Flu shot~ yay or nay??? Do You Get One? (infection, symptom, reactions)
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I just got my first flu shot last week....good grief now I am sorry I got that. I almost never am sick. I volunteered on a life squad and taught school so I was around enough sick people I built up resistance I think. My husband talked me into it this year, since I am almost 60 and he is 66, but I may not get another one. I had no idea it had egg in it which I am allergic to...yikes. I didn't get a reaction but I sure won't be getting one again.
I got my first one today too. I'm not prone to getting sick, but since I help care for an elderly relative and work in an office filled with people who have children, I figured I'd get one. Wasn't a big deal. Didn't hurt, so what?
My kids get one every year because of their asthma. My hubby and I will get one this year also because I am starting work as a nursing Aid and don't want to give it to patients or carry it home to hubby.
I got my first one today too. I'm not prone to getting sick, but since I help care for an elderly relative and work in an office filled with people who have children, I figured I'd get one. Wasn't a big deal. Didn't hurt, so what?
I don't know if it was the vaccine, but sometime during the night I realized that I had a splitting headache but couldn't wake up enough to drink some water. It might have been that I fell asleep with the heat turned up.
So my headache went on till after lunch when I finally took an ibuprofen. Yack. I was fine soon after.
About two decades ago, when our youngsters were late preschool/early elementary age, a particularly virulent strain of influenza went through our family. My spouse caught it first, and was off work for over a week. About the time he was starting to recover some, I caught it and was flat on my back for even longer than he had been. Then as I was finally starting to regain my strength, our daughter caught it, and my spouse and I had to take turns taking time off work to stay with her. She started recovering, and we thought we were in the clear, and then our son started his bout, which of course meant more days off for both parents with the sick child.
One way and another, my spouse and I each lost close to three weeks of work during that episode, at a time and in a region where paid sick leave was by no means universal. No such thing back then as FMLA. It cost us a bundle and a half to get through that.
Ever since then, the entire family has gotten the flu shot every year. The only exception was in the year when they had such a huge shortage of the vaccine, and even that year, my spouse got it, as he is officially categorized in one of the "at-risk" population groups. I recognize that when they are developing the vaccine, they don't know for absolute certain which strains to protect against, but they get it pretty close in most years. And even in the years, like last year, when they don't get it perfect, there is still some benefit from the vaccine.
There was a very interesting study done a few years back. It used to be that doctors never recommended that young children get the flu shot, and they'd focus primarily on the elderly population. However, in spite of assiduous efforts to vaccinate every person over the age of 60, the US still had an unacceptably high rate of flu deaths among the elderly.
Then a researcher looked at Japan's approach to the flu. In Japan, the big push is to vaccinate the youngsters, and they try to get all the kids under the age of 5. And the funny thing was that the death rate from influenza among Japan's elderly population was much, much lower than the United States' was.
The conclusion was that the primary vector for spreading influenza is children. If you can minimize the spread among the kids, the rest of the population benefits as much as the kids do themselves.
I don't know why and nobody has ever been able to explain why, but when I get the shot I'm sick for weeks at a time. When I don't get the shot I'm fine, and IF I do get sick, I'm only down for a couple of days. For me it's a simple math problem..... sick for weeks or for a couple of days.
Me, too! And everyone thinks you are crazy if you say that. I don't get the shot because of how sick I became within 24 hours the last time I did.
I am required to get one as a health care provider, but am exempted because I am allergic to Thimerisol (the mercury-based preservative in flu-shots). In Alaska, anyway, the shots still use the mercury preservative. My only other option was live virus sniffed up my nose- NO thanks. I know that the main purpose in Health Care people is to protect patients, but I have to draw the line with mercury containing vaccines- not willing to take on the allergic reaction.
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