Health

First shot, no problem. I was keeping a journal, and wrote nothing about having any sort of reaction.

Second shot: different story. I'm told that extreme reactions to the second dose are very rare. Nonetheless, I had a very bad reaction.

In fact, I noticed something right after getting the vaccine: my right leg seemed weaker than usual. This is not new for me, so I ignored it.

Later on I was taking a nap, and when I woke up, I felt weird and I could hardly move, esp. my right leg. I had to pee and it took all my energy to get into the bathroom. I called for my husband to help me. Got wiped, got my clothes back on, and then he helped me stand. But I couldn't weight-bear on my right leg. I was able to stand briefly while he went for my walker. But I couldn't hold on to the counter, and I fell onto my back. I told him to call the paramedics.

They thought I'd had a stroke. Off to the hospital! Got admitted. The doctors couldn't figure out what had happened. Was it an extreme reaction to the shingrix, or was it a stroke?

One thing that made it look like a reaction was the fact that my symptoms resolved on their own. They kept me overnight and the next day a bunch of doctors and technicians looked me over very carefully. PT got me out of bed and with a therapist holding a belt around my waist, had me walk some distance. No Problem at all.

When I asked my personal MD if he'd ever seen a reaction like mine, he said mine was off the charts. He also said I would NEVER catch shingles.

I recovered uneventfully and have been fine since.

I'm telling you this not to scare you but to let you know that it's rare. But it can happen.