A friend of mine recently got shingles, and it looked so painful and unpleasant that I’ve decided to bite the bullet and fork out to get vaccinated early.
The government will pay for you to get the two injections after the age of 65, but before then, you have to pay for them yourself. It costs around 6 or 7 hundred dollars, which is quite a barrier, but the consequences of the infection are so bad that I’m happily paying it. Not only that, there is significant evidence that it protects against dementia, so it’s a no brainer for me (there’s a joke in there somewhere, but I haven’t found it yet.)
Another friend has recently made the same decision, and she was telling me about it yesterday. The nurse had warned her she would start to feel dreadful about 24 hours after her injection, and so it had been for her. Tired and achy, she took some Panadol and went to bed early.
I got my vaccine after work yesterday. Interestingly, the nurse didn’t give me any guidance with a time line for side effects, she was more interested in the fact that I was Simon’s wife (it was at his GP practice). It’s now midday the next day, and I feel OK so far, apart from a sore bicep. I’m in theatre doing one very long case, a post cancer breast reconstruction, which still has some hours to go. Am I going to feel dreadful before we’re done, or am I going to last until I get home and can get to bed early? Or am I going to get away with it with no symptoms, like my COVID vaccinations? Who knows! Exciting!