Flu shot issue

[coolpeach]

I get a flu shot every year without any problem, and took a flu shot at work this week. This flu shot hurt a lot. It burned going in, and literally made my eyes tear up. Usually it doesn't hurt at all. I work nights, and went home and to bed right after. When I woke up the area was very swollen, red, hot to touch, and very sore. I took two Tylenol and went to work thinking the new H1N1 made it hurt worse, and it would get better.

By the next morning I felt feverish, my throat was so sore I could barely swallow my own secretions, and I was having periods of dizziness. I would be sitting there charting and suddenly feel as if the room had spun sideways. I made it through the night, and went home to bed. I woke up and my throat was better, but I had nausea, a headache, and was achy all over. I was off for the night so I went back to bed, and had a really rough night. I would be cold, but wake up wet with sweat so I think I was sweating off a fever.

When I got up I had hives all over me 16 total (back, buttocks, and sides). Since I have been up I have two more appear. I am still have a headache, feel achy, and feel feverish even though it shows my temp is normal.

I called into work tonight, and plan on seeing the Dr in the morning.

This year my hospital REQUIRED us to get the flu vaccine, paid for it, and administered it. If this is indeed a reaction can they consider my call in an occurrence, or would it fall under the workers comp plan as a work related situation?

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

O/P,

There is I recall a fund for people injured by vaccines. Perhaps you could appeal to that to cover your time off and medical care? I seem to remember someone posted a link to it earlier in this thread.

This whole thing makes me think of that syndrome, ?Stevens/Johnsons? Any substance/medication can cause any kind of crazy reaction, viruses too. OTC meds also.

I always take the flu shot, and I lean towards all caregivers doing so to protect those we care for, but it is certainly not risk free and we need to have systems in place to deal with these issues if we are to "force" people to take the vaccine.

Also, it is silly to just target nurses. If we are to force nurses then all who have contact with patients, including visitors, should also comply.

[Myarmhurtstoo]

i found this site while researching my problem...which is the same as posted here. just thought i'd add my experience with the issue...over three months now and arm still hurts although it seems to be getting a little bit better finally. from a 9 to maybe a 6 or 7 on the pain scale.

wow most of these comments are very familiar to me. my detailed experience is chronicle on the following thread:

http://www.empowher.com/community/ask/it-normal-my-arm-muscle-my-shoulde...

my symptoms mirror most everyone else’s…1) shot high up so much so that we talked about it for days after the shot 2) mine started hurting that evening, shot given around 3:30 pm 3) pharmacy came to our workplace and administered shot 4) pain doing all the things everyone mentioned with the most painful when trying to pull off a tight fitting garment over my head…just can’t do it even now (shot given nine weeks ago) 5) cannot sleep on left side (except when i took the steroids, have taken two medrol paks and one 10 day course…doc said i can’t have any more) 6) had initial numbness in my index & middle finger and some in my thumb, now just sorta comes and goes but not so much and 7) my doc was not aware of this being a problem and initially attributed it to other things, however, after hearing my explanations, what i found in my research, and the fact that he’s known me for many years and believes i’m not crazy has asked me to gather the info i have found for him…much to my relief and amazement.

in my hours of research i have found some information that was helpful. for one the vaers site to report adverse events listed earlier in this post. i also was able to download adverse event data for the last two years…a ton of info applying some filters found tons of reports of this type of reaction. so it is not new.

also found this thread on another site with info that was reported in 2007 and even gave the condition a name: shoulder injury related to vaccine administration, or sirva. yes there is even an acronym for this condition:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/occupational-health--safety/improper-flu-sh...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20955829

as well as this hhs power point presentation from last summer where the last two pages discuss the above published info as well as thoughts on cause, treatment, etc.:

http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/rjl-uptomay-2010vicp2.ppt

and last this article that discusses the findings and recommendations in detail. not from any gov’t related side but after finding all the other info, i thought the article appeared credible:

http://vactruth.com/2010/09/06/shoulder-injury-related-to-vaccine-admini...

hope some of this helps. based on what i’ve gone through i truly believe it is important for everyone to file a vaers report of adverse event and talk about this so that more is done in evaluating the cause(s) and prevention of this issue. i look forward to reading your updates. and please update even if the pain goes away…it is helpful to us still hurting to read about those that have recovered…gives us hope! :-d