Thread: Shingles Vaccine ?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I have always been averse to getting vaccines, taking medication. @ 65 I don't have to take anything and I am very grateful for that. I have friends my age who take a dozen pills daily. When the flu vaccine first became the rage our government encouraged everyone to get the vaccine for the swine flu. Back in the '70s IIRC. My then wife and I didn't go for it. Shortly thereafter some people who did died.

Needless to say, I guess, I didn't get flu shots, pneumonia vaccines, or anything else for years. The only time I went to a doctor was if I had broken bones, or needed stitches, and I didn't always go then. Seriously. Anyhow, when I was 64 I got pneumonia. Laid around at home for a week feeling like I was going to die and afraid I wouldn't. I finally got up and drove to a nearby walk in emergency clinic that we see on street corners nowadays.

That is a story in itself but I won't weary you with that. I got the requisite meds, recovered from the pneumonia, went out and got the flu shot @ $25.00 and followed that with the pneumonia shot at $125.00 my dime. Now I'm on Medicare so most of this stuff is less costly or even free. I am a believer in vaccines now. So I wrestled with getting this damned shingles vaccine. My insurance didn't cover it at the time the doc recommended it. Nearby sources were $225.00 USD. By the time I did decide to get it the insurance covered all but $95.00 so that was better.

The $ weren't the only issue. The great preacher Jonathon Edwards, considered that greatest American religious philosopher, died @ 56 after taking a smallpox vaccination in the 1700s. He contracted the disease instead of being protected from it. Maybe that is a stretch but I knew about that and imagined getting this live virus and you know Murphy's Law .... if something can go wrong it will. So I awoke this morning after a good nights sleep and feel well. All is well that ends well.

Back in those days medicine was in it's infancy and taking a vaccination was a dance with death because you were injected with the actual live virus. However, since so many contracted Smallpox and the mortality was so high it was a gamble thought to be worthwhile.

These days most of these shots use synthetic DNA or dead virus so side reactions are more if someone is allergic to the media the thing was made in like folks who are allergic to eggs and they use that for flu shots.

It's sad these days people believe rumor and refuse to get shots for previously common conditions thinking it will harm them. A great example is that gal who refused to get her kids vaccinated for Polio thinking it causes issues. She based her belief on some MD in England whose research was completely discredited. Many folks these days are so removed from the medical afflictions that decimated human populations in the past they have no idea. These bugs are still out there just waiting for their opportunity to strike again.

Yea, not only are these diseases still out there they are making a come back simply because people choose, for whatever reason, not to follow a standard course of immunization. There is plenty of commentary on this Anti-vaccination movement means preventable diseases making a comeback | Globalnews.ca .

Bob

I haven't really followed it, but I know that some people have said their kids became autistic due to vaccinations. Not sure if there is anything to it but I can understand it giving parents pause. I come from the '50s when the vaccinations saved us from polio, diphtheria, whopping cough, measles, all kinds of bad stuff. Back then people still trusted government. Not so much anymore.

Polio was the worst back in the 50s,vaccinations for it and measles was mandatory for all school children,you could not opt out.

Smallpox and whooping cough before that.

I read recently that smallpox killed between 300 and 500 million people in the 20th century. It was declared eradicated in 1979. Whooping cough (pertussis) still kills 300,000 people each year, largely due to lack of adherence to vaccination recommendations. there's an outbreak in California right now. Very sad, since it is hardest on children.

Flu shots are important as the strains change every year.
Now that I am older I get them (free thru medicare).
Life is funny,I have never had the flu,maybe three bad colds in my life (am 66)
Couple broken Bones is all.
Never have had a pyhsical,never a chest xray,never any blood work done (I worked In the med field for 43 yrs)
Someday I will die of something,only my maker knows when and how.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I haven't really followed it, but I know that some people have said their kids became autistic due to vaccinations. Not sure if there is anything to it but I can understand it giving parents pause. I come from the '50s when the vaccinations saved us from polio, diphtheria, whopping cough, measles, all kinds of bad stuff. Back then people still trusted government. Not so much anymore.

That foolishness about vaccinations supposedly causing autism has been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked by very rigorous studies. Jimmy, as you say, you lived through a time when vaccines clearly saved countless lives from such scourges as polio. Unfortunately, a few very vocal, misguided celebrities started one of the greatest unfounded mass hysterias of our time, and some nasty diseases are making a comeback as a result

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

That foolishness about vaccinations supposedly causing autism has been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked by very rigorous studies. Jimmy, as you say, you lived through a time when vaccines clearly saved countless lives from such scourges as polio. Unfortunately, a few very vocal, misguided celebrities started one of the greatest unfounded mass hysterias of our time, and some nasty diseases are making a comeback as a result

Don't get me started on all these new childhood syndroms,the vast majority are caused (if they actually exsist) by two working parents who stick the kids in daycare for 5 yrs before they actually go to school,than by the 7th grade they hang out in the malls all day drinking slurrpys and wgt 300 lbs..
The reason some nasty stuff is comming back is because kids do not get dirty anymore,they have weak immune systems.
Kids that are raised on farms have no where near the maladys that city kids have.

As a kid I had mumps, measles, chicken pox. As an adult I have been very lucky.
A shingles shot was advertised at a local pharmacy about a year ago for about $20 so I got it and I annually get a flu shot.
I didn't know there was a shot for pnemonia but know that I know I am going to get one.
For 4-5 years the doctor said I should take a pill for diabetes my blood pressure was a little high too.
Well, I am not one for taking pills so I ignored the doctors advice.
About a year ago I started to have some strange tingling in the toes of my right foot that would come and go but was rather painful at times. When my last annual physical was due the foot was troubling me again so I told the doctor about it and he did a nerve test and found that I have nerve damage to both feet. He was blaming the high blood sugar that I had ignored.
A few months before that I almost lost my younger brother from a combination of extremely high blood pressure and a very high blood sugar. He went partially blind from that episode and it got my attention to say the least.
Now I take pills for blood sugar and high blood pressure too.
I still dispise the idea of having to take those pills but the effects of not taking them trump the pain in the arse of having to take them.
I wish they had a pill to slow down the aging process as well as one to improve short term memory, but I suppose I would forget to take it anyway.
I'm 62, sometimes I feel like 82, but I still want to do everything as well as I could at 42.

Originally Posted by Galaxy51

I'm 62, sometimes I feel like 82, but I still want to do everything as well as I could at 42.

It is hard to accept the diminishing physical, and mental, capabilities of advancing age. I was at a weekly Bible study awhile back and was telling someone how I had gone over the handlebars trying to take a log out in the woods. Landed on my side with my elbow under my ribs and it hurt bad.

A lady overheard and asked me if she heard right, that I went over the handle bars ? I said yeah, sure did. She said, "Don't you know you can't do what you use to do when you were younger ?" Well of course you can try, and sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you. I do know that healing up takes a lot longer, if it ever heals up.

They say 60 is the new 40 and we have to watch out we don't take that too seriously. I do believe that $100.00 is the new $10.00 ........ I see that everytime I go to the grocery store.