Music For Medical Recuperation

[vinteuil]

There is music which is reputed to ward off illness, often associated with the cult of St Anthony

... a couple of years back I was struck down with shingles, a much nastier condition than the rather tame-sounding English word might suggest. The Italian for it is il fuoco di sant'Antonio - if you don't get the anti-virals early enough (and I didn't), the only mitigating therapies offered by Western medicine for postherpetic neuralgia aren't much more efficacious than praying to St Antony...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postherpetic_neuralgia

[richardfinegold]

Shingles can be incredibly nasty, particularly as one gets older. I had a few frail elderly die from it as they just became overwhelmed my the pain and debilitation. The vaccine can be a bit nasty for a day or two but is definitely worth it

[MickyD]

... a couple of years back I was struck down with shingles, a much nastier condition than the rather tame-sounding English word might suggest. The Italian for it is il fuoco di sant'Antonio - if you don't get the anti-virals early enough (and I didn't), the only mitigating therapies offered by Western medicine for postherpetic neuralgia aren't much more efficacious than praying to St Antony...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postherpetic_neuralgia

I got it in September and am still suffering because of my low immunity. Intercostal shingles is absolute agony, like constant sunburn and awful fatigue. I'm lucky to be treated in France by an "anti-douleurs" clinic, which has begun healing the shingles effectively. In France it's called "Zona".

[Barbirollians]

Richard may correct me but as I understand it the US vaccinates children against chicken pox which we do not even though a vaccine has been available for many a year on the basis that it is a mild childhood disease . Considering how horrible shingles is ( as is getting chicken pox as an adult ) I do not really understand this nor why they only offer the shingles vaccine to people I think between 70 and 79 .

[richardfinegold]

Richard may correct me but as I understand it the US vaccinates children against chicken pox which we do not even though a vaccine has been available for many a year on the basis that it is a mild childhood disease . Considering how horrible shingles is ( as is getting chicken pox as an adult ) I do not really understand this nor why they only offer the shingles vaccine to people I think between 70 and 79 .

I didn't realize that the UK did not vaccinate children against chicken pox.
You are exactly right in that the rationale provided for the vaccination was that it would decrease the morbidity of shingles as adults. We still vaccinate adults who have had the childhood immunization due to concerns that their immunity may be waning after the age of fifty.

[richardfinegold]

I got it in September and am still suffering because of my low immunity. Intercostal shingles is absolute agony, like constant sunburn and awful fatigue. I'm lucky to be treated in France by an "anti-douleurs" clinic, which has begun healing the shingles effectively. In France it's called "Zona".

Were you vaccinated against Shingles? Here it would have been one of the first priorities that your oncologist would have done prior to chemotherapy

[MickyD]

Were you vaccinated against Shingles? Here it would have been one of the first priorities that your oncologist would have done prior to chemotherapy

No, I wasn't. But what use is a vaccine when your immunity system is already low due to previous chemotherapy?

[Barbirollians]

No, I wasn't. But what use is a vaccine when your immunity system is already low due to previous chemotherapy?

As I understand it Micky can be very important hence the speed with which those with a cancer diagnosis were given the COVID 19 vaccination in the UK.

[richardfinegold]

As I understand it Micky can be very important hence the speed with which those with a cancer diagnosis were given the COVID 19 vaccination in the UK.

The short answer is that your immune system would have to be extremely damaged not make any antibodies in response to a vaccine. The vaccines are usually administered before or early in the initiation of chemotherapy

[MickyD]

The short answer is that your immune system would have to be extremely damaged not make any antibodies in response to a vaccine. The vaccines are usually administered before or early in the initiation of chemotherapy

Well yes it was, because I had already had large doses of chemo in 2020, then a blood graft in 2021. After 18 months this failed so I was then given immunotherapy treatment followed by Car T cell therapy. This has so far proved successful in keeping the cancer at bay but with everything that was thrown at me, yes, my immune system was very damaged and progress on that front is still very slow.

[richardfinegold]

Do you know which shingles vaccine you had? There are two. And they aren’t full proof; they decrease the risk but don’t eliminate it. And also even though you developed shingles and are suffering from it, you probably would have had a worse case without vaccination

[MickyD]

Do you know which shingles vaccine you had? There are two. And they aren’t full proof; they decrease the risk but don’t eliminate it. And also even though you developed shingles and are suffering from it, you probably would have had a worse case without vaccination

I didn't have a shingles jab at all, Richard.

[richardfinegold]

I didn't have a shingles jab at all, Richard.

I thought from your previous post that had been given one earlier in your course of treatment. So it’s not a vaccine failure, it’s a failure of your care givers to administer it , at least from my perspective

[MickyD]

To be honest, I had absolutely no idea until recently that there was a vaccine for shingles. But frankly I wouldn't want to criticise my doctors over it too much when they have worked such miracles for me. From aggressive stage 4 lymphoma (when I thought that all was lost) to total remission is quite something.

[richardfinegold]

Perhaps t might be the standard of care in France not to administer shingles vaccination to oncology patients . Here it would be a major lapse