#%@&$ Flu Shot!

Sheri257 · Oct 31, 2006

Here we go with ignorance about the flu shot again ... so much for educated healthcare professionals ... not. :nono:

Yes ... I got a nasty cold right after the flu shot. Is it because of the flu shot. NO. 'Tis the season to get sick ... everybody has the same cold I have.

The flu shot can't cause nor can it do anything about the common cold. I know better than to blame it on that.

I tell ya ... it's very discouraging to read these posts. It's shocking that nurses would actually spread such myths.

:no:

RoxanRN · Oct 31, 2006

No one has mentioned anything about a cold....... just general aches and pains that probably weren't exactly coincidental.

mysticalwaters1 · Oct 31, 2006

In years' past, we were encouraged to get flu shots. This year it is mandatory. I never got them before because the only time I did I was feverish and sick for a couple of days afterward. I have only gotten the real flu 1 time in the past 20 years! So, yesterday I dutifully went for my flu shot and here I am with a fever and feeling sore and miserable. And, yes, they expect me to go to work tomorrow. Hopefully the fever will be gone. I HATE flu shots!!!:angryfire

I hated flu shots too b/c every time I got one my shoulder felt warm and extremely sore as if a hammer hit it. Well maybe not that bad but very painful. I still would get them and still plan too, but this year I just got one several days ago and it was slightly sore in the muscle then completely gone. It was the first time I never had lots of soreness after. Is it due to it being updated for different strains, or technique in administering it???

Pompom · Oct 31, 2006

My employer offers the flu shot if you want it, they encourage it but it is not mandatory.

allnurses Guide · Oct 31, 2006

Here we go with ignorance about the flu shot again ... so much for educated healthcare professionals ... not.
Yes ... I got a nasty cold right after the flu shot. Is it because of the flu shot. NO. 'Tis the season to get sick ... everybody has the same cold I have.
The flu shot can't cause nor can it do anything about the common cold. I know better than to blame it on that.
I tell ya ... it's very discouraging to read these posts. It's shocking that nurses would actually spread such myths.

Thanks Lizz . . .

As to whether people could have the same symptoms and it NOT be coincidence and rather the result of the flu shot . . . how many times have you gotten a cold and your whole family ends up with it in short order? Two or more of your kids wake up with a sore throat? Your co-workers have the same cold symptoms? How fast does as stomach virus make it's way though a LTC facility or even a family?

As to a sore shoulder, I think that it is technique . . . I've had shots from folks that I never even feel and others that feel like they've gone through to my underarm. Sorta like when you have to have blood drawn . . some techs have such great technique that you barely feel it and others jab that darn needle in so hard it feels like it ended up in your elbow. How tense your muscle is makes a difference too. How long a needle makes a difference.

steph

brendamyheart · Oct 31, 2006

In years' past, we were encouraged to get flu shots. This year it is mandatory. I never got them before because the only time I did I was feverish and sick for a couple of days afterward. I have only gotten the real flu 1 time in the past 20 years! So, yesterday I dutifully went for my flu shot and here I am with a fever and feeling sore and miserable. And, yes, they expect me to go to work tomorrow. Hopefully the fever will be gone. I HATE flu shots!!!:angryfire

Mandatory? You are not in the armed forces. I do not think they can force you to get a flu shot. What will happen if you say no???

I have been getting the flu shot for many years, however I got one this year, and felt semi-sick.

brendamyheart · Oct 31, 2006

I would be eating egg salad and telling them I am allergic to eggs.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

brendamyheart · Oct 31, 2006

3 whole days after receiving the shot, you picked up a stomach virus or you got food poisoning. It was merely a coincidence.
As to the mandatory nature - I think that if you work with the elderly in LTC or in an NICU, it should be mandatory.
steph

Sorry to say this, "It's my body and I'm gonna to what I want with it, what I want with it" Needless to say. I work in LTC, do we tell the families that visit, they need to get the flu shot also?? I have gotten the flu shot for years. Never had a problem till this year. Was sluggish and achy for a week. OH, I rember a family member and all the kids came to visit, they had a cold!! My point is, good handwashing. :wink2: :wink2:

huskersfan · Nov 1, 2006

Where I work they used to make it mandatory for the shot and you had to have a doctors note why you couldn't/wouldn't take it. Last year they highly encouraged it, but if you took it, they made us pay an injection fee of $7.50 . I haven't decided yet if I am getting it or not this year.

allnurses Guide · Nov 1, 2006

Our hospital gives them for free and they are not mandatory.

I haven't had one yet . . . . . but we started getting them this week on Monday and I woke up Tuesday morning with a sore throat . . . if I had gotten that shot on Monday boy would I have thought I got my sore throat from the flu shot?

Actually, my whole family now has sore throats and my 5 year old is coughing . . . . . I'm sure it was simply a virus one of us picked up.

One of the grocery stores in which I shop has a canister of antibiotic wipes at the door so you can wipe off the handle of the shopping cart. I also carry antibiotic gel.

Still, I got sick.

steph

neneRN, BSN, RN · Nov 1, 2006

I know the injection is a dead virus, I know the flu shot doesn't make you sick, yada yada yada... but I also know that the only time I have been sick (more than a runny nose or little cough) in the past 15 years is the one year that I did get the flu shot; about a week and a half after the injection, I was the sickest I've probably ever been in my life...so horrible...maybe a coincidence, probably a coincidence, who cares..not chancing it again- I will not get another flu shot, will stick to handwashing.

secchnce · Nov 6, 2006

I had guellain barre syndrome, I am not allowed to take a flu shot. I have never had my children get a flu shot either.