I had chicken pox when I was a baby, so it was definitely possible that I could also get shingles as well.
As I went to the Walgreens pharmacy for my appointment, the lady at the desk said to me, "Oh, you're going to feel awful tomorrow." I knew that was a great possibility.
I went to bed feeling kind of achy and had a pretty rough night waking up at 1:30 am in pain and feeling nauseous. It was much the same as a bad case of the flu.
When I finally got out of bed around 5 am, I knew I needed to get something in my stomach before taking Advil. I had a little bit of a protein drink, took the pills, and started feeling a little better.
I even skipped my morning workout!
I felt blah and achy all day long, but more Advil helped. And a Unisom helped me sleep that night until 5 am. I woke up again feeling not so great but decided to do just a slow walk on the treadmill.
I looked up the side effects for the shingles vaccine ('cause apparently some people don't suffer any ill effects at all!). I pretty much had every symptom possible:
- sore arm with mild to moderate pain
- redness and swelling at the injection site
- tiredness
- muscle pain
- headache
- shivering
- fever
- stomach pain or nausea
That's what most people can expect. And the good news? I get another shot 2 to 6 months from now and experiencing the side effects again is possible. Having shingles is the worse alternative though.