Soulmates are eager to reconnect Can you actually catch shingles?
Dear Amy: I’m a 50-year-old freelance graphic designer. My income has completely dried up, and so I recently moved in with my mother (Dad died nine months ago).
My ex-wife is in a serious relationship. She lives a halfhour away from me. Our youngest daughter, 17, is special needs and lives with her most of the time. I get our daughter every other weekend and every Wednesday. She will start staying with me an extra day each week (Tuesdays).
My girlfriend lives two hours away in New York City and just got a full-time job. She has a sister in the city that she cannot move away from.
My girlfriend and I don’t see how we can maintain any type of relationship with the responsibilities I have with my youngest daughter.
At this point in my life, I don’t want to lose my soulmate! Do you have any suggestions? — Devoted
Dear Devoted: You have experienced several very important transitions over the last year: your father’s death, your own professional reversals, your decision to move back home and your new co-parenting plan.
Life tends to happen in overlapping stages.
I suggest that if you are financially able, you should not make any sudden moves, and devote this next six months to your family relationships, staying where you are and concentrating on your duties as a father and a son. Your girlfriend is starting a new job; she will need to devote time and attention to her career. If you are living two hours from New York, you should be able to visit her for long weekends. You can get the lay of the land and make a longer-term plan.
Your daughter will soon be of an age where her choices and options will change, and you should be close by to help guide her through.
Dear Dr. Roach: I am hoping you can clarify a lot of conflicting information regarding shingles. I know it is contagious, but can you actually catch shingles from a person?
During an outbreak, how does a caregiver protect himself or herself from catching the virus? Does the chickenpox vaccine make a person more vulnerable to shingles at an earlier age? Is the shingles vaccine effective for people over age 60? — J.L.
Shingles is a recurrence of the chickenpox virus, which lies dormant in every person who has had chickenpox or the live chickenpox vaccine. Shingles is nowhere near as contagious as chickenpox, but it is contagious to people who are not immune.
Natural infection from chickenpox or the vaccine makes a person immune. Two doses of the vaccine are about 94% effective in conferring immunity. Thus, a few people who got the vaccine might still catch chickenpox after exposure. Most adults in the U.S. are immune. Professional caregivers are encouraged to have immunity proven by blood testing and to be vaccinated if not immune.
People who had the chickenpox vaccine as children are actually LESS likely to develop shingles in the future. This makes sense because the vaccine is a weakened strain. Nonetheless, the new shingles vaccine (Shingrix) is recommended for people whether or not they received the vaccine, and whether or not they recall an episode of chickenpox.
In the two trials of Shingrix, 13% of the study participants were over 80, and the vaccine had the same effectiveness in this older group. Those over 90 were not reported separately. The vaccine is recommended for people age 50 and over. Adverse reactions were less common in those who are older (over 70), so I would still likely recommend a shingles vaccine