flu sots

Just curious, How many of you are getting flu shots?  I get one every year but this is my first year with my diagnosis of Fibro & RA...

Thanks,

Deb

For me it's NEVER NEVER NEVER. I am so allergic to them it's pathetic. I'm still certain it's what brought
about my fibro because of all of the chemicals in them. Some people they work for I'm one of the ones it
don't. The Swine Flu shot had even more stuff in them and I was so cheered when it was no longer mandatory
for health care workers to get them. Luckily I have it on file I'm allergic so I'm exempt.

I have never had one or the pneumonia shot but with having pneumonia in april (ish) I think this year will be the first.

I got my shot today. I am glad that it is over. No pain, but just the thought of having to get one is bad enough for me. But it is done and I feel better.

Have a great day everybody.

Hugs, Karen

I have one every year, I started because of the meds I was taking this year I was late getting one and worried the whole time I was waiting.
I have one around the same time each year so building my immunity all the more.
I get no reaction at all to the shot, this year a different nurse gave me the shot and I could not tell the next day where I had it.
To me getting the shot is by far better then getting the shot.
A friend did not have the shot, [winter is well over here] and she is very very ill with the flu.

Kathy

Never, never, never. The sickest my mother ever was in her life were the two times she got the flu shot. The first time she was sick and weak for an entire month, and that was years before she was diagnosed with emphysema. I think the second shot contributed to her death (she had been diagnosed with emphysema by that time, but the flu shot made her sick and the week after she got the shot she went into pulmonary arrest and died about 6 weeks later). She kept telling the nurse how sick she had been when she got the flu shot years before, but she let them talk her into getting one. She told the nurse if she died she was going to haunt her, and I hope she is!

I probably had the swine flu last year but I was literally too sick to go to the doctor (we live 30 miles out of town) so I don't know for sure. If I did have it, maybe I have some immunity to it.

On the other hand, hubby gets one every year for free at work.

My rheumy advised me to get both a flu shot and a pneumonia shot this year. Since I am on Methotrexate for my RA, it lowers immunity to infections. I have never had the pneumonia shot before, but I have had the flu shot twice. The first year, I didn't get sick all winter and the second year I seemed to catch everything.

It's usually not the type of virus the shot is for that causes a reaction, and you never get actual flu from flu shots, but a lot of people react to the GELATIN and the MSG (in some shots like shingles) and the PRESERVATIVES (often sulfite) in most multiple dose vials.

Gelatin is made from sulfited pig skin. Sulfite is a softening agent, among other uses. A few preparations have bovine gelatin (cow skin). The worst reactions kids have from shots is the MMR, which has gelatin and usually sulfite preservative.

I was told I wouldn't get sick from the pneumonia vaccine, even though I objected (while having a heart attack they insisted I HAD to have it) on the basis of being sick for days and needing Benadryl for flu shots. I ws right and had to beg for Benadryl, and they would only give me one dose. Well, it takes a couple of days to get over an allergic reaction, so I had my husband bring me some Alevert.

If you do get a reaction, just take a strong antihistamine! Then put immunizations on your list of allergies. Allergy to eggs is not considered a problem by most clinics. But hardly any of them even have a clue about the gelatin!

My particular problem with gelatin is the sulfite. It's naturally in pork to begin with, and then they make it worse by softening the skin they use in a sulfite bath. They ruin perfectly good corn the same way - soften it in sulfite before tuening it into corn starch, dextrose, etc. I get gastric reflux and tachycardia and feel awful if I eat a bowl of gelatin or a gravy with corn starch. Some people react to sulfite with migraine headaches.

I have not had one. I will not get one. I am too chemically sensitive for it. In almost every case, I react to the medications that are designed to save me, very badly. No to flu shots for me. You'd have to strap me down and give it to me against my will in order for me to accept one. Even as a child, I was terribly ill, for months some times, after each of those childhood vaccinations --- leading me back to the doctor yet again.

It's funny how many different answers you get to this question. I've always gotten a flu shots & never had any trouble with them nor gotten sick from them. Maybe it's something you build up too after years of getting them..? Well, good luck everyone whether you do or don't get a shot. Here's hoping to a healthy fall/winter.
Deb

I was told yesterday by my doctor that I have the flu right NOW.....I've been terribly sick since last Saturday, running a fever nonstop since and having trouble breathing at night, my throat is killing me, my whole body aches, and I'm so fatigued all I've been doing is sleeping all week. So the doctor told me to rest, drink lots of fluids, and take the ibprofen and my inhaler and I should survive....I had no idea the flu was already going around, I just had it like 6 months ago. I've never in my life have had the flu til last year, I usually always get strep throat and sinus infections.

But I rather have the flu then strep throat, I get strep once or twice a year my whole life and I can' think of anything else more worse then Strep throats...so compare to that, the flu is nothing....

But for the flu shot?? already have the flu so it wouldn't matter, I always skip it, the only time I ever got it was when I was pregnant many years ago.

then again, this is the first year that I've had the flu with being newly diagnosed with RA, but no doctor has said anything about needing the flu shot yet....

-kitty