OT--flu shots, get them this year

Came down with the flu 5 days ago, and its shaking off very slowly, can't guess how many more days it will last.

Never had the vaccinations before because I only had the flu once, 20 years ago, and it wasn't on my mind. It sure is now. Being 62 makes it worse. It's like developing COPD overnight--if I go downstairs to get a cup of coffee, I gasp for air like a fish on the beach. Even worse after coming back upstairs.

Basic OTC remedies alleviate some of the misery, but not very well.

I don't mean to start a debate on the usefulness of the shots, and am not looking for medical advice or debates about treatments. Don't know if your supposed to feed a cold and starve a fever or vice versa, doesn't matter since I have no appetite. Drinking more water does make the snot cough up faster when you're taking an expectorant like guaifenesin, but I can't tell if its actually helping, or just making room down there for more snot production

All I wanted to say was that this years flu sucks, and if you have the chance go get the vaccination. If you don't believe in them, start a thread in the Manufacturing in America and Europe subforum about it

Interesting topic to spring up ... I had my first ever Friday afternoon.

Never had one before but as it was free (aged 60) I thought I'd give it a go, what had I to loose

Although having spent 38+ in the military operating all over the world (some locations real sh*t holes) I was alway's being jabbed up and never had any reaction.

I very definately had flu symptoms yesterday (acheing, stuffy nose and lethargic) but rose this morning fine.

Allegedly 2percent of folk get this reaction ..

Just my 2 cents worth.

John

Most everyone at my work got sick this week and it was nasty... worked through it but I felt like shit all week.

John I read that 2% number too. I'd still do it--one day of flu-like is better than ? days of real flu.

Sea Farmer said:

John I read that 2% number too. I'd still do it--one day of flu-like is better than ? days of real flu.

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Well that's reassuring that you're getting the same figures in the US as we are in the UK.

It will be interesting if I pick up any flu bugs this year - last year nothing but the year before was bad.

John

I'm 78 and get my medical care from the VA. I have had a flu shot each year for at least the last 15 years. I have not been really, really sick with flu / cold for all this time.

Before that I have had the flu maybe three times. Usually 5 - 6 days and nights in bed; get up, eat an orange, cup of yogurt, pee, 3000mg of vitamin C, back to bed. Weak, fever, cold shivers, coughing up oysters, terrible sinus headaches, ache all over. Flu shot is worth it even if you have a reaction.

Paul

A lot of health insurance covers the flu shot. Even if it isn't covered, many pharmacies offer it for around $19 or even sometimes $9.

I feel like that number should be higher than 2%, but that is the statistic they provide. I think that only 2% report that reaction. I definitely feel weird in the day or so afterward, but nothing worth complaining about if it protects against actually getting the flu.

I haven't seen anything in the documentation about it, but I don't recommend drinking alcohol later that day. I made that mistake this year and it cleared me right out like I took laxatives. Could be totally unrelated, but I'm not gonna try next year to find out.

Its been whipping my 64 year old ass for about 10 days now.

Get the flu shot.

I got the flue really bad about 20 years ago. I ended up in the hospital dam near put me on a ventilator. I get the flue shot now. I dont take chances with it.

The wife and I get flu shots every year. So far, no flu and no feeling bad a day or so after. We do get a sore arm where the shot goes in but that's a small price to pay. I had the flu once 25 years or so ago that was do bad I just missed going to the hospital and there's really no cure for it except time once you get it.

There is also a vaccine for pneumonia, usually for folks over 65. REALLY worth it, as a lot of older folks die of pneumonia, sometimes induced by flu or cold, sometimes not,

I had the flu shot this year, came down with what seems to be *a* flu a couple of days ago. Luck of the draw.

I usually don't bother with the flu shot since I feel crappy with the shot and usually don't get the flu even without the shot. This time my doc asked while I was in the office for a regular checkup and it seemed to be the right thing to do.

2 years ago I got the pneumonia vaccine. Felt like crap for a couple of weeks (even hallucinated one day) and my arm was shot for a month. Not doing that one again. I remember back in my world travelling days I ended up getting a 2 week series of shots for most anything on the planet. It sucked but not as much as the pneumonia vaccine.

JST said:

There is also a vaccine for pneumonia, usually for folks over 65. REALLY worth it, as a lot of older folks die of pneumonia, sometimes induced by flu or cold, sometimes not,

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Not just older. I'd be dead by now if I hadn't had that. Year after year my flu turned to pneumonia and in 2000 nearly did me in. I even broke two ribs from coughing. I had the shot for the "5" types in 2000, and now just had the Prevnar 13 (latest... 13 types). Flu shots since 2000 also. No flu (a few colds) since, and no pneumonia.

I get no adverse reactions to either shot types.

Lakeside53 said:

Not just older. I'd be dead by now if I hadn't had that. Year after year my flu turned to pneumonia and in 2000 nearly did me in. I even broke two ribs from coughing. I had the shot for the "5" types in 2000, and now just had the Prevnar 13 (latest... 13 types). Flu shots since 2000 also. No flu (a few colds) since, and no pneumonia.

I get no adverse reactions to either shot types.

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You broke ribs from coughing? Man, that must have been rough. Broken ribs suck (fortunately no person experience), and coughing sucks. Can't imagine what it would be like to be stuck with both.

