One person’s UHC can be totally different than another person’s UHC. They are just the administrator of your empoyers plan. UHC is not to blame if the shot isn’t covered. Your employer made that choose. They are to blame if your paperwork is screwed up or something of that nature.
Hajario, yep. We are only allowed three prescriptions (At any pharmacy), before they make us get all our meds via mail-order (OptumRx). That makes it a pain in the ass for the doctor’s offices, as they call in the Rx, and then, they must call them back, to verify that they called it in, in the first place. I had/have a kidney infection. I JUST received my Rx of antibiotics, more than a month after it was called in/verified.
So, yeah. The company my husband works for are jerks.
My offer still stands. You can pay cash for the flu shot and I will cover it for you and your spouse if you are interested.
What, sick that second? Sick with the flu? Sick with something totally unrelated?
In 1961, before I went to Africa, I got a ton of vaccinations. Some of them made me feel like crap for a day. Even, so, it was far better than the risk of getting the tropical disease there.
I am one of those people who usually experience a couple of the common side effects from the flu shot. I have never been full-fledged, gotta-call-in-sick sick. But I usually don’t feel my best for a couple of days after I get the shot.
The side effects have never deterred me from getting the shot, though. I just brace myself for them and try to appreciate that feeling a bit punk is far better than feeling like I’m fixin’ to die.
I felt a little crappy after getting one this year but that’s unusual for me. I normally don’t feel a thing. I certainly wouldn’t begrudge anyone who skipped out if it made them feel really horrible.
ER nurse, this.
Well, at least you have that option.
Two (?) years ago I had a coronary artery stent placed. At my one week follow-up, my co-pay was more than what my doctor charged for people without insurance. Processing me as uninsured wasn’t an option because I was in their system as insured.
So, I paid $180 (my insurance paid $40) for my cardiologist to ask how I was doing, listen to my chest, and suggest routine rechecks, which I have elected to ignore.
This year, for some reason, the folks giving us our free shots asked us to sit in a chair for ten minutes before leaving “just in case you get dizzy”. There were cookies provided. The shots were set up in a separate building, so most of the people getting them were going to drive away, immediately. I’m wondering if they were expecting a reaction to the immunization or just a reaction to the needle.
Has anyone else been asked to wait for ten minutes after a flu shot?
I get the flu vaccine every year. I can use all the help I can get.
Yes, all the time. No cookies, though. It is just like being asked to wait after donating blood. Side effects and bad reactions are rare, but you want the patient to be there if they happen.
In 35 years of donating blood I did see one or two bad reactions.
We all know Dr Romano is evil, but surely not this guy!
Just the first time - they asked everyone who was getting their first shot to wait 15 minutes. Since then they’ve asked if I’ve had one before and let me go on my way when I say yes.
I got the flu in 1996, and was so sick I couldn’t move for three days. It took me weeks to be completly over it. I don’t want to repeat the experience, so I’ve gotten the shot every year since then.
On top of that, I’m the sole caregiver for my 90-year-old father. Because of that, it would be especially irresponsible of me not to get vaccinated. I make sure he gets his shot, too.
I’m pretty sure I got a mild case of the flu early in 2018, despite having been vaccinated. I had a cough, sore muscles, tiredness, and a low-grade fever. It lasted only a few days. It probably would have been much worse if I hadn’t had the shot.
No cookies (boo!), but after getting Flu Mist, they asked me the same thing. I think this is the first year it’s sounded so formulaic, although in previous years I’ve gotten similar directions based on me being like “LISTEN I MIGHT FALL OVER UNCONSCIOUS” when I explain my phobia to them.
I often go without one because I ‘get busy’ and ‘forget’, but really, there’s no excuse not to get one. You (and I) may never get sick but a vaccine is to prevent that one flu virus that cracks your immune system’s code. When you get full-on influenza, it’s potentially fatal – you can die. It doesn’t matter whether you work out every day of the week, stay hydrated, take vitamins or whatever. Your prognosis depends entirely upon your body’s reaction to the virus. You could be a model of health and still end up very dead from flu.
Nominations for antivax dumbness of the year (including I-have-an-immune-system-so-I-don’t-need-vaccines).
WRT your needle phobia, have you ever tried to work on overcoming it?
My daughter was needle phobic, to the point of having to be sedated with an oral medication prior to having blood drawn. In Highschool she wanted a navel piercing, but never thought it possible. I talked with her about it, then had her accompany me to the tattoo parlor.
My friend who does piercing (and is the most calm human I know) talked with her about body modification in general and how pain causes endorphin release, etc. My daughter found all the science stuff fascinating. The visit lasted about 90 minutes and culminated in my friend adding another piercing to my ear while I calmly talked and described the sensations I experienced.
We returned a few days later and my friend did an accurate pretend navel piercing on my daughter while I held her hand. My daughter did some breathing exercises during the pretend piercing. She then asked to have a real piercing done and it went without a hitch. We held hands and talked the entire time.
She’ll be turning 30 soon, and is a nurse, something that would never have been possible had she not overcome her fear.
I’m pretty healthy myself, rarely catch the flu myself, and have never gotten the flu shot before this year - which I did because one of my sons begged me to, not wanting to catch the flu from me if I got it.
I haven’t. Some day I might. From my reading, needle phobias (especially the sort I have) are pretty resistant to most traditional work on getting rid of phobias. There are some techniques, but the techniques themselves terrify me.
I’ve often thought that the two likeliest ways to confuse my phobia into nonexistence would be heroin or flu. Until that happens, I’ll stick with Flu Mist.