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Okay, I owe my NHS clinic an apology. It seems that Brownlow Health has more than one location. I went to the one I usually go to. The other one is where they were giving the flu jabs. I'll have to call them and book again. I hope they don't say:

 

"No no, you dumb Yank! We don't rebook—drop dead from flu!"

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On the subject of flu jabs.

 

Booked in for a shingles jab at our local surgery (free if you are over 70) having previously arranged for a flu jab on a different, later,  occasion. Turned up for the shingles injection when the nurse asked if I would also like a flu jab. I explained that I was booked in for that on another day, but she said that was OK and she would sort it. I had a jab in each arm. My wife was outside (guarding our bikes) and I mentioned that she was also waiting for a prebooked flu jab.  No problem we can do that now.

 

Great service, very happy. 🙂

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

John, no one anywhere feels settled or safe, because they're not. And I'm not looking for perfection. 

 

Today was spent trying to get a flu jab. I had a letter from my NHS office and spent an hour on the phone Friday waiting for them to pick up and give me my slot time for the jab. My slot, I was told, was 1:25PM today. I got there early. The building was shut, no one there, no one answering any of the bells. A nice Italian man (a doctor who works for the NHS) was also outside for his jab and asking me questions about what I thought was going on. So more confusion and no flu shot. 

 

The politicos keep saying they don't want the NHS to be overrun. This situation looks as they are overrun. At 86 with both hay fever and cough-variant asthma, if I get Covid-19 I'm dead. In fact, getting the flu might kill me. 

 

"We're all in this together," they keep saying. Sadly, that means we're all in trouble.

 

Edo

 

An hour on the phone?  That's the VIP treatment! 

 

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1 hour ago, Bryan said:

On the subject of flu jabs.

 

Booked in for a shingles jab at our local surgery (free if you are over 70) having previously arranged for a flu jab on a different, later,  occasion. Turned up for the shingles injection when the nurse asked if I would also like a flu jab. I explained that I was booked in for that on another day, but she said that was OK and she would sort it. I had a jab in each arm. My wife was outside (guarding our bikes) and I mentioned that she was also waiting for a prebooked flu jab.  No problem we can do that now.

 

Great service, very happy. 🙂

 

 

 

 

I tried to get a shingles shot last year, but I'm now too old to have one, according to the NHS. So when I have a spare minute, I worry about shingles. 

Edited by Ed Rooney
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15 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

I tried to get a shingles shot last year, but I'm now too old, according to the NHS, to have one. So when I have a spare minute, I worry about shingles. 

 

That's odd. In Canada, there is no upper age limit for shingles shots as far as I know. However, the vaccine isn't free (yet).

 

You can just walk into a pharmacy here and get your free flu shot. Don't know if that's the case in the UK.

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5 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

 

You can just walk into a pharmacy here and get your free flu shot. Don't know if that's the case in the UK.

 

That's true in NYC too, John. Not here. Last year, before the pandemic, the NHS had everything working great with jabs and blood tests. In Seville, I could not get a flu shot. They had no vaccine available. 

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1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

 

That's odd. In Canada, there is no upper age limit for shingles shots as far as I know. However, the vaccine isn't free (yet).

 

You can just walk into a pharmacy here and get your free flu shot. Don't know if that's the case in the UK.

 

Don't know about just walk in, but  pharmacies here also offer the free NHS shot.

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Can we? Wow, didn't know that. But maybe that's not the case now with the virus. I'll check tomorrow.

 

I had new glasses done at the main Boots here, and they were fabulous. I mean the tests and the service . . . and the price. 

 

Edited by Ed Rooney
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1 hour ago, Bryan said:

 

Don't know about just walk in, but  pharmacies here also offer the free NHS shot.

 

During the height of the flu season here, "greeters" in some pharmacies wait at the door asking you if you've had a flu shot yet. I've even been chased around the store by over-eager employees. At least they weren't waving needles. 😬

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2 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

Don't know about just walk in, but  pharmacies here also offer the free NHS shot.

 

Yes, my pharmacy phoned me up to ask if I wanted a flu jab.

 

Date and time arranged and everything was fine.

 

John.

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I can walk into Walmart, Or Walgreens, or CVS, go to the pharmacy area and get my free flu shot. I will be doing that this coming week. I’ll just need to fill out a paper, provide my cards, and get it. No scheduling. Last year, 10 minutes, in and out.

Edited by Betty LaRue
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6 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

I tried to get a shingles shot last year, but I'm now too old to have one, according to the NHS. So when I have a spare minute, I worry about shingles. 

 

I've only ever known one person who had shingles, and that was back in the early 1980's, so it can't be that common, I wouldn't worry about it.

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50 minutes ago, sb photos said:

 

I've only ever known one person who had shingles, and that was back in the early 1980's, so it can't be that common, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I caught it a few years back here in Oz, God knows how. I'm usually very healthy. It was a total mystery. It did leave me flat on my back for a few days. Even lifting a finger was an effort. Not like me at all.

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Unfortunately  the shingles vaccine is not thought to be useful to those over 80, while it's not 100% effective for younger folk. The disease is reasonably common, I know a few people, including my wife, who have had it. All survived without, to the best of my knowledge, any long term consequences. 

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1 hour ago, gvallee said:

 

I caught it a few years back here in Oz, God knows how. I'm usually very healthy. It was a total mystery. It did leave me flat on my back for a few days. Even lifting a finger was an effort. Not like me at all.

