OT - Vaccine Reaction

My wife recently got shingles and we were both ruing the fact that we had not gotten the shingles vaccine. We've always been vaxxers so this was laziness rather than avoidance.

Anyway, I decided to be a good boy and get started on the 2-shot series. Turned out to be a semi-disaster for me. A few hours after getting the shot I was exhausted and went to be early. Then woke up to go to the bathroom and was overcome by extreme dizziness and nausea. Next thing I know I'm projectile vomiting; then I fainted. Unfortunately I hit my hard head on a wall when I fell, causing a mild concussion. So my wife called 911, I had an ambulance ride and then spent 18 hours in the hospital being tested for everything possible. But the ER docs were pretty positive that I was one of the unfortunate few who had a rare serious adverse reaction to the vaccine. So I guess that tail of the bell curve does happen! In fact the docs said people would be very surprised if they know how many old people showed up in the ER with problems from the COVID vaccine or shingles vaccine.

I'm definitely not trying to stir up any anti-vax sentiment; rather just telling my tale of woe. But I won't be getting the second shot...LOL.

Jim

Ouch. I had the series about 5 years ago. The first felt like the flu for a couple of days. The second was much worse and I just laid around for about 3 days. I was told the reaction to the second is often more significant than the first so I understand your hesitance.

I did have shingles several years prior and it was no fun. Thankfully, I caught it within 24 hours and received effective treatment to reduce the severity. I suggest you understand very well the symptoms and get to the doc immediately. There is only a 72 hour window where the anti-viral medication can be used effectively.

Jim, Just points out that every medication, treatment, vaccine etc. comes with some risk of undesirable side effects. In February ‘21 when Covid Vaccines were just becoming available I had a similar experience. My wife and I had just gotten our second shots on a Wednesday after having no significant reaction to the first. On Thursday (next day) just following lunch my wife heard a crash in the kitchen that was so loud she thought I had pulled over the refrigerator. Coming into the kitchen she finds me unconscious on the kitchen floor. She saw white bubbles on my lips and knew I was breathing. She thought I was having a seizure or stroke and called 911.

When the medics arrived all they knew was they had an unconscious old man with an unobserved fall and loaded me in an ambulance. With Covid raging my wife was not permitted into the hospital and was told to go home and they would be in touch by phone. Later the hospital called her to say I was “in the air” and being life flighted to a larger hospital with a trauma unit since I had serious brain bleeds.

It turned out that the previous day’s Covid shot created an elevated body temperature and dilation of my blood vessels and a sudden drop in blood pressure resulting in me suddenly fainting. The fall caused the brain bleeds. In total I was evaluated by three different hospitals with two having brain trauma units and all came to this same diagnosis. Oh…btw the white bubbles I was blowing when my wife found me on the kitchen floor turned out to be from the spoon of ice cream I still had in my mouth when I fainted. Still amazes me that someone can faint that quickly and without warning. I did get my next Covid boosters exercising extreme caution. I’m not an anti-Vaxer; but, more respectful of those who choose to be.

I had a bit of a time finding a place where I could get the shingles vaccine....Ended up at Walgreens.

BUT, I was a month or two short of my 60th birthday and couldn't get the shot without a prescription..... I could have easily gotten the prescription but decided to wait it out.

It was a LONG Wait.... but I made it.

I only got the original vaccine. I think I turned 60 three years before the new one came out and just simply never got it.

I had the two shingles shots a couple years ago. Zero side effects from either shot. None. I sometimes think that some sort of side effect would indicate the body reacted to the vaccine, therefore predicting better success from it. But, probably not for some of the reactions I’m reading here.

Jim, sorry you had such a bad reaction to the shingles vaccination. You were smart to get it considering how painful the symptoms from shingles can be. How were you to know in advance that you were allergic to the vaccine. All of the ads on TV for treatments to various ailments say for us not to take it if we are allergic to the treatment. They should say don’t take the treatment if you had a reaction the first time. How are we to know if we haven’t tried it first. Most of the ads today for treatments have warnings that are book length of bad reactions. It is sobering to think that the treatment can be worse than the ailment. With that said, my wife and I are fully vaxed with fingers crossed that we don’t react next time we get a vaccination with your unfortunate symptoms.
My best wishes,
Jack

Ken, if you actually had shingles you may have some immunity to another outbreak, but it is still possible as I understand. Did your doc biopsy the skin to confirm shingle? And if you are worried about the reaction to the two stage shingrix vaccine, you could ask about the single stage vostavax vaccine that has a lesser expected reaction. As I understand, vostavax needs repeating every so often where the shingrix routine is more permanent.

Good call Jim. Only option is the Shingrix in the USA. Thanks for the correction.

Jim thanks for those words. I guess ill talk to my PCP

Holy Smokes, Jim, that is quite a reaction you got. Hope you have no longterm consequences from this. I'm in a drug company clinical trial of an mRNA bird flu vaccine. Wish me luck.