The company I worked for got on the flu shot bandwagon very early. They had their own medical department, and offered the shot shot for free on company time on a voluntary basis. They then compared flu vaccination records with absentee records, and it showed that the shot saved a huge amount of money. The reduced sick leave paid for the time and shots many time over. I've never missed one since, haven't had the flu, and I've never had a reaction to the shot that I could identify.

I'm mad they didn't tell me about COPD "exacerbation." Which is what I have going on now.

I was diagnosed with COPD 20 years ago, and after years of struggling quit smoking cigarettes and haven't had one in over 10 years. Yeah I smoke a pipe and should't, but its not often and not inhaled--it'll give me mouth or throat cancer but leave my lungs alone.

Anyways, COPd is always with you, the damage doesn't heal, and if you get flu or pneumonia later it can accelerate to fatal conditions pretty quick, that's what they call "exacerbation."

So with COPD you need flu and pneumonia vaccines every year for the rest of your life. Or you end up breathless every two steps. If I get up, walk 4 steps and adjust the thermostat, then come back to this chair, I'll spend 5 minutes breathing hard to deal with the oxygen debt. Every time I roll over in bed I'll become breathless.

This might go away when the flu goes away. Or not, nobody can tell until it happens. If not, it's oxygen.

The last experience I had with a flu shot was in high school, when they used us as guinea pigs for a new vaccine. They lined us up like army recruits and blasted the shot through the skin with high-pressure air, hurt like hell for a good week. Was really fast and sanitary tho.

I think George Washington died of the flu so it's not trivial but ... a good friend, about 70, was told by his doctor that he's old now, should get a flu shot. He did.

Next day he couldn't get out of bed, was lucky his daughter came by to call an ambulance, stayed in icu for two weeks then finally was diagnosed with something similar to Guillan-Barre (sp) as an adverse reaction ? That was several years ago and he's not truly recovered even now. Did a little research on adverse reactions, they are more common than generally thought and at least in his case, devastating.

For myself, I'll risk the flu.

If your nose is running ("snot"), then you don't have viral influenza, you have a rhinovirus, aka a "cold".

Viral influenza is a very rare condition in modern society. Before the commercialization of flu shots around 2003, studies estimated that less than 1000 people in the United States contracted viral influenza per year and less than 20 of those died from it. The roughly 500 or so people per year listed on death certificates before this period as dying of viral influenza were diagnosed that way were mostly old people who had been diagnosed more or less randomly as having influenza with no proof whatsoever. Studies showed that less than 5% of these putative "flu" cases actually had real influenza antigens (but see below about this).

In 2009, large drug companies were approved for a viral influenza vaccine by the FDA in the United States and the CDC responded by grossly inflating the supposed number of cases of viral influenza using statistical methods that are more or less completely fraudulent. Their policy position is that it is ok to produce exaggerated flu statistics because doing so "encourages" people to get the vaccine.

The 2009 effort was prompted by a "pandemic" believed to be caused by H1N1 type virus. The number of cases which were actually laboratory confirmed to involve an H1N1 virus in this so-called pandemic in the United States was 7 people. Supposedly, there were 2000 additional cases in Mexico, but these cases were all just speculative physician diagnoses, not actual tests by competent viral laboratories.

The laboratory identification of these viruses is based not on actually testing for the virus itself but for a type of antigen. The human body can generate this type of antigen in response to an infinite variety of different viruses. Therefore, just because 2 people have, for example, an H1N1 antigen in their blood does not mean they both have the same virus. Also, the various antigens such as H1N1, H2N2 etc are very commonly found in every person, whether they have a disease or not. In some populations, it is not unusual to find H1N1 antigens present in up to 40% of the people. You may ask, if nearly everybody has these antigens how do doctors know that it is actually an H1N1 virus that is causing the "flu" in a given patient? The answer is that they don't, it is pure speculation. A person has flu-like symptoms, they test for say H1N1 and H2N2 antigens and find, say, H2N2 present and simply guess that it is an H2N2 type virus that is the cause, but it could just as well be an H3N17 virus, or any number of millions of other viruses. All the researcher knows is that the person has flu-like symptoms and the presence of a particular antigen which proves nothing, because all these antigens are commonly found in perfectly healthy people.

Obviously, once you start making claims based on antigens that are widely found in everybody, it is possible to "prove" anything you want.

The reality is that the actual number of viral influenza cases in the United States is negligible, probably less than a few thousand in a population of 300 million. Furthermore, those few thousand are probably caused by a wide variety of different pathogens of which we have no clinically reliable way of verifying. In fact, many such cases are probably not caused by viruses, but by bacteria. For example, a person can potentially have a bacterial infection, be tested for say H1N1 or H2N2 and diagnosed as having influenza if one of those antigens is found, even though it is actually a bacteria that is causing the infection. Therefore, there is no real way to even know the true incidence of viral influenza, much less which actual viruses might be causing a particular case.

Get the shot, there really is no reason NOT to, any places there is no charge. A few years ago I did not get the shot and for the first time in my adult life I got the flu. I am a very fit, healthy 50 year old and let me tell you it kicked my ass. My wife is a nurse and she brings one home for me every year and stabs me in the kitchen, what a gal.

I get a flu shot every year. I still get the flu about 50% of the time. This year no flu shot. We'll see what happens - 59 years old.