Tuesday, September 14, 2021

A Rather Unpleasant And Unforecast Vaccine Interaction

My mother-in-law at 85-years-old, plus health issues, is in the cohort that is rather vulnerable to the more dangerous effects Covid.  

Since she lives in Canada it took for-bloody-ever to get her a vaccine. 

Canadian health care is a mess at the best of times.  

Now it's even worse.  Getting to see a doctor promptly is well-nigh impossible with lengthy delays and even then many are just doing telemedicine which really doesn't help much.

Well, she finally got her shots and then a few weeks later got a rash, which became an even more painful rash and fever, fatigue, and headaches.

It took two weeks since the rash began to get her in to see a doctor and the diagnosis is shingles.  She has had them before so she didn't get them from anyone else. The shingles virus can apparently hang around in your system kept in check by your immune system.

Apparently, per the doctor that examined her, the Covid vaccine depressed her immune system enough for the shingles to break through.  Did not know about this at all before, but apparently it is a known possibility.

 So far she's doing ok, but certainly not comfortable.

So if you have had shingles in the past, there is a possibility you'll get a shingles breakthrough after getting your Covid shots.    At her age and health Covid is likely more dangerous than shingles, but knowing that was a possible interaction would have been good to know so she could have gotten care earlier.  

So if you get the Covid vaccine and have had shingles in the past, be on the alert for a possible rash and get treatment for shingles earlier rather than later.  Not fun.

5 comments:

Midwest Chick said...

The concerning part, really, is that the doctor indicated that the covid shot depressed her immune system, allowing for shingles to present.

I hope she feels better quickly!

Eck! said...

Here the docs have been banging the get your shingles vaccine
for anyone over 50 for years. Also the pneumonia vaccine too.

The re-occurance for shingles is not rare!

I've know several people that had it. Its common as: if
you had chicken pox you have shingles virus in you.


Eck!

Aaron said...

Midwest Chick: Yep, per the doc it did at least while she was reacting to the vaccine so shingles could then get through, Apparently this is happening and not a rare instance. She's now at least got some meds for shingles and the discomfort which is good.

Eck!: Yep, she had the shingles vaccine previously but apparently shingles has been known to bust through the shingles vaccine if you've had shingles before. Once I'm of age to receive it, I expect I'll get the shingles vaccine before it happens to prevent it.

Old NFO said...

Ouch! Hope she recovers quickly!

ProudHillbilly said...

Yes - the "depressed immune system" means she's vulnerable to other things.