Really trivial stuff that bugs you

[Extravoice]

I got my second inoculation as early as I was allowed (in late February), specifically to try and beat the upcoming pandemic.
I had nasty chills and shivers that night.


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[Swift]

I got my second inoculation a month ago ... no side effects whatever.

However, on the first inoculation, I got a rash about a week-and-a-half later on the injected arm. It cleared up in a few days.

I had a similar experience: first inoculation I had the fatigue, aches, and "blah" for a day or so (I thought I was coming down with the pre-pandemic flu, until I realized it was a reaction to the shot), but very little reaction for the second one, just some ache at the injection site.

[Gillianren]

At least they let you get it--I have friends who have already had shingles and are younger than I am, but I'm too young for the vaccine.

[Extravoice]

I’m not sure in which thread this belongs, but TV advertisements that hint that the pandemic is over bug me. These are mainly from car manufacturers and hotel chains.
The road is not “open”. In fact I can’t even visit my home state without a 14-day quarantine.


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[Trebuchet]

At least they let you get it--I have friends who have already had shingles and are younger than I am, but I'm too young for the vaccine.

You might be able to get the older vaccine. Then again, did you ever have Chicken Pox? It's pretty much a prerequisite for shingles, I think.

[grant hutchison]

It is a prerequisite, but some people are asymptomatic or almost asymptomatic when they catch chickenpox, and some are infected in utero when their mothers develop chickenpox. So you sometimes encounter people with shingles who, as far as they know, have never had chickenpox. Rare, though.

Grant Hutchison

[Noclevername]

I got my first shingles shot a couple of weeks ago. Aside from a few days' sore arm, I had no symptoms.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

I got my first shingles shot a couple of weeks ago. Aside from a few days' sore arm, I had no symptoms.

Say WHAAA?

[Gillianren]

You might be able to get the older vaccine. Then again, did you ever have Chicken Pox? It's pretty much a prerequisite for shingles, I think.

Last I knew, you had to be fifty, and I'm not there yet. And, yes, I had chicken pox. My older sister was in second grade and missed her class field trip to the children's museum because of it. According to Mom, we actually had it spaced as far apart as you can to get it from one another--the day one of us stopped being contagious, the next sister got it. While I'm sure she was glad we didn't all get it at once, I'm equally sure that wasn't her ideal way of getting through it. And then there was an outbreak when my younger sister (who had been eighteen months old at the time!) was in preschool, and there was a day she was one of three kids in her class, because she was one of the only three kids with older siblings.

[grant hutchison]

Say WHAAA?

Well, that was unexpected.

Grant Hutchison

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Well, that was unexpected.

Grant Hutchison

I don't know if they have the same advertising campaign in the UK. But here they have several commercials of over fifties complaining that they had shingle and an announcer say it was preventable thru a vaccine and they all go, say WHAA.

[grant hutchison]

I don't know if they have the same advertising campaign in the UK. But here they have several commercials of over fifties complaining that they had shingle and an announcer say it was preventable thru a vaccine and they all go, say WHAA.

Ah. No we don't have that. No advertising for prescription medications in these parts. Also, no-one hereabouts actually says, "Say WHAA", so I can't see it flying very well with the target demographic.

Grant Hutchison

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Ah. No we don't have that. No advertising for prescription medications in these parts. Also, no-one hereabouts actually says, "Say WHAA", so I can't see it flying very well with the target demographic.

Grant Hutchison

They kind of annoy me.

But also lately trying to figure out if I should apply to work the elections coming up in a couple of weeks. Never had problems working for the federal elections but had problems with the last provincial ones.

[KaiYeves]

I was probably in the first age cohort vaccinated for chickenpox in the US (born 1993), and many other children in my preschool were not because their parents didn’t see chickenpox as a big enough deal to bother. There was a week in Pre-K where the majority of the class was out sick with it and I was one of the few still there.

[grant hutchison]

There's an interesting problem with chickenpox vaccination in childhood. Unless you can get very high compliance with the vaccination, you end up paradoxically seeing more people getting adult chickenpox, which carries a greater risk of death.
Another societal side-effect is that being regularly exposed to scabby children with chickenpox seems to reduce your lifelong risk of shingles, because your immune memory is restimulated each time you get another exposure to the virus.
For those reasons, the UK still doesn't do routine childhood chickenpox vaccination--we'll see how it goes in the USA and Japan for another decade or two, I think.

Grant Hutchison

[Trebuchet]

My late mother provided me with my chickenpox immunization: she tool me to a party with a kid who had it. In the summer, so I wouldn't miss school.
Thanks for the shingles, Mom.

