You’ve probably seen the commercials about getting the shingles vaccine on TV. If you had chickenpox as a child (or as an adult), you’re at risk. The chicke
npox virus (varicella) remains in your body after the contagious rash and other symptoms are long gone. It mutates, nestles down somewhere in your body near a nice cozy bundle of nerve endings, and goes dormant. The commercials soberly show how painful and debilitating shingles can be.
As someone with rheumatoid disease, which makes me more than twice as likely to get shingles as a healthy person of my age in the general population, I’d sure like to bare my arm for that preventive vaccination!
But I can’t have it …
Read more at rheumatoidarthritis.net.
RheumaBlog 
Shingles is evil! It’s been three years since my bout with it and it’s only lately that the pain has disappeared almost completely. When I was in the throes of it the pain was excruciating. Since then, I’ve been taking vitamins B12, B6 and B1 per my PCP to control the pain. I notice if I miss taking them too many days in a row, the pain comes back, faint but noticeable. I advise all who can receive it to get the vaccine.
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I am taking low dose methotrexate, but still too young to get the vaccine as of yet – or so I’m told. I guess when it comes time to take that vaccine, it will depend on whether my MTX dose is still low enough to take it safely. The idea of shingles haunts me… don’t we have enough to worry about in RA without the threat of a dormant virus awakening? Hoping everyone is well.
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