Shingrix Knocked Me Down

Back in May, I got my first of two Shingrix vaccinations in an effort to avoid developing Shingles.  Shingles, alone, is bad enough but an illness such as this would more than likely compound problems with my primary illness so I wanted to do whatever I could to avoid that situation.  The good news is that I had absolutely no reactions after my first shot other than a slightly sore arm for a day or two.  Other than the sore arm, I felt no different than any other day.  

After the first shot, you are supposed to get a second vaccination within two to six months.  I did that a week ago and, honestly, didn't expect any difference in the way of side-effects or reactions since my first shot was so unremarkable.  I was wrong.

I was told to expect flu-like symptoms...  that didn't really happen other than perhaps some initial body "aches".  The body aches very rapidly progressed to inflamed joints and inflamed nerves.  My joints felt like a red hot marble was injected into each joint.  Sharp pain resulted whenever I would attempt to use that joint or lean on that part of the body.

Then I started to get a headache. Any type of headaches are rare for me but these headaches felt more like my mild-TBI headaches from a few months ago except that these headaches were worse.  Nerves all throughout my body being inflamed progressively worsened too.  I've never had shingles but I imagine this nerve pain is what the shingles rash must feel like.  Unfortunately, I felt this throughout all my nerves throughout my body.  Between the headache, the joint pain and now the nerve inflammation, any little bit of walking was excruciating.  Just sitting was painful, so painful in fact, that I had difficulty sleeping.

Then Sheila came home from work on Day 1 and I tried to say something to her...  I knew exactly what I wanted to say but my mouth, tongue and vocal chords were not cooperating enough to form actual words.  Forming a sentence and pronouncing any words was difficult.

The following morning, Day 2, I noticed more cognitive issues including the inability to focus on anything.  I started my day seated at the piano, as usual (but it didn't last long), and eventually made my way to the computer to write to Sheila.  My biggest problem at the piano was the joint and nerve pain.  It was terribly distracting.  When I moved to the computer, trying to type out a message to Sheila seemed to be a skill I never learned!  My brain was telling my hands to type "Good morning!" and yet my hands typed out something indecipherable like"roinensk horoskale"...  backspace, backspace, backspace, etc...  I tried to slow down and tried again but typed nonsense like "wokdinf shsdlekrh"...  backspace, backspace, backspace, etc...  now I had to look down at the keyboard and start henpecking with one finger.  I could not remember a single thing about how to type yet, under normal circumstances, I type well above average.  

Days 1 through 3 were the worst.  The pain was brutal.  My nerves were still on fire throughout my entire body and my joints were painful.  My spine was on fire.  I couldn't sleep because of the pain.  I couldn't think clearly.  I was having difficulty communicating.  This was also affecting my cognitive abilities as well as motor skills.  

Days 4 and 5 were still lousy but better than days 1 through 3.  I'm now at Day 8 and I am finally beginning to feel more like myself on a "decent day" so that is good.  

Through all of this and not surprisingly, I also had worsening problems related to my primary illness.  My mast cells were not too happy about any of this and they were letting me know.  I was having difficulty with waves of nausea and dizziness.  I spent the week trying to balance my normal doses of medications with additional doses of medications and even some emergency medications.

What I can tell you is that saying that most patients get a side-effect of "flu-like symptoms" seems like a ridiculous exaggeration on the side of "no known side effects".  I did not feel flu-like by any stretch of the imagination.  That would have been welcomed had I had the option to swap my side-effect symptoms for them.  I feel more like I got slammed with a week of a mild case of Shingles that also affected cognitive abilities and motor skills.  

I've been told that some people feel worse after the first shot compared to their second shot.  Others feel worse after the second shot.  Some don't really get any side-effects.  Others do get some soreness and flu-like symptoms both times.  As far as what we experienced in our household...  Sheila had a few days of pain and achiness after her first shot and only a sore arm after the second shot.  I had nothing but a sore arm for a day or so after my first shot and then had side-effects in line with the shingles rash and inflammation covering my entire body lasting almost a week.  

Even considering how poorly my body handled the second shot, I'd still recommend this vaccine.  I'd much rather go through the week of side-effects than develop full-blown Shingles that lasts for months.  

In all fairness, I think I had such a difficult time with this due to two reasons.  First, I believe that my mild-TBI was affected by the vaccine causing some cognitive and motor skill issues.  I'm definitely not fully recovered from that mild-TBI.  Second, my mast cells are always easily affected by any unusual stimuli especially inflammation.  

It has been a painful and rough week but I'm definitely glad I now have been immunized against Shingles.