Should I get a shingles vaccine?

[Deanne]

I'm leaning towards "yes" after reading some of the old messages here about it. I asked my transplant cooridinator and she said it was up to me and warned me that I'll be put on a hold status for six weeks afterward since it's a live vaccine. It seems like now is the time to get it if I'm going to do it. I'm on hold right now anyway since I'm having my gallbladder removed next week. If you were vaccinated, did you have any problems with it?

[jeannea]

I had a transplant before that vaccine was available so I can't get any live vaccines. I don't know if you really need it but it's probably just a personal choice.

[Willis]

I didn't get the shingles vaccine (I'm on PD). Actually, I'm not sure I was offered that option. But my wife got shingles about 3 months ago. Her worst symptoms lasted about a month and she had severe pain. Then about a month after that I started breaking out with bumps (not regular pimples) and had itching that almost drove me insane. It was almost impossible to sleep and I was miserable.

I'm convinced that I had chicken pox. My neph kind of brushed it off and blamed the itching on elevated calcium and phosphorus levels. Now the labs were above normal but not that much higher than always. I wanted to have them test for chicken pox, but that would have meant a referral to an ID specialist and well, no, we'll just wait and see how it progresses... 

Whether it was chicken pox or shingles it's something neither my wife nor I want to go through again! Thankfully, I can now sleep through the night and the itching has mostly gone away.