Thoughts on the flu shot

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Hi Everybody.

The time has come for flu shots if you want them, and i notice some hospital staff get them and others don't. Some swear by them every year, and some feel better off w/o them. Do you get them? Or do you feel better off w/o it? There is much information out there, but what I don't know is my own immune.sys.

Each year during the Winter I usually get a "common cold" that will force me to feel weak with usual symptoms. Everyone knows getting a cold is nasty for the week or two it takes to run it's course. I know it's caused by a virus that gets in my nose and tries to take over my adnoids, but my body mounts a response/antibody.

Will getting a flu shot prevent a common cold, or just a specific strain of "adnoid viruses." (hong kong flu?) Are all flu shots the same across the country?

Some people have said they actually sick from the shot. Some say they take asprins the day before they get the shot to head off aches associated with a low level fever.

If anyone would like to give their experiences with the annual flu shot, or would like to share info about it in general, I thank you.

I'm not getting a flu shot because I am healthy, and I heard it can't prevent the common cold, only a specific strain. Only if it will help to prevent a common cold will I go for it.

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Mario- a virus commonly called a"cold" is nothing like influenza, which kills plenty of older folks every winter.

Get a shot if you work in a healthcare setting- for your pts if not for yourself.

"Flu" always involves coughing, always.

A cold does not necessariy involve coughing.

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Flu shots are used to prevent whatever particular virus that authorities feel will be causing the most problems. I'm not sure how they determine which virus will be particularly virulent in a given year.

It does nothing for the common cold. The common cold has so many different strains, they can't seem to pin it down with a vaccine.

All flu shots are the same across the country.

Authorities (scientists and such) say it's impossible to get sick from the flu shot, but a lot of people out there beg to differ. I've had the shot, never got sick. I've had friends who say otherwise.

I had managed to catch a really bad flu bug one year. Husband must have brought it home from his travels or something, then all three kids had it at once. The oldes was six and the time and actually thought he was going to die.

By the time the kids started to recover, I came down with it. I could barely move for over a week. Nothing helped relieved the aches and exhaustion.

For several years I got the shot every fall. Then there was such a shortage, I quit getting them. Haven't been sick beyond the sniffles every couple of years with or without the shots. So no, I doubt I'll get one this year.

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I don't care what the immunization kills or doesn't kill, I am rolling up my sleve! And don't forget to get a once per lifetime pneumonia shot.

Another reminder. I had the Hep B series 10 years ago, needed viral titres done for another reason, Low and behold I no longer was immune for Hep B, and I bet you guessed what I did.... I rolled up my sleve, and I have positive titres again.

A true wish for you all to be well.

Barbara

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I'm a novice, admittedly, but the flu and a cold must be similiar in that they both use droplet as a vector, as well as your hands/fomites/face. Also, don't both flu and colds start out in the adnoids. I heard you can catch a cold/flu via your eyes, to lacrimal glands, then to adnoids, but isn't it your adnoid cells that are invaded in any case?

A "head cold" doesn't spread down your airways, but more severe "flu" get into your respiratory.sys, right?

Last month a caught a cold that took 10 days to run through me, and I often wonder about the exact point in which I contracted the "low level" virus. What did I touch? Was it "bad air" that I passed through? I wish I had eyes like a scanning electron microscope that could look out for the shapes of virons. Until then, I wash my hands with soap and water because alcohol foam won't kill the spores.

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Mario,

You think too much. No you are not right on any of your theories.

When you get your Masters degree in Virology, speculate then.

Influenza sucks!

What most people call the flu, is a severe upper rispiratory infection that is viral in nature and very soon a secondary bacterial infection finds it's way to the host. Do yourself a favor, wash your hands, take the flu shot and follow these words of wisdom:

When I get the seasonal Upper Respiratory In fection, I am not afraid I might die from it, my biggest fear is I actually might live through it.

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Specializes in Geriatrics/Oncology/Psych/College Health.

I get my flu shot every year. Why not? It's a dead version of the virus, so it can't make you sick and it can prevent serious illness. And it's offered free by most healthcare workplaces.

Now the flu nasal spray that's new is made of a live virus, so I doubt I'd be ever trying that (plus I'm not a needle-phobe.)

I might add that the new CDC recommendations http://www.cdc.gov/handhygiene/ support use of alcohol-based sanitizers under some circumstances. The gov't is not quick to change recommendations, and this one is thoroughly researched.

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The flu vaccine is a killed virus and cannot give you the flu, HOWEVER if you have already been exposed to the virus or are exposed within the first 1-2 weeks of getting the shot, it will not prevent the flu. I think this is the reason that people think that the shot gave them the flu. They had already been exposed and did not know it. I developed asthma after getting the flu last year. My immunologist tells me that this is fairly common. I had no idea that developing asthma was a risk from getting the flu. I will get the shot this year. I have only gotten it once before but had already been exposed to the virus, so got the flu anyway. :( After that happened I decided to just take my chances, but never again!

I give flu and pneumonia shots in my area every year. The information we are told to give people is that the pneumonia shot is good for only 10 years, not a lifetime?

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Originally posted by BarbPick

Mario,

You think too much. No you are not right on any of your theories.

When you get your Masters degree in Virology, speculate then.

(psst- Barb-allow me to introduce Mario---who stopped posting to the board a few months back....Check out some previous threads for more info....) I have not had the flu since 1998-and I remember hoping I would just die...even my HAIR hurt...My doc gave me a few days worth of amantidine-I don't know if it helped -O still wanted to die...And the amantidine gave me vertigo......I get the shot to help protect my residents...
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I get the flu shot every year. The flu can kill, or make you wish you were dead. I will do anything to up my odds against getting it. I have had bronchitis, and pneumonia in the past after coming down with the flu. I also want to protect my patients, and my family from coming down with the flu.

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Specializes in Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.

I swear by my annual flu shot. I do believe friends who sat they've gotten sick from it but I've had the flu twice in the last decade and both times was so sick I could barely move. One of the times my husband and baby had it at the same time. All my daughter wanted to do for four days was sleep, or I don't know if i could have cared for her physically.Scary!

Also, most of my patients are elderly and debilitated and I would risk exposing them

while I was "incubating" it.

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