[I.Greyhound Fan]

Thanks PDR, getting the vaccine is a very smart thing to do. The pain from the shot is nothing compared to the pain of the disease. Make sure you get the most upto date vaccine.

Just got back from the doctors with another round meds.  9 different prescriptions over the last 12 days, not including 4 different over the counter meds, and home remedies like colloidal silver, ACV, warm salt water etc.

I might also suggest taking a look at your diet. Weak immunity opens the door for this and a whole host of other ailments. Too much sugar will sabatoge the immune system. Eat well, exercise and drink lots of water. Coffee, tea, juice etc don’t count.

Wind Chaser, the best thing to do  for future mouth sores is to get a prescription for Valtrex and start it right at the onset of the mouth ulcers.  These antiviral drugs do not work well after the first 48 hours of the onset of shingles or herpes simplex infections.  Ask your doctor for a prescription so that you have it on hand.  Antiviral drugs will lessen the severity and shorten the course by 1-3 days or so.

Controlling the pain of herpes infections is very difficult because it is nerve pain and one of the hardest to treat.  Medical Marijuana is very effective in treating Neuropathic pain such as Neuropathy and may be of benefit.  Bear in mind that many drugs like Gabapentin, Tegretol, Lyrica, Effexor, Cymbalta and even Marijuana take a few days to  work.  Gabapetin works but it takes time to get up to the effective dose.

Bear in mind, nothing will take the pain completely away.

As you have discovered, narcotics do not work well for this type of pain.

Best of luck,

Larry

[bummrush]

Yep. I asked doc awhile back and he said wait til this new one comes out.He said it's better. Wish I would have remembered the other day when I saw him.

[Randy]

I never contracted ChickenPox (or any other childhood diseases). My younger sister had them all, though. I'm not anti-vaccine but without the pre-conditon I don't expect to see shingles in my lifetime.

I do take Flu shots, they are a covered drug / procedure in my province, you can usually just pop into any Pharmacy and get one at your convenience, but they also have public clinics in the fall and of course your doctor can give you one.

Not having had ChickenPox increases your chances of getting shingles.  Recovering from Chicken Pox gives you some immunity, esp. if you have it after childhood. I got it when I was over 30, and literally almost died with it, but it gives me good immunity to shingles. That said, however, I will definitely get a shot of the new vaccine.

[Randy]

Being a doctor, I see shingles 3-4 times per month. It is very painful for most people.  But the big issue with Shingles is that you can get the extremely painful Post Herpetic Neuralgia (Shingles which is the same virus as chickenpox is a herpes virus).  Post Herpetic Neuralgia (PHN) is where you end up with chronic nerve pain when the flare up of shingles resolves.  It is very debilitating and very difficult to treat.  Just imagine chronic daily sharp, stabbing, burning and electric like pain for the rest of your life. The new vaccine is not a sham and it works.

Regarding the Flu vaccine, it does work but its effectiveness varies from 15% to about 60% from year to year.  I see about 300 patients with influenza a year.  Most people that I saw with the Flu who have had the vaccine are not nearly as ill as those that did not.  In addition, of the 160  or so children that died from the Flu this year, 85% of them did not receive the vaccine.  In 31 years as a physician, I have only had the flu once and that was back in 1993 when I did not get  the flu vaccine.

I am not going to get into a heated discussion about drug companies and the CDC, NIH and physicians, but we are not owned or in bed with the drug companies.  We get no kick backs or incentives for using vaccines or drugs.  I have worked with hundreds of physicians and my brother who was a physician and not one took kick backs or were even offered them.  Hell, if I was getting kick backs, I would have retired 20 years ago as would all of my physician friends.

Best Regards,

Larry

Thanks for your post and for talking sense.  The anit-vaccine, anti-drug company, and even anti-doctor campaigns have done a lot of harm to Americans.

[Wind Chaser]

Thanks for your post and for talking sense.  The anit-vaccine, anti-drug company, and even anti-doctor campaigns have done a lot of harm to Americans.

Yes, that is true. But there is a very good reason for that. I don't recall the stats but prescription filled  pharmaceuticals kill small cities worth of people every year.

Still I take them because suffering is the only guaranteed alternative.

50 years ago we put a man on the moon but we still don't know how to make medication with out a long list of caveats.

[BobRex]

Not having had ChickenPox increases your chances of getting shingles.  Recovering from Chicken Pox gives you some immunity, esp. if you have it after childhood. I got it when I was over 30, and literally almost died with it, but it gives me good immunity to shingles. That said, however, I will definitely get a shot of the new vaccine.

Are you sure about that?  From what I remember, the Shingles virus attacks cells that have remnants of chicken pox in them.  I've always been told that if you had chicken pox, you are a candidate for shigles, not the other way around.