediately after, I got as sick as I have ever been (in bed & in a near coma for about ten days). Because of that episode, I have shied away from ever again getting another flu shot. It is also curious that I have not contracted the flu bug in the intervening time (Is it because of that one vaccination or am I just lucky, immune, or ???)
I have never gotten chicken pox and about 10 years ago I went ahead and got the chicken pox vaccine. Does anyone know if I should get the shingles vaccine?
Good question for your doc or health department. I would say no, because in order for you to get shingles, you need to have the zostavirus from a bout of chicken pox in your body waiting to be triggered into shingles. That said, I am no medical expert. Report back what you find out. In my generation, you weren't considered out of childhood until you'd had measles, mumps and chicken pox. It was a right of passage.
Jim
My mother on many occasions tried to get me to catch chicken pox from other children in school by rubbing my hands and arms against other children with chicken pox but I never caught it. 10 years ago, my PCP went ahead and tested me for antibodies and confirmed that I had never caught chicken pox. I will ask my PCP about the shingles vaccine...
You can't get shingles if you never had chicken pox, so you don't need to be vaccinated against shingles.
Fern
You can't get shingles if you never had chicken pox, so you don't need to be vaccinated against shingles.