Have you ever gotten sick right after a flu shot?

I’m all for flu shots and I think it’s important for people to take them. That being said I had my shot yesterday and today I feel not the best. Very tired, lightheaded, light fever, and a cough. I’m not looking for medical advice in the sense of diagnosis (as that is for my doctor) but I’m wondering if anyone has had a similar experience after a flu shot. I was pretty overtired when I got it…long work days and projects in the evening.

Thanks :slight_smile:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/flushot.htm

I had my shot on Thursday and I had no side effects.

No.

I’ve been getting them yearly for some time now. Slight soreness on the arm is the only symptom noted.

Yes - the first time I took it I felt sick.

I still get them (almost) every year (for close to 20 years now). I have never had a problem except for year one and maybe 2 years ago (my arm hurt for a couple months - I didn’t notice it until the next day - the “stick” itself felt perfect - it felt like she must have hit a nerve or something).

It happens occasionally. It can be part of the immune response, or it could be a total coincidence. There are a lot of autumn respiratory bugs out there – the local autumn cold sent me into a nice asthma flare-up on Thursday.

For me, I often feel tired and run a low fever after getting the flu jab, and try to get it on a Friday so I can rest over the weekend. No side effects this year, though.

I had a sore arm the evening I had the jab - and the next day, I had an uncomfortable hot ache in all my joints, then it went away and all was well.

I know people who claimed they got full-blown flu from the Jab - I think they’re mistaken and just happened to be coming down with something at the same time.

I don’t recall ever feeling poorly after a flu shot. Sometimes the injection site is a little painful. I just had my flu shot about an hour ago.

Mrs. B. had a serious, near-fatal reaction to a flu shot about 18 years ago. So did several of her co-workers. Never was explained, but she now has a permanent exemption from them, even when required by a district or state law.

Last time I got a flu shot I became so ill (inflamed ulcer at the injection site, nausea, neurological dysfunction, general inflammation, and diarrhea starting less than a day from the injection to over twelve days afterward) that I couldn’t go to school for two weeks, lost ten pounds, and had to drop two classes after the refund date, putting me another semester behind.

Stranger

It’s either your immunization kicking in or you already had the flu when you got the shot. Probably the former.

Last time I had a flu shot I erupted in hives, then breathing difficulties. It appears I’m allergic.

However, since this all occurred about 35 years ago and was not documented to modern standards I still have to put up with my insurance company trying to strong arm me into getting a flu shot every year because it’s on record I have asthma, but not a “documented” flu shot allergy.

I really don’t know how to resolve this annual annoyance.

Yes. I had the flu shot the day before Halloween last week and developed a 102-degree fever a couple of hours later, then started getting the trots that night. The fever went away after 36 hours, the diarrhea lasted through the weekend, and then I came down with a cold, which I’m just now starting to get over.

In my unscientific opinion, the fever was directly related to the flu shot, the cold was a complete coincidence, and I have no idea about the diarrhea. I had a stomach ache before I went for the shot, so I’m tempted to think it was a coincidence, too. But I’ve had the flu shot for 7 years in a row now with no side effects beyond a mildly sore arm, so the fever was an unpleasant surprise. In fact, it took me a little while to realize what was going on and check my temperature rather than attributing the weird feeling to the heat being turned up too high.

I felt pretty crappy the night after my flu shot (feverish and light headed), and for two days my palms itched like crazy. I must have had an allergy to something in the super-dooper quadruple vaccine. I’ve never had itchy palms after a flu shot before.

Yes. Very mildly “yuck.”

But this year I waited a bit and didn’t get sick after. However, I felt the “very mildly yuck” before the shot.

Now I’m pretty sure that I feel “very mildly yuck” every fall because of the onset of allergies. And I get a flu shot every fall too. And they coincide.

I had an allergist based on some test or another tell me that my immune system tended to overreact. Flu shots usually give me symptoms like a mild to moderate case of the flu. Tetanus booster shots have absolutely knocked me on my ass. Fortunately as I’ve aged the overreaction to imminizations has moderated.

Ugh, insurance company nagging.

Do you have an allergist/pulmonologist you could talk to?

I’ve run into a couple of people who were sensitive to thimerosal (legit, not nutters), but are ok when they get the single-dose version without.

I had a rotten reaction to the MMR booster, which I had to have when I was 20 because of changed university rules. My original booster was given 2 days before I turned 1; the university rules said on or after your 1st birthday. They were enforcing strictly because measles had occurred at the school.

Got the MMR booster and the next day, fever, achy, and what felt like a horrible head cold.

The last time I had a flu shot, probably 8 years or so ago, I ended up getting sick for 3 weeks. Not the achy icky sick.

Trippy dreams, crawl to the bathroom upstairs because I can’t walk, talking to people who weren’t there and waking up in weird places in my house kinda sick. The sick where I was on my couch because it was close to my big window…get cold and get under the blanket, get hot take the blanket off and enjoy the cool window draft. All I was concerned with was nyquil and getting back into a coma.

Thankfully I had family living with me at the time and they made sure I ate soup and drank whatever vitamin water stuff they gave me. When the fever broke and I got back into my almost right mind…the smell…holy fuck.

So no more shots for me. I haven’t had the flu but I also rarely get sick.

I did the flu nasal spray and now am stuffy and feeling a bit like I have a cold. They warned me, but today is supposed to be the worst of the crummy-feeling.

Every freakin’ time. I went many, many years without getting one because I got sick every time, and then two years ago, I got one, and had a fever of 102 that night. I was shaking uncontrolably with chills.

Usually I get a little knot under the skin for a week or so, and feel vaguely cruddy (mildly feverish and just kind of blah) for that afternoon and evening, but nothing that a couple of ibuprofen or acetaminophen won’t fix.

Dip-tet shots… that’s another story. Never felt bad, but the upper part of my arm (they gave it to me in my deltoid) swelled up and turned red for about a month.