With age comes wisdom(apparently).
I’m in a high risk group, so I get one every year, although I haven’t yet this year.
Our town gives them free but not till Nov. 15 this year.
Last spring I got what my doctor called a mild case of the flu. He got it too. He said the vaccine was probably not quite right, but it helped. I guess I’ve gotten them for at least 20 years, maybe more. I’ve also had the pneunomia and shingles shots.
I do plan to get my flu shot, I am told my insurance covers it at 100%. Several people at work skipped their shots last year and caught the flu. I am a nurse and I think we should just have a flu shot party at work and just stick each other for the fun of it, but I have been overruled.:rolleyes:
Yes indeedy!
How awful. I’m sorry for your loss.
Exactly. Unless you’re a shut in, you don’t know that you won’t be in contact with one of us. It only takes a second, one little bug left on a door handle or escalator or a touch screen somewhere, even if you’re not shaking hands.
I’m not old. You would never know unless I tell you that I’m immunosuppressed and could easily catch something. I get my flu shot every year and the whole family gets them too to ensure I don’t catch it anyway. I had some shitty thing a few years ago that wiped me out for a full week and I never want it again. Unless there is a declared shortage or you have an allergy, why not get vaccinated?
Yep, I work in a hospital (non medical position, but one with a high risk of exposure) so it’s both free and mandatory. (Medical exemptions are granted, of course, but philosophical ones are treated as, “Jesus Christ, you’ve got to be kidding, this is a freaking hospital.”)
I’m just amazed at all the posters saying they’ve never had the flu/only had it once. Really? Those are some strong constitutions out there.
I’m not getting one. In 2014 I had the quadrivalent one to cover 4 strains and nearly scratched all the skin off of my palms for two or three subsequent days. It was the first time I had a bad reaction to a flu shot, but I’m not taking the chance on that, or something worse, happening if I try to get another one. I’m retired, so for the most part I can avoid the diseased herd like I couldn’t do when all of my rude coworkers would come to work sick or not to sling snot all over stuff I was next in line to touch.
Yes. They offered the flu shot free at work last week, for spouses, too. She came down to my office, we got the jab, then went for lunch. Too easy to pass-up.
Got it today. It dawned on me that I really didn’t want to be in a crowded synagogue over Rosh Hashanah without it.
ETA: took ibuprofen immediately before to avoid soreness at the shot site. I never have a reaction to it, and don’t anticipate any ill effects.
I’m getting mine at work next week. Last year, flu swept through our office like the bubonic plague so the company regards it as a good investment.
It isn’t compulsory, but I’m certainly taking them up on the offer.
I blew it off last year, but will get one today.
I think it’s kind of disquieting getting an injection from a woman who runs a cash register at the grocery store pharmacy, though.
In line right now.
I’ve got an extreme needle phobia. My one ambulance trip was essentially because I saw other people getting a flu shot, passed out on a hard floor, and still have the scar on the back of my head from the concussion I suffered.
Since then I’ve gotten FluMist most years, but with the new CDC condemnation of FluMist, it’s unlikely to be available to me. I certainly believe in vaccines, but the terror I suffer from contemplating the shot is so severe, and my memories of the time I spent on a stretcher so vivid, that I’m not sure I can bring myself to do it.
If I do, it’ll be with tranquilizers, the day off work, and someone to drive me to and from the clinic.
I really wish FluMist remained available on a limited basis for phobics like me.
I only got it for the first time maybe three or four years ago. I wasn’t tested for it, but that’s what my doctor said it most likely was. That said, it didn;t at all match the experiences of other flu sufferers, who say they are unable to get out of bed it’s so bad. To me, it’s just felt like a bad cold with fever, but nothing that confined me to the bed, so I have some doubts that it was the flu.
Regardless, with a two-year-old and a 7-month-old in the house, I’m not taking any chances. I only started getting the shots when the 2-year-old was born.
Every year.
I’ve had pneumonia 7 or 8 times; half of those developed from the flu. I get the shot every damn year (and will probably start the pneumonia vaccine as I pass 50).
And it’s free at work, so my arm is now sore. (Still waaaay better than the flu.)
Absolutely. My work provides them to employees for free, but even if they didn’t, I’d pay for it. I had the flu once over a decade ago and it’s something I hope to never repeat. And now that we have a little one at home, it’s that much more important.
I don’t get the reasoning here. Where’s the downside to getting a flu shot?
Absolutely. My employer pays for it and even turns it into a mini-health fair with vendors and prizes. My SIL has Lupus and my co-worker had chemo. I also hardly ever get sick. That’s why I have approximately five months of paid sick leave accumulated. But when I do get sick, I am down for the count. I spent a week battling pneumonia in August. No thanks. Plus I like my SIL and, most of the time, my co-worker.