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I've been getting the flu vaccine for a dozen years now. This was the first year I'd experienced a bad reaction. This happened about an hour after the shot, while at home. My throat started to swell up slightly, and I had a hard time breathing. Even my hands swelled up a bit. Luckily, I had some sudafed in the cabinet, which seemed to help----at least it kept me from calling an ambulance. I still had to call in sick the next day, which I almost never do, because I was so weak. It took me about 3 days before I felt normal again. Has anyone had a similar experience?
I've never had a reaction and I have been getting the flu shot every year for 30 years now. The one year I didn't get the shot I ended up in the hospital for 3 days with a confirmed case of influenza.
If you have had a reaction you need to speak with your doctor so they can document it. First, those reactions need to be reported to the vaccine manufacturer so they can be counted at the end of the season. There may be a preservative, substrate (they are usually grown in chicken eggs, not unique to this year), or other ingredient that is unique to this year's vaccine. And you need to know if that's the case so you can avoid it in the future.
Honestly, you should not have self-medicated. You should have gone to the ER. If your throat had swollen shut far enough they would have had difficulty intubating you and you could suffocate.
Any swelling, especially throat, hoarseness, shortness of breath is time to go to the ER as soon as possible. Now it's time to call your doctor and let them know. If you don't have a doctor you need to contact the place that administered the vaccine so they can record the reaction.
I've been getting the flu vaccine for a dozen years now. This was the first year I'd experienced a bad reaction. This happened about an hour after the shot, while at home. My throat started to swell up slightly, and I had a hard time breathing. Even my hands swelled up a bit. Luckily, I had some sudafed in the cabinet, which seemed to help----at least it kept me from calling an ambulance. I still had to call in sick the next day, which I almost never do, because I was so weak. It took me about 3 days before I felt normal again. Has anyone had a similar experience?
It does sound like a possible allergic reaction. You need to know which vaccine you got so your doctor can check the ingredients. You would want to avoid anything with similar ingredients in the future.
Last edited by suzy_q2010; 11-03-2015 at 11:50 PM..
Reason: utsci beat me to it!
Last year I felt very strange and shaky after my flu shot, and my face and throat were very red. I got sick the next day and it lasted two weeks.
Recently I had an allergic reaction to a different injection, with symptoms like you describe. My lips and tongue swelled up quite a bit. I didn't go to the hospital either...I took a couple of benadryl and got out my daughter's epi-pen in case the benadryl didn't help enough (obviously, if I'd used the epi-pen I would have had to go to the hospital). I'm thinking that I may have developed an allergy to the preservative in the flu shot, which was the same preservative in the other medication that I had the reaction to. In the last couple of years, I have become allergic to lots of things...sunscreen, lube, red dye, latex, etc. which I never had a problem with before.
I've been getting the flu vaccine for a dozen years now. This was the first year I'd experienced a bad reaction. This happened about an hour after the shot, while at home. My throat started to swell up slightly, and I had a hard time breathing. Even my hands swelled up a bit. Luckily, I had some sudafed in the cabinet, which seemed to help----at least it kept me from calling an ambulance. I still had to call in sick the next day, which I almost never do, because I was so weak. It took me about 3 days before I felt normal again. Has anyone had a similar experience?
Sounds like an allergic reaction. Ask your doctor what the ingredients were. And even if you didn't have an allergy to something before, you could develop one at any time.
At my job, most of the people get the flu shot. She said last year almost no one complained about feeling lousy after getting it but this year she had a lot of complaints.
I got sick two hours after my shot. Sore throat, headache, achy. I was sick for over a week and developed bronchitis. I finally went to the dr & he said I was probably fighting this thing off when I got the shot, which lowers your immune system significantly. So once I got the shot my body stopped fighting it. That's why they tell you not to get the shot if you're not feeling well.
Perhaps your body was already fighting whatever it was before you had the shot ?
I decided to go ahead and get the flu shot yesterday, to see if I really had an issue with it. I got red and shaky and had trouble breathing. I was still at the doctor's office and she wanted to give me Zyrtec, but I had taken Allegra already that morning, so she asked if I felt well enough to go home and told me to take Benadryl when I got home. By the time I got home (after an hour in traffic), my lips were swollen and I was pretty out of it. The Benadryl helped a lot, but I had to take more when it wore off. Last night I kept getting painful cramps in my feet that would bend my toes into odd positions, and today my shoulder is swollen and rock-hard, with a big red welt over the spot where I got the shot.
My doctor said that I'm probably allergic to the preservative in the shot and that I shouldn't get flu shots anymore. I asked her about the nasal mist, but she doesn't think that works very well.
I've been getting the flu vaccine for a dozen years now. This was the first year I'd experienced a bad reaction. This happened about an hour after the shot, while at home. My throat started to swell up slightly, and I had a hard time breathing. Even my hands swelled up a bit. Luckily, I had some sudafed in the cabinet, which seemed to help----at least it kept me from calling an ambulance. I still had to call in sick the next day, which I almost never do, because I was so weak. It took me about 3 days before I felt normal again. Has anyone had a similar experience?
Yup. I didn't have swelling, but about 45-60 mins after the flu vaccine a couple years ago, I felt mildly sick (kind of like a pre-cold) and it lasted for about 3-4 days. This has happened more than once, but not every year.
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