Influenza Season Soon! Flu Shots ~ Are you getting yours?

There goes Summer, Here comes Fall & Flu Season will soon be on us!  You know when the Flu strikes.... oh my achey brakey joints.... It's pure misery....

I never got a flu shot for years and then whammo bammo, I got the flu one year just b4 Halloween.  My immune system was knocked off it's feet and I was sick on and off all that winter until Easter!  Kid u not!!!  It was the worst winter I can remember.....   I hope to avoid a repeat of that!  So, now I get one.... 

Do you?  Do you risk it?  Or are you the 1st in line?  If you get the flu, how do you cope?  Dive under the covers?  Live off tea & honey?  Swear, I regress to childhood, and that's sooooo when I want my mommy & chicken soup! 

Let's Hope we all stay Healthy & Happy this coming winter & flu season! 

~ Here's a link to one of my fav articles on Flu Vaccines ~ Who's at Risk & more.... (from the Mayo Clinic; bold highlights are mine):

Flu shot: Your best shot for avoiding influenza.

The flu season is just around the corner ? it's the perfect time to get a flu shot. A flu shot can reduce your risk of getting the flu this year. As concerns about emerging infectious diseases continue, should you still worry about the plain old flu? Yes, according to health officials. Influenza is the viral infection that sickens millions of people each year and has the potential to cause serious complications, especially in children and older adults. Fortunately, the flu vaccine ? available in the form of a flu shot or a nasal spray ? offers protection against the flu.

Here are the answers to common questions about the flu and flu shots.

When is the flu vaccine available? The flu vaccine is generally offered between September and mid-November, which is typically before the late-fall or early winter start to flu season.

What kind of protection does the flu vaccine offer? A flu shot is between 70 percent and 90 percent effective in warding off illness, depending on the length and intensity of a given flu season and your overall health. In a few cases, people who get a flu shot may still get the flu, but they'll get a much less virulent form of the illness and, most important, they'll have a decreased risk of flu-related complications ? especially pneumonia, heart attack, stroke and death ? to which older adults are especially vulnerable.

for much more, finish the article from the Mayo Clinic....

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/flu-shots/ID 00017

I only got the flu nasal drip nce. the army made me. But really I say save it for the young and old. Plus they are only guesstimating on what flu strain they think is going to try an take over the wold this season it might not even be the flu strain that does surface this year. Usually if I get sick I take three or fou days off until i feel better. 100% better. pus when I did get vaccinated for the flu around december I got a doozy of a flu. The worst I have ever had. water coming out both ends fever of 102. muscle aches and pains. so I dece to never opt for that agia. Becuase really it didnt seem to sheild me at all.

angel ~ i have never tried the nasal flu vaccine.  I don't know which I would dislike more.  The shot or the nasal vaccine....  I'll probably stick with the one I know, the shot....

The nasal spray is a live virus - and should be used only in a healthy individual. Those at higher risk should get the shot. I get one annually due to work - though I did contract the flu last year. I believe it was due to repeated exposure to the bug.

I will get a shot because my work gives out free ones.  The only time I got sick from the flu shot was the first time I ever got one. 

There are many people who cannot have the vaccine due to medical conditions. There are also a lot of people who have compromised immune systems due to cancer treatments, medication, age, or medical conditions etc.

People with autoimmune diseases can become seriously ill from a virus that doesn't do much to a healthy person. Getting a flu shot helps protect others.

Just my two cents - if you can do something to help others, why not?

"Just my two cents - if you can do something to help others, why not?"

Because I don't want  thiomersal poisoning.

http://www.mercola.com/2001/jun/13/autism_mer cury.htm

 

AS a diabetic you can bet I am the first in line for one!!!! My visit is Tuesday and yip, Doc, where's my shot?  I have always gotten the flu shot - and yeah united, I am like you I got the flu one year that I never got the shot and boy did I wish I would have. A little needle isn't anything compared to the misery you have when you got the flu. Plus, all the maintance you have to do as a diabetic to get yourself on the road to recovery again!

GET YOUR FLU SHOT!!!!!

dinarly: Please explain the link between children at a very young age getting multiple live vaccines in a short period of time, and an adult getting a single vaccine long after their immune system and brain are developped?