Shingles, Herpes Zoster, can hit you if you ever had chicken pox. The virus hides in your body for the rest of your life. People who get older, or are run down, ill with something else that weakens you...sometimes just getting exhausted by doing a project over days are more susceptible to getting them. Shingles are an opportunistic disease, likes to hit you when your down. And often, just getting old is enough, because of weaker immune systems and often poorer health.

 My mother had them in her early 60s.

My husband went on a family ski trip. They made it into the Colorado mountains, but not to their condo, before becoming stranded from a blizzard. Rescuers got them to a closed-down schoolhouse, where they stayed for 3 days with a lot of other people. There were cots, but not enough. My husband gave his cot up to a woman with a baby when that family arrived a few hours after my family.  
 

All he had to sleep on was a wooden bench in the shower locker room. Very few blankets, and being the gentleman that he was, he let the women and children come first, so no blanket. The building was cold, like the 50s.  On the one side, the snow was drifted to the roof. They only had sparse sandwiches to eat And any snacks they'd brought.  He caught a very bad cold there. By the time the roads were opened, my family drove home. Bob was still sick with a cold, and developed shingles on his leg soon as he got home.  The breakouts (blisters) follow certain nerves in the body. Many get them on one half of their waist. There used to be an old wives tale that if they went all the way around your waist and both ends met, you would die. Not true.

When I worked for an ophthalmologist, we saw patients that got them on their scalp and often came down one side of the forehead toward an eye. You can get them in your eye and it’s serious. We saw the people whose eye was threatened.

Bob’s breakout on his lower leg was the first I knew of shingles attacking in that place. All I ever heard about for years was the waist area until I went to work for the doctor.
I didn’t go on that ski trip. Because of a severe whiplash injury, my skiing days were over. I stayed home and pursued my own interests and avoided a very unpleasant experience.
I've had chicken pox. Have you? If you never have, your probably safe from shingles.

You don’t catch shingles. You come down with them if you’ve had chicken pox.

Edited by Betty LaRue
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1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

 

I've had chicken pox. Have you? 

You don’t catch shingles. You come down with them if you’ve had chicken pox.

 

I probably have, I don't really know. I never knew that.

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I know people who have had horrible bouts of shingles, including one who had it on her scalp and face, similar to the person Betty mentioned. I somehow contracted chicken pox in my early 30's, which is fairly unusual as it's usually a childhood disease, so I guess I should get in the vaccine queue.

Edited by John Mitchell
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2 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

I know people who have had horrible bouts of shingles, including one who had it on her scalp and face, similar to the person Betty mentioned. I somehow contracted chicken pox in my early 30's, which is fairly unusual as it's usually a childhood disease, so I guess I should get in the vaccine queue.

When my daughter first started school she caught chicken pox and passed it on to me and my son, I was about 34. They both recovered in a few days but I was really poorly for a week or more. Blisters everywhere!!

Edited by Thyrsis
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Betty, that's an excellent description of shingles. And yes, Bryan, that is the position of the NHS on giving the vaccine. 

 

I believe that I had chickenpox as a child, most the kids in my area of Brooklyn did. Measles and chickenpox were common aliments. 

 

I shall approach the danger of developing shingles as I approach gunshot wounds and earthquakes. I do my best to avoid them. 

 

Gen, you've managed to sidestep salty crocs, great white sharks, venomous reptiles, box jelly fish, and defensive 6'7" kangaroo moms carrying a joey . . . but got shingles? I hate to tell you, but you can get it again. 

 

 

 

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I had chickenpox when I was a kid and have not had shingles....yet.  I do need to get the vaccine soon, thanks for the reminder!  I know some people, including my father, who had a terrible time with shingles.  Often it is described to be like a severe case of both a sunburn and a poison ivy rash, combined!  And it can leave scarring.

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47 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Gen, you've managed to sidestep salty crocs, great white sharks, venomous reptiles, box jelly fish, and defensive 6'7" kangaroo moms carrying a joey . . . but got shingles? I hate to tell you, but you can get it again. 

 

And much more!! Sinking in the Amazon, twice, climbing an active volcano and dodging explosive outbursts, getting lost in the rainforest, being in a helicopter emergency landing, being bitten by a bull ant, allegedly the most painful animal bite in Oz, I can testify to that, I could write a book. But shingles!! Ah non!! No thank you. Never again!! Get your jab Edo.

 

Thinking about it, I'd rather have shingles a second time than a bull ant bite again. 

Edited by gvallee
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12 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I can walk into Walmart, Or Walgreens, or CVS, go to the pharmacy area and get my free flu shot. I will be doing that this coming week. I’ll just need to fill out a paper, provide my cards, and get it. No scheduling. Last year, 10 minutes, in and out.

 

Don't delay, Betty. I got mine a few weeks ago at CVS because a friend of mine feared that they will run out this year because of the awareness of viruses now. The woman who gave me the shot said they were already running out. Speaking of not delaying. I had a very minor shingles episode and because I went straight to my doctor he was able to give me something that stopped it in its tracks. I don't remember what it was but it has to be given very soon to work. Stay healthy everyone!

 

Paulette

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59 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Boots chemist told me they do do flu jabs. However, they have no vaccine as yet.

Boots did say they were holding it back for priority groups, but if you're not priority I don't know who is. You'd also pay there, whereas NHS/pharmacy is free.

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59 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Boots did say they were holding it back for priority groups, but if you're not priority I don't know who is. You'd also pay there, whereas NHS/pharmacy is free.

 

No, Boots does the free NHS jab for eligible persons. They encouraged me to check back with them and said they had not yet received any vaccine. I would be happy to pay the 13 pounds, so that's not the problem. 

 

https://www.boots.com/online/pharmacy-services/winter-flu-jab-services

 

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