New Shingrx Shingles Vaccine

With the first shot, I had a sore arm for 2 days and that was it. With the second shot, there was no arm soreness at all, but I had chills for 3 hours during the night. DH had no side effects at all with either shot. He's got a nerve! :( I guess it's true that misery loves company.
 
My DH got shingles but didn’t realize that he had it for about 4 days. Started very mild and progressed to his eye but no permanent damage. I am allergic to one of the ingredients.
 
I have been waiting for my CVS to get the vaccine for more than a month now. Anyone else seeing problems with shortages?
 
Got my first shot from the doctor's office this week, had arm soreness (a good bit) and some overall pain the first couple of days. Nothing that a couple of ibuprofen couldn't take care of.

My ACA plan (Ambetter) would not pay for the shot at any pharmacy, only by prescription from doctor.
 
I am 3 months past my series of two at Costco. As to side effects, the first had none, and the second might have caused a little soreness and redness in upper arm of shot site. It was basically no problem, such that I do not even remember it well.

My girlfriend had shingles when she was much younger, and her idea is get the damn shot, which I did and I am glad. She did also, and she had a little more reaction but she always reacts more strongly to immunizations, at least relative to me.

Ha
 
Z3Dreamer said:
Field report on my experience with the second Shingrix vaccine, yesterday. Very little pain at the shot. About 10 hours later, I began having chills. All my strength was gone. Went to bed. Had a fever all night. Every hour or so, I had to get up and empty the bladder. Each time after going poddy, I fell back to sleep right away. This went on for 13 hours. I never sleep 13 hours. Woke up at 10:15 AM with a massive caffeine withdrawal headache. That was easily fixed. I am OK, now. Today will be a low activity day.

First Shingrix shot had flu symptons but nothing this bad.

I believe it is still worth it, but just letting you know. Maybe you are not a weakling, like me.
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Have now fully recovered. IMHO the shots are still worth it. I was just letting folks know so they could "Hope for the best but prepare for the worst."

Side benefit. Weight was down a bit as I had little hunger for a 36 hour period.
 
Got 2nd shot today after 2+ months.

Pharmacist said there has been a vaccine shortage due to higher than expected demand, not underproduction vs. plan. Said it's expected to be corrected in July. The injection she gave me was the only dose they had in stock.

Maybe this has been discussed, but she said the dose is identical to the first. Also, one should expect about the same reaction as to the first one & that reactions are all over the map from next to unnoticeable to problems lasting a week. So I'm looking forward to a mildly sore arm the next 2-3 days.
 
gerntz said:
Pharmacist said there has been a vaccine shortage due to higher than expected demand, not underproduction vs. plan. Said it's expected to be corrected in July. The injection she gave me was the only dose they had in stock.
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I've been unable to get the first shot as everyplace I've called the last two months has been out of stock. They get the supply in about once a month and are immediately out again. I'm not willing to camp out at CVS to wait for the vaccine to come in.
 
timo2 said:
I've been unable to get the first shot as everyplace I've called the last two months has been out of stock. They get the supply in about once a month and are immediately out again. I'm not willing to camp out at CVS to wait for the vaccine to come in.
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I'd feel same way. While i'd be in a hurry to get it, camping out is over the top.

Arm a bit sore 12 hours later, but NBD.
 
DW and I just got our initial Shingrix shots on Monday. We got them at a WalMart pharmacy that was running low on supply but put our shots aside for us when we called to check stock.

My Medicare drug supplement plan is the cheapest I could get because I take no regular medication. It is essentially a placeholder to avoid future penalties. I had only met a few dollars of my $400 deductible on that plan so I had to pay the $160 out-of-pocket but ran it through the supplement plan to apply towards my deductible just-in-case.

My wife is on an ACA plan which is pretty bare-bones (all that's available where we live). She had called the insurance company to see if her shot would be covered and her expectation that it would not was confirmed by the rep on the phone. She took a Good Rx coupon for $153 to pay for her shot out-of-pocket since she had a huge deductible that she's very unlikely to reach. The WalMart customer service person who deals with the insurance suggested that she run my wife's insurance just to make sure. Lo and behold, her shot ended up being covered 100%. Go figure!

Which brings me to the fact that I was originally a little concerned about WalMart being my primary pharmacy. I have to say the I've been very pleasantly surprised! All of the personnel in our local WalMart pharmacy are very knowledgeable and very helpful. As a result I'm quite pleased with my Humana WalMart plan and will not hesitate to renew it.
 
littleb said:
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Tennessee covers the new shot age 50 and above. Either at in network dr or in network pharmacy. I suggest everyone call their insurance company before getting the shot.

