Bad Flu Shot?

[daisybaby]

Two days ago I went to employee health after my shift to get my annual flu shot. The initial stick didn't hurt but when the nurse pushed the plunger I felt pain like never before. I went home, and a few hours later, had pain at the site, into my shoulder and side of my neck, as well as aching that radiated to my elbow. I called my floor since some of the RNs still working had gotten theirs at the same time. All of them had similar complaints.

Later, I woke up at 0200 with such pain I had to use my left arm to pick up my right. Took 800 of motrin and went back to bed.

Today (2 days later) I still have pain at the site as well as shoulder/elbow pain and that ache radiating to the elbow. The injection site appears to be somewhat higher than where a deltoid shot would go. Closer to the top of my arm & near the shoulder, really.

Those of us with the same complaints had our shots given by the same nurse within an hour of each other. Could this be the result of a poorly placed injection? Any suggestion on how to alleviate the discomfort?

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

I find it really interesting that there are all these bad reactions to flu shots. I have gotten one most years and will continue to get them as long as I can. Last year my arm was achy for about a day, but this year, I had absolutely zero effect from it. I guess I should count my blessings!

[lamazeteacher]

There may be other reasons why you won't allow it.........one of which could be that you haven't had enough education about it. Go to the CDC's website with your concern. They'll make sure to give you correct information that isn't "anecdotal" (based on just a few people's tales which may not be correct).

[skinnurse66, LPN]

Can I ask were you are located? I am the infection control nurse at my facility and most of the patients can not communicate the pain I want to be sure I monitor them closely

Thanks

Bec

[EmilyCLPN, LPN]

I have also received a flu shot a little over a month ago. Seemed the placement was fine, I had no pain when I was injected, but now I cannot raise my arm over shoulder level, cannot put my left arm behind my back, cannot cross my body with my left arm, and cannot bear weight on the left arm because it is so painful that my elbow buckles. And as of this morning I have had the pain not only in my deltoid, but into the shoulder and the back of my neck on the left side. I dealt with people with frozen shoulder syndrome and to me my symptoms do not seem to point to frozen shoulder syndrome. Told the family doctor about this twice, and both times I was told to use warm compresses and stop "babying" it. Well sorry, I am a nurse, who definitely works a lot harder than any doctor any day of the week, and I do a lot of lifting patients, so I do not have the time or ability to baby my arm. If anyone has any ideas what I can do to make the doctors listen to me I am all ears. I plan to call my rheumatologist on Monday (I have psoriatic arthritis, which is an autoimmune disorder, and other nurses have told me that autoimmune disorders compound the problem) and see if he is able to give me any better relief from this.

[lamazeteacher]

emilyclpn said:

I have also received a flu shot a little over a month ago. Seemed the placement was fine, I had no pain when I was injected, but now I cannot raise my arm over shoulder level, cannot put my left arm behind my back, cannot cross my body with my left arm, and cannot bear weight on the left arm because it is so painful that my elbow buckles. And as of this morning I have had the pain not only in my deltoid, but into the shoulder and the back of my neck on the left side. I dealt with people with frozen shoulder syndrome and to me my symptoms do not seem to point to frozen shoulder syndrome. Told the family doctor about this twice, and both times I was told to use warm compresses and stop "babying" it. Well sorry, I am a nurse, who definitely works a lot harder than any doctor any day of the week, and I do a lot of lifting patients, so I do not have the time or ability to baby my arm. If anyone has any ideas what I can do to make the doctors listen to me I am all ears. I plan to call my rheumatologist on Monday (I have psoriatic arthritis, which is an autoimmune disorder, and other nurses have told me that autoimmune disorders compound the problem) and see if he is able to give me any better relief from this.

Your doctor may have taken the mention that you "cannot" move your arm to various directions, as an exaggeration, as it seems that you could move it and suffer more pain... He/she needed to be reminded of your autoimmune disease at the time you discuss such an aberration in post injection pain. You also might have added an (otc) anti inflammatory oral medication to the warm compress, to allay that response. I find seed filled pacs that you microwave, types of warm compresses. (many, many years ago we used oatmeal or mustard filled cloths.)

if in the future, you comment "when I lift patients from their bed to the chair, I have more pain", (of course if the patient is over 150 pounds and cannot provide assist, the hoyer should always be used.) that vision should make your healthcare provider see that you use your extremities for work, more than the average person. It is recommended that people massage and exercise the arm receiving the injection, immediately following the shot for the rest of the day.

It's definitely a heavy burden to have a chronic disease, as you do. My niece suffers from that, too so I know how it impinges on your life. She is an opera singer, and when performing in "pirates of penzance", she had to hop from a stool to the ground, wincing as she touched down, singing! We are also show givers, hiding our personal pain from those watching us. As a senior, I had the high dose vaccine and must say the post injection pain was more severe than I recall having with previous flu shots, yet I had expected that which could have the "power of suggestion". I applied my seed filled microwaved pack overnight, which helped it by morning, for several nights.

The extension of your pain to your shoulders and back is probably the result of radiation of the pain and continuing contracted muscles that occur when pain is happening nearby, much as one gets for a week or 2 after horsebackriding for the first time in a long while. I would think that massage and physical therapy treatments using the new electrostimulus equipment would help that. Don't hesitate to ask for that, as many doctors haven't their own experience receiving pt. Cost saving needs to be put aside, to prevent further damage (and expense) to your body. Also the employee health nurse there, might advise your supervisor(s) that you have less physical activity temporarily.

[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:

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.

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

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Going to close this thread. Per our terms of service, to which everyone agrees when they join, we can not provide medical advice.

We strongly encourage anyone with problems/pain/issues with the flu shot that you contact your medical provider.