It is said that if you never had chicken pox, you will not get shingles...I’m 76 and never had chicken pox or shingles...
Some people actually “had” Chicken Pox without having any symptoms. Did you get tested?
I can’t remember ever having had Chicken Pox, though I recall measles and mumps; but my doc told me that I could have had it at such a young age that I don’t remember. (Due to divorce and my mother’s early death, I don’t have any knowledge of what may have happened before I was three years old.)
Anyhow, I’m over 70 now and no shingles so far...
Growing up my family moved a lot and were not good at keeping records, medical records in particular or always keeping up with my medical checkups although I do remember getting some vaccines – Polio and Smallpox when I was young.
I was talking to my brother (12 years older) some years before he died, and he claimed I had Chicken Pox, but I didn't remember ever having it.
I do remember getting Measles when I was in the 3rd grade when we lived in Elizabethtown, PA. The school I went to, had a number of Mennonite and Amish kids. When I went back to school, I learned a lot of other kids had it but one girl I knew, an Amish girl didn't come back to school because she had died from Measles. This was in the early 70's.
A few years ago, my old doctor asked me, as I was now over 50, if I wanted the Shingles Vax and I told her I wasn’t sure if I had ever had Chicken Pox, so with my routine blood work, she ordered a titter. It turned out I never had Chicken Pox.
So now the question was do I get the Chicken Pox vax or the Shingles vax? Getting Chicken Pox as an older adult can be quite serious and one can catch Chicken Pox if not vaccinated or immune from a prior infection, from someone with Shingles, but my insurance wouldn’t cover it.
I keep getting conflicting advice – do I get the Chicken Pox or the Shingles vax?
At my age, I don’t want either. But I do know of some people who developed Shingles, and it was extremely painful and in a few cases debilitating and unlike Chicken Pox, can come back repeatedly.
I have an appointment with my new doc later this month and I'm going to bring it up with her.