[Noclevername]

My late mother provided me with my chickenpox immunization: she tool me to a party with a kid who had it. In the summer, so I wouldn't miss school.
Thanks for the shingles, Mom.

The gift that keeps on giving!

[Delvo]

How does this chickenpox-shingles connection work in the first place, anyway?

[Jens]

How does this chickenpox-shingles connection work in the first place, anyway?

IIRC, our bodies fight the virus and pretty much kill it off, but some viruses are able to sequester within some type of nerve cells. And when we get immunosuppressed for some reason, particularly ageing, they are able to reemerge locally or something like that. I may have the details wrong, though.

[Noclevername]

IIRC, our bodies fight the virus and pretty much kill it off, but some viruses are able to sequester within some type of nerve cells. And when we get immunosuppressed for some reason, particularly ageing, they are able to reemerge locally or something like that. I may have the details wrong, though.

The virus then spreads from subcutaneous nerve endings into the skin itself.

[grant hutchison]

So:
You can't develop shingles unless you've already had chickenpox.
You can catch chickenpox from a person with active shingles.
You can't catch shingles from a person with active chickenpox.

Grant Hutchison

[Delvo]

Does any other virus do the wait-&-reappear thing? I never heard of the concept before some TV commercials about shingles started claiming it was possible several years ago.

And what makes the symptoms different between the two rounds of the same virus?

[Van Rijn]

Does any other virus do the wait-&-reappear thing? I never heard of the concept before some TV commercials about shingles started claiming it was possible several years ago.

Yes, I’ve read Epstein-Barr (causes mononucleosis) can reactivate, and many people deal with various Herpes virus reactivations. It’s more likely if something (often age) weakens immune response. I am sure there are others. They are basically genetic code, after all (well, some are DNA based, others RNA). Some viruses incorporate themselves in our DNA, they make up a significant percentage of the “junk” DNA, have been part of it since before our species existed. I’ve even read about ancient viruses in our genome sometimes reactivating.

[Trebuchet]

Does any other virus do the wait-&-reappear thing? I never heard of the concept before some TV commercials about shingles started claiming it was possible several years ago.

And what makes the symptoms different between the two rounds of the same virus?

Chickenpox/Shingles is Herpes Zoster. The STD type of herpes also goes dormant and reappears. I'd guess the difference is when you get chickenpox it infects you all over then once in a while it reactivates in a particular nerve bundle. Other than that, both result in a painful itchy rash.

Some years ago I was picking up prescriptions at the pharmacy and the clerk gave me one intended for someone else. I saw on the label that it was Zosta-something. Poor guy, I thought, but better him than me!

[Trebuchet]

In the middle of the night, the smoke detector system briefly went off. I say "system" because there are five of them, all interconnected. I looked around the house to be sure and saw nothing.
Then I started hearing chirping. It was one of the detectors at the far end of the house, and quite loud if you were under it. I guessed correctly that it wanted a battery so did that first thing in the morning. I was fortunate to find a single 9V battery. After the change it kept doing it so I tried holding the test button down for a few seconds and that worked.
Now I need to go to the town and buy batteries for the rest!

[Van Rijn]

Chickenpox/Shingles is Herpes Zoster. The STD type of herpes also goes dormant and reappears.

Not just STD herpes. HSV-1 (herpes simplex virus 1) often causes blisters around the mouth and
can be transmitted by shared utensils and so forth. Many kids get it without doing anything that deserves a call to the police. There are also other types of herpes viruses but I don’t know much about their transmission.

[Trebuchet]

In the middle of the night, the smoke detector system briefly went off. I say "system" because there are five of them, all interconnected. I looked around the house to be sure and saw nothing.
Then I started hearing chirping. It was one of the detectors at the far end of the house, and quite loud if you were under it. I guessed correctly that it wanted a battery so did that first thing in the morning. I was fortunate to find a single 9V battery. After the change it kept doing it so I tried holding the test button down for a few seconds and that worked.
Now I need to go to the town and buy batteries for the rest!

Less trivial: I just found myself wondering where was the cat that's usually after me to groom her at this time. I found her cowering under my wife's vanity, crying. Apparently traumatized by the loud noise from the smoke detectors during the reset. Hopefully I won't have to do that on the other four.

[Extravoice]

In the middle of the night, the smoke detector system briefly went off.

It always happens in the middle of the night.


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[kpatz]

It always happens in the middle of the night.

And it's always the most inaccessible, or forgotten alarm that's causing it.

[Noclevername]

It always happens in the middle of the night.


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Or when you're out of batteries.