I’m definitely not an expert and only go by what experts say. I’m assuming the experts recommend getting the shot in October so you don’t have an unprotected period, since flu season starts then. I’m also assuming they weighed that against the effectiveness of the vaccine at the four-month mark in February and determined the former outweighed the latter.
Flu season starts in October. You could catch it then. VS.
Enough protection from the vaccine to get you through the tail end of the peak of flu season.
This one where it’s best to ask your doctor/pharmacist. Makes a difference which corticosteroid, why you’re taking it, is it a rescue inhaled, a maintenance preventative, how long you might have to taper, etc. I’ve always had good luck asking a pharmacist-they love to help people get the most from their medications, it’s why they spent all those hard years in school. In most cases a pharmacist spends more years studying just meds than a doctor does. Make use of it. They also work in very close partnership with doctors.
I had a doctor appointment today and figured that since I was going to be there anyhow, might as well get my shot as well.
I used to get them at work, which was in early November, so I asked my doctor about the timing. She said she always starts shooting people in September because of the weather. The weather starts cooling down and folks are happier to spend time with groups of people enjoying the weather. In January and February, its cold and gloomy and the days are so short that folks wake up in the dark and drive home from work in the dark. Folks tend to stay home during the end of flu season, so if the effectiveness is lessened then, its not as much of a concern.
Also, in case anyone is interested…she has been looking at a lot of adult acne in the last few months. I’m 62, that’s way to old to be getting zits!
I wish I’d read this two days ago. I got my flu shot on Saturday, and had a lot of discomfort afterwards, so I finally took some ibuprofen in the evening. Now I wish I’d toughed it out.
My doctor has never advised me to avoid pain relievers after a vaccination, but I’ve never asked about it, either.
My business unit (~20,000 employees) generally offers on-site flu shots each year at about this time. This year, they sent out a message that there won’t be any on-site sessions, but we could 1) have our health provider administer the shot and the cost of the shot would be completely covered by our insurance (regardless of the plan we have) or 2) we could download/print out a certificate for a free flu shot at CVS.
I downloaded the certificate over the weekend, but decided to wait until the first week of October to get my shot. I have a dislike of needles (though, as someone pointed out above, once you’ve been in a hospital with an IV needle in you arm and daily sticks for blood, you tend to get over it- mostly), but I just let the person giving the shot know that I don’t like needles, but as long as I don’t have to see the needle, I will be fine.
Two things got me over my fear of being stuck with needles:
After innumerable moves from one house (and school district) to another while I was growing up as an Army brat, my shot records were somehow lost. To be allowed to attend school in 10th grade, I had to get every single one of my childhood immunizations again, starting with the ones you receive as an infant, like polio and diphtheria. It took about two years to get the whole series with the required waiting periods between shots. After that I took custody of my shot record myself. I still have it.
When I was in college, I contracted acute Hepatitis A from a restaurant and was hospitalized for a week. I was getting blood draws multiple times a day. By the end of that, I didn’t really care any more about getting stuck.
I actually have no issue watching someone stick me with a needle, but I stopped doing that (especially for blood draws), because I don’t want to make them nervous and make a mistake.
I’m much better now, but avoid looking at the needle out of “an abundance of caution”. As an incoming freshman at my university, I had to go through a health check, which was a long line of students that moved past various stations where we answered questions or had various vitals taken. At one station, it turned out that the student ahead of me had been overseas, so they gave him a shot. I fainted right after the shot was administered to him. As I said, Ive improved- mostly.
Okay, so we’re telling our stories now. Here’s mine:
I was skittish (although not outright phobic) about needles for much of my younger life. I think I know why.
When I was quite young, my folks took me to the doctor every year for an annual physical check-up, which I recall as being more comprehensive than anything we ever get from our HMO’s now. This included a blood check.
The doc sent us to the laboratory across the street. This was before the days of automated machinery to count your blood cells.
They technician would bring me into the lab room, which was the actual room where work was done: A smallish room, with shelves all around stocked with terrifying looking equipment, along with boxes of microscope slides, bandages, gauze, test tubes, etc.
