I usually feel a little shivery and sniffley after I get the flu shot. But I didn’t get it this year.
I always get the shot. I was flat on my back for two weeks the one time I’ve had the flu. I am not trying to have that happen again.
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I’m not sure I would get the shot if I started having a bad reaction. But since I hardly react at all I will continue to get them. I did get flu one year but it was over in 48 hours. If I hadn’t got the shot I assume it would have taken much longer. Interestingly, my doctor reported the same experience that year.
I had the flu once when I was 5 years old. Haven’t had it since. I only do shots when necessary, 'cause I faint dead away as I feel it going through my veins. By the way, I will be 67 next month.
I am fifty, and I’ve had the flu three times in my life.
The last time was at 40 and in my first trimester of pregnancy and a week before my doctor’s office got the vaccine.
I really wanted to die.
I got so lucky, though. I didn’t die. The baby was okay.
And the vaccine doesn’t just protect you. It protects pregnant mothers, and newborns, and grannies, and uncles on the heart transplant list. I’m sorry for your achy arm, but it’s not useless.
Last year in the US, there were twice as many deaths from the flu, as there were gun deaths.
The level of attention given to stopping gun deaths eclipses the level of attention on preventing flu deaths. The most effective way of preventing flu death is through herd immunization, but so many people complain about the soreness in their arms, or feeling under the weather after they get the shot.
I had the flu twice. Once when I was in my 20s, and I missed a week of work. I didn’t feel totally normally again for two months. For me that is extremely unusual. Thought I was gonna die. Then I got it again when it was going around my office. We called it the [matter redacted] flu because everyone on the team was working long hours and everyone on the team got it. Again, I was out for a week, and didn’t feel back to normal for a couple of months.
So yeah, I get the shot. One day of feeling bad versus one week of feeling like I’m gonna die followed by two months of feeling like crap? No contest.
Not to mention I had a friend who got the flu and felt like she was gonna die, and then she did.
There are people who have a bad cold and think it’s the flu. That is not what I’m talking about.
ETA: I’m basically healthy, hardly ever go to the doctor, and do not get the “annual physical” or even a five-year physical. But I get the flu shot.
?
the flu vaccine is an intramuscular shot.
I’ve had influenza at least 5 times. As an asthmatic, I’m more likely to get and more likely to have a more severe case. After an auto-immune reaction 20 years ago, although unrelated to a vaccine, my neurologist advised me to not got the shot. A few years later my GP and I had a discussion and decided the odds of another autoimmune reaction was far outweighed by the risk of getting the flu and I have gotten the shot every year since with good results.
Oh hell yes, if your reaction to the shot is a sore am and feeling a little crummy for a day, get the shot. I’ve had lots of flus. The typical flu is 5 days of high fever, muscle aches, and respiratory problems, followed by feeling weak and unwell for a while longer. It’s miserable. And of course, it can kill you.
The op reported a worse reaction than that. I think they should talk to their doctor. Unless they have close contact with especially vulnerable people, they may be a candidate to not get the shot. The rest of us can keep up the herd immunity, and protect Hermitian.
I do have a question, which I have had for years for this particular vaccine (and it is not without aforementioned in other posts family/personal reasons I don’t care to re-go-into). As I understand this vaccine, it has to be made for the particular flu virus that is expected to hit in a particular year. Therefore it is new every year.
BUT
Doesn’t it usually take ‘years’ to get government approval for a vaccine? Using clinical studies and long term followups.
Something does not compute here.
And begs the question that if it is new every year, without long term data, what happens if and when they make a major screw up?
The misery from the shot won’t kill you.
Influenza can kill you.
Get the shot.
If you’ve ever had, or taken care of anyone who had, genuine influenza, you’d be first in line for a flu shot.
Pretty much the same with me, except that I ended up with pneumonia.
There is a reason virtually everyone who works in healthcare is required to get a flu shot.
Be a citizen.
GTS.
This is a vaccine for a strain of a disease that they have created vaccines for many times before, not a first time vaccine for tsutsugamushi fever.
And there have been issues. In 1976, for example, there were people who ended up.with Guillain-Barre syndrome after getting their swine flu shots.
AIUI, the basic flu vaccine is already FDA-approved; what happens annually is incorporating new flu virus strains into the approved vaccines, which is a faster process. But the FDA is still working year-round on flu vaccine updates.
Thank you. That’s a good explanation of how it is fast tracked. Basically a good base, then the additional strains are added with testing. Which is how I took it worked and adds a degree of safety, however it doesn’t appear to meet the same level of review as far as the new strain additions, though they are doing what they can for the timeframe they have. Now if that is a cause for concern, well I do have that question.
I had the flu really bad a few times as a kid and when it’s a severe case, oh.my.god is it awful.
Fevers got to 104+ (hot enough where I stopped feeling freezing and instead felt like I was inside an oven), horrible aches that made me not want to move and exhaustion so all encompassing that when I made the 10-15’ trip from the couch to the bathroom, I’d have to stop twice to lean against the wall to rest a bit.
I most vividly remember the aches being so bad that it would hurt if I lightly brushed my arm hairs (no skin contact at all).
I had a bit of an unpleasant reaction to the shot once. I was ready to hop back in my car, but they made me wait a few minutes, which might’ve saved my life because all of a sudden I got hit with vertigo. For a minute there I had to lie down and hold on to the chair. Then it passed, and I was fine. Never happened before or since. I’d encourage you to get the shot, and hope in a few years these incidents you describe will be similar strange things that happened to you once or twice but never again. The human body is mysterious.
But do talk to your doctor about it. For a couple years after my incident, I made sure the folks giving me the shot knew about it, and they laid me down to start and kept a close eye on me until I was comfortable that I was in the clear. They can probably do something to help you out, too, whether that’s giving you the egg-free shot, the flu mist (not a shot), some other medicine to counter any effects, or just some more informed reassurance.
I just got my flu shot a couple days ago and had literally the worst reaction I’ve ever had–my arm ached and I felt a little dragged out so I spent yesterday on the couch watching tv. I’ve had flu before, and I’ve had a pulmonary embolism and that’s why I get flu shots and have had my pneumonia vaccine. Because I live alone and if I’m that sick who’s gonna feed the critters and let them in and out fifty times a day? Huh? Flu is horrible, if I never get it again I’ll be supremely grateful.
Flu season is one of the most festive times of the year.