In 26 years in the Air Force I think I managed to skip it only twice, once when I was pregnant, and another time when I managed to string together enough excuses to get out of it -- that's the year I got really sick.  A tiny shot, a couple of motrin/aleve/tylenol/aspirin and I was fine.

Get the shot if you can!

nods

I've never had a flu shot and I've only had the flu once.  I probably won't get one, mainly because the particular strain of flu that is expected (and therefore vaccinated against) may or may not be what actually comes around.  I seem to recall this is what happened last winter.  So a flu shot is no guarantee against sickness.

Personally, I think it is much better to emphasize good hygiene and minimize your risk of exposure.  Wash your hands regularly and thoroughly.  Don't put your hands to your eyes or mouth unless they are clean.  Avoid infected people (sorry, sick friends, but I know you understand  ;-).  Good nutrition and hydration also help keep your immune system strong to fight off exposure you can't avoid.

If I do start to feel feverish or stuffy, I make a pot of guay zhi tang, a chinese tea.  It contains ginger, cinnamon, licorice root and jujube dates (for sweetness).  It is also extremely good at flushing out early infections and keeping them from developing further.  I've never had a cold or infection that isn't gone within 3 days with the guay zhi tang.

Whether to get a flu shot is basically a risk assessment, and people will have different risk factors to consider.  For me, personally, I think I have a pretty low risk without the shot, so it's not that important for me to have the extra protection.

I am diabetic ... I get a flu shot every year. And, because I am "high risk" ... my DH gets one, too.

=^..^=  MOLLY

I believe I am the first this year to get the cold/flu. Miserable today but I never get sick on the whole - a good 'being sick' only every few years. Never had a flu shot.

Of all the luck, I will be sick all weekend and likely through Monday. I've never had a sick day at work, or been late. Would KILL to be sick on Monday, but alas - I have a new boss arriving.

=dang=

i hate shots. i refused mine SINCE IT CAME OUT.

i've had the flu for the second week running now, and my mum is probably pretty pleased at how right she was :P

hmph.

I have never had the flu and I'm going on 48. So no, I won't get one. 

I have asthma and, until I retired end of April I worked at a hospital, not in the clinical area (ie patients) but in an office.  We were encouraged for our own health, and also for the health of others, to have a shot and I always have.  A couple of years ago, because of exposure due to working in a hospital environment, and despite having the shot, I got the flu.  I have never been so sick and because of the shot I was less sick than I could have been.  I missed a full week of work and then went back gradually for another week until i regained my strength and stopped coughing.  Had I not had the shot I probably would have been ill for months, according to my specialist.

Both my husband and i will be first in line to get the shot as soon as it's available in our area.

 

I'm 41 and never had the flu, and I've never had the shot.  For me personally, don't fix what ain't broken.  I doubt I'll ever get one.

i'm only 17, but i've never had it either. the shot i mean. cos i'm terrfiied of shots, and i convinced my parents that i don't need it so they don't sign the form... although I actually got the flu for the first time ever last year, and it was 2 weeks of hell. BUT I lay in the school medical centre thinking if someone came in with a shot that would make it all go away then and there i wouldn't have had it. that's how much i hate injections...  =D

I'm 25 and i can't remember ever getting a flu shot.  Then again, I can't remember the last time I had the flu, it was that long ago.

What I do get, at least once a year, are colds.  If there was a cold shot, I'd be there first in line and I'd elbow anyone out of my way.

If flu shots were available year-round, I'd get one. But I'm not taking time off of work and paying for a doctor's visit just to get vaccinated against something that, at worst, seems to keep me out of work for a day (mostly because that's what it takes to visit the doctor, get a chest x-ray, etc).

In the last 15 years, I've had influenza A,  pneumonia, a baby, malaria. I've missed a total of 10 days of work in that time for 'illness'. Mind over matter, mask, vinegar, and clorox. And I do care about the communicability of these things both in the community and my family as my kid has a compromised airway.

To keep us healthy, I'd rather focus on handwashing and other infection control practices to keep my family and me protected against all the diseases we can.