I fear shingles jab gave me... shingles
QMY ARM has itched and ached ever since I had the shingles jab several years ago. Then in October, the pain travelled to my shoulder, making it very painful to move my arm.
It sometimes eases off, but always comes back. Tests have ruled out rheumatoid arthritis, and I fear the vaccine somehow gave me shingles.
AShingleS is a very common infection characterised by a red, blistering rash. Residual damage to the nerves and skin can leave people in pain for years after the rash has healed.
The vaccine — offered to those aged 70 and 78 — has been proven to reduce the risk of shingles itself and of long-lasting pain (post-herpetic neuralgia) in those who do develop the condition. i am sorry to hear of your predicament. There are two questions to answer here: can the vaccine lead to shingles, rather than prevent it? And is it possible to have shingles without its trademark rash?
The vaccine contains the shingles virus in a weakened form, and there are reports in medical journals of people developing shingles as a result of the jab — it is thought that, if the immune system is suppressed (by chemotherapy or dialysis, for example), the virus in the vaccine is, in rare cases, able to take hold.
i’ve also seen a handful of shingles patients who were unaware of a rash. Some may have had a rash so slight they did not notice it, while others had no sign of one at all — at least by the time i examined them.
interestingly, the pain you describe is not typical of rheumatoid arthritis, which usually affects both sides of the body, while post-herpetic neuralgia is always limited to one side.
if you do indeed have post-herpetic neuralgia, then potentially effective medication is available. i would urge you to discuss it with your doctor.
My advice to other readers is not to let this story put you off having the jab — it is a very rare risk and the benefits far outweigh any harms.
QI’VE suffered from nasal polyps since my teens. Despite several operations to remove them, they have stubbornly reappeared.
I’m told it is unusual to have them at my age — I’m 83 — and I wonder if they have their roots in a series of nasal drillings I had as a child, in a failed attempt to ease my asthma.
APeter Gill, Bude, Cornwall. nASAl polyps are soft, greyishwhite growths that form in the lining of the nose and sinuses, where they hang down like teardrops. They affect around one in 25 people and, while non- cancerous, can cause a range of unpleasant symptoms, including a runny nose, persistent stuffiness, a sense of pressure over the face and forehead and a lack of sense of smell — a tough sentence for you, lasting for more than 60 years.
Typically, nasal polyps are the result of the sort of chronic inflammation caused by allergies and sinusitis — this includes your asthma.
it may seem odd that asthma, which is primarily a lung condition, can affect the health of the nose, but the lining of the nose and sinuses, throat, windpipe and all the way down to the tiny air sacs in the lungs is composed of one continuous mucous membrane. As a result, anything that disturbs it, such as inflammation in the lungs, may cause symptoms anywhere along its length, including in the nose.
it’s unclear why some people with chronic sinusitis or asthma develop polyps and others do not, but there is evidence that the immune response is at play. Those with nasal polyps have extra-high levels of antibodies to toxins produced by staphylococcus — a bacterium that often lives in the nose. This outpouring of antibodies contributes to the inflammatory process that generates the polyps.
The mainstay of treatment is glucocorticoid (steroid) nasal drops or sprays. Surgery is considered if these fail to help. Most who have polyps removed see an improvement, but it’s common for them to grow back — as you are only too aware.
Taking this, and your asthma, into account, i do not think your polyps are a result of the ‘nasal drilling’ — i believe you’re referring to bilateral antral washouts, a technique that must have been horrific for a child.
it involves inserting a large, hollow needle as thick as a pencil lead, called a trocar, and a fine metal tube (a cannula) up the nose and through the eggshell-thin bone that separates the lining of the nose from the sinus. Saline is then flushed through the tube to wash away pus and mucus.
Typically, the nose is anaesthetised before such a procedure, which is still used today to treat chronic sinus infections. even so, it is more than a little unpleasant for the patient.