Looks like the flu season is here once more.. Question .... WILL YOU BE GETTING THE FLU SHOT THIS YEAR ???? We have been getting the flu shot for the past 40 or so years and we NEVER got the flu.. Where we live, it is free to everyone.. Regardless, getting the flu isn't very pleasant.. Whatever the cost, it is well worth it.. I have NEVER had a reaction or any problems taking the shot...
Yep, both of us are going to get one. Our CVS Pharmacist told us that since we've already got a "pneumonia" type shot, we only need the Senior Double Dose shot. My VA doctor told me, a couple of years ago, that getting the Senior Flu Shot will not guarantee that a Senior won't get the flu, but the symptoms will be much less than without the shot. In 2010, I didn't get the shot and got a bad cold just before New Year's Eve weekend. That cold, turned to flu and then to two pneumonia spots on one lung, was terrible. I coughed so much, I couldn't believe it. I actually told my wife, in tears, that I thought the good Lord was going to take me from her.
We had ours a month ago. Rather than queue in the surgery and get covered in germs from the other patients, we pop into my favourite chemists shop where the owner Ann does both of us.
Years ago, still living outside Phoenix, I had a terrible experience with the flu. Had never gotten the vaccine, either. Always figured flu was a Midwestern type thing, related to cold, wintery, wet, "unhealthy" climate. How could one get the flu in a place perpetually warm? After that episode, I got the flu in one level of intensity or another, without fail, every year. Finally, around 2004, I yielded to a neighbor's recommendation that I get the shot. My wife & I, both without medical coverage, had to pay for the procedure. First time I years, I did NOT get the flu! Since then, vaccinated annually, no flu! For either of us! Frank
Good for you Frank.. I really hate to boast, but here in Canada everyone gets the flu shot for free.. There are clinics everywhere and all you do is present yourself and get the shot without any questions or proof you are Canadian.. I know of many people living in the US near the border of Canada who cross over for the day and they get the shot without any questions or problems and then go home..
The flu shot is free for those of us on Medicare too. Some years we have gotten the shot, and some years we skipped it. A couple of years ago I went in to my old Doctor and was given the pneumonia vaccine and the flu shot. Three days later I came down with pneumonia and had to take a double round of antibiotics before I got better. It is not something I want to experience again. And it was also after this double dose of antibiotics that I developed and irregular heart beat. Every time I got the flu shot in the past I always had mild like flu symptoms for a couple of days afterwards...and even when I did catch the flu one year after I had taken the shot...it was a much milder case. This year although I am considering taking it, I am concerned about taking the Senior double dose. With all the allergy problems I already have and the fact that I do have mild flu symptoms when I take the regular dose flu shot...I will have to talk to my Physician to see which shot would be safer for me to take this year.
It's an annual ritual, going to the doctor and getting a flu shot. Can't swear it helps, but it doesn't seem to hurt (depending on the nurse!)
Absolutely NO reaction to the flu shot.. No swelling, itch, or discomfort.. I forgot I got the shot till now..