I tried to watch the technician draw the blood a few times. They would ALWAYS say:
So I think I learned from that, that there was something awful about getting blood drawn, and I developed a (mild) fear of needles from that.
But after getting the blood, the technician would always start counting the blood cells right then and there. Put a drop on a slide, smear it across the slide, and stick it under the microscope. They always let me look at the blood through the microscope too.
Got mine yesterday, moitzei Shabbes. Made my son get one, even though it was his birthday, and he thought that was unfair, somehow. I told him not getting the flu was a pretty good birthday present.
We had a very good technician, and barely felt a prick. My son was amazed. Went home for cake.
(Party with friends was today, because of Shabbes.)
I e-mailed my doctor about this. Here is his answer:
As it happened, I quit the tylenol 4 days before getting the flu shot until 10 days after. After getting the shot, I felt vaguely and mildly shitty the following day, which has never happened to me before after a flu shot.
Does this suggest that the shot was being more effective this time than in the past? I can almost feel the antibodies oozing out my ears! And if so, perhaps because I quit the tylenol? Or perhaps because they gave me the industrial-strength senior dose? (Not clear to me if they actually did, though.)
Well, I was surprised that there was nobody there but me! With all the extra paranoia this year, I thought there would be cars lined up for miles. (They did it drive-thru style this year.) Where was everybody? (ETA: This was a while ago, on Sept. 22 so maybe things were still just starting up.)
They said they didn’t even need to see my Kaiser card. I didn’t ask the obvious follow-up question, but I was wondering if that means they were offering the shots free to the public at large, and not just to Kaiser members only.
This year Switzerland will have their 17th National Influenza Vaccination Day on November 6th. Which is fairly late, reading all these stories.
On this day, it is permitted to walk into a pharmacy or doctor’s office and get the vaccination, without an appointment.
Not sure how that’s going to work, since I know my doctor’s office forbids anybody from coming into the office without an appointment.
My company pays 25 CHF (not sure how much the entire cost is), if I go to a participating pharmacy. I have to make an appointment ahead of time, and the coupon is not valid on the national flu vaccination day.
I plan to get mine between October 26th and November 6th. But I will only plan this after I am back at work.
I was watching ZDogg MD. He says Sept to October is optimum. He says that if you got it in August when the pharmacies start giving them, you risk having immunity run out. He says it is never too late to get the shot.
This would seem to echo what my doctor does. I got my employee free shot Sept 19.
If your doctor is participating, there may be something set up especially for people coming in for the vaccine-- for example, there may be a divider in the waiting room, shunting vaccine people off to one side, and someone taking temperatures while briefly quizzing people on recent symptoms, exposures, and tests, allowing only people with temps under 99.6°F and no potential exposure, into the vaccine line, and sending people with temps into the sick line only if they have an appointment, where they are then isolated.
People in the vaccine line must use hand sanitizer immediately, be masked, and remain 2 meters from other people.
The dividers prevent cross-contamination, and the other measures help compensate for the fact that many more people than usual are coming in. They can even give people numbers, and instruct them to wait in their cars until their numbers come up, if they have more than, say, three people in line.
When my son and I got flu shots at the pharmacy, we were shunted into a divided space like this, so we were separated from people picking up prescriptions. We also got our temps taken, and quizzed on COVID-19 symptoms.
Not for the same reason as you but yeah, I got over my fear of needles young. I got my flu shot about 2 weeks ago, in conjunction with having a blood draw. I’ve learned to point out my one good vein (for the draw). I cracked the flu-shot nurse with my tale of allergy shots as a kid: I was just shy of 5, and had been getting shots for quote some time, and quite naturally shrieked every time. But this one day, I was fighting it the whole way - screaming in the waiting room, Mom had to pry my claws from the furniture - you name it, I did it. But then I stopped cold, announced “When I’m 5, I won’t cry any more when I get my shot”… and immediately resumed shrieking.
I’m sure Mom was torn between cracking up, and smacking me; I recall the incident but I don’t recall that she reacted at all.
And sure enough, the first shot after i turned 5, no more shrieking.
So yeah, total drama.
And shots don’t bother me at all now. I mean, I don’t love 'em, but I just look away and it’s all good.