Edited: My dr office nor local pharmacy have the vaccine yet and do not have an estimated date.
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I have to move to Tennesee. The cheapies in Massachusetts wait until 60!:mad:
 
PoorOldCountryBoy said:
I have to move to Tennesee. The cheapies in Massachusetts wait until 60!:mad:
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Do keep checking. My wife was told that her shot would not be paid for by her insurance company phone rep. When we got to the the pharmacy the person at the desk offered to run her insurance just in case and it was fully covered.
 
Wanted to get our second shots, but every pharmacy is out of stock. The local Walgreens put me on their list to be notified when they get some (we got our first shot at Costco.)

My insurance is changing this weekend - I hope the new one will pay for Shingrix as the old one did.
 
After seeing some posts on here about the vaccine shortage, I called our
Walgreen's last week to see if they had a supply so we could get our second shot there. They said No Problem. No shortage. We were busy the next few days with out of town guests. Went into Walgreen's today and they said they were out. The assistant said she remembered my phone call, and at that time they had no idea they would be experiencing a shortage. Pharmacist said to call back the end of the week. If they get some in, we should leave our names and they will hold 2 doses back for us.
 
Very annoying. My Rx has been at our CVS for 7 weeks now...and they still don't have any in stock. It took the (good) pharmacy tech more than a half hour to get a code that approved it for insurance coverage with Aetna, so I hesitate to move it elsewhere. I don't understand why some places seem to have it an others not.
 
Got My Shot

Needed to run some errands Monday so stopped by CVS and was able to get my shingles shot. I made sure I had my prescription from my last physical. The old vaccine was just a walk in. Had a sore arm which is just about cleared up. Aetna is now my provider and covered most of the cost. My co-pay was only $14.00. Not sure if I'll have to pay another co-pay when I get the booster in a few months.
 
Since the drug store where I got shot #1 was out, I checked another. They had one dose left. But they said they required a prescription. The other drug store didn't.

They offered to call my primary care physician, but they didn't seem sure if they'd need to collect payment in full or just submit it to my insurance. I figured it was easier to just wait and go back to the place I got the first shot.
 
DW just got her second dose today. Our local Kroger pharmacy was out of it a couple of weeks ago when she was ready for the second round, but it came in this week.

Her first dose was $96, but today's was only $42. She didn't ask why - maybe the second dose it smaller or just cheaper for some reason?
 
I just got my second dose today at Kaiser . I scheduled my appointment with the nurse last week...no copay or mention of a shortage fortunately.
 
I had a case of Shingles about 2 years ago. It was on my face (and the roof of my mouth) and let me tell you, most unpleasant. One of the worst 2 weeks of my life. Anyway, when I found out about this new vaccine, I was very happy to get a shot. I do not want a repeat of Shingles. It's that bad.


Anyway, the first shot was not bad, just a very sore arm like I was punched pretty good. But that only lasted a day or two. Then I was fine and now I wait for the 2nd shot. My doc mentioned the shortage for the 2nd shot so hopefully they get it in stock soon.
 
Out of stock here in St. Petersburg FL area, too. CVS said it's been mostly out of stock for a few months....they re-order weekly and once in awhile it comes in.
 
The first shot and the second shot are the exact same thing. The second one is not a booster nor is it a smaller dose. Just the same as the first.

Supply has been hit and miss, we reorder everyday and sometimes when we are lucky we get a box of 10 shots in....

The copay is per shot, so typically if you are paying cash it is about $160 each time (depending on which pharmacy you are going too). I would always have the pharmacy run it through the insurance just in case A) you might be pleasantly surprised at a lower or no copay or B) if it is too much you can always say, "no thank you."

From what I have been told, if you know someone who had or you had the shingles you would be glad to pay big bucks for the vaccine and the protection it provides.

Medicare Part D is the one what may pay for the shot, A and B do not.

One item to remember: you need to wait the 2 months before getting the second shot, but if you forget or cannot get it due to shortage and you miss the 6 month mark, you still only need the second shot if you get it past 6 months, no starting the series over again.
 
.

Personally speaking, I am wary of new drugs and medical devices.

The media is full of ads promoting drugs and other ads for attorneys when drugs cause major health problems.
 
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