Flu Vaccine: Do it or not?

[Jackalope]

I was 45 at the time.

Forty-five is not old?

Nope.

[Chad32]

I was 45 at the time.

Forty-five is not old?

It's barely over the hump.

[Jacob(smooth)]

Tis true. We throw the word flu around far too freely. There was a flu epidemic after ww1 which killed more people than the war. It can fuck you right up whatever age you are. It's a killer!

I had it once. Very mild dose when I was at. Uni. My abiding memory was about a week in, linking the salt from empty pistachio shells because I didn't think I could make it to the kitchen.

The simple test is this. Someone drops £100 on the pavement outside your house. If you'd go Fetch it, it's a cold. If you couldn't it's the flu.

[pocaracas]

The simple test is this. Someone drops £100 on the pavement outside your house. If you'd go Fetch it, it's a cold. If you couldn't it's the flu.

When you put like that... I've never had the flu.

[NoraBrimstone]

The simple test is this. Someone drops £100 on the pavement outside your house. If you'd go Fetch it, it's a cold. If you couldn't it's the flu.

Yes! This is how someone at my work put it, and I couldn't agree more! I got flu right after my Grandmother died, and the effort it took to go to her funeral was ridiculous. It nearly killed me, I was sat there in the crematorium when I got a nosebleed just from the physical stress of walking around. Then I picked up some other bug that made me throw up, too. I remember later that night I suddenly needed to puke and ran to the toilet, my worried sister right behind me to check I was ok, and as I puked, blood squirted out of my nose like nothing I'd ever seen before. My sister reckons the blood hit the toilet bowl before my vomit did.
So I ended up coughing, sneezing, bleeding, vomiting, headachey, in pain all over, and then got all this icky fliud on ny lungs to add to it. I thought I was dying and kept ringing NHS Direct for advice on whether or not to go to hospital. One night my breathing was so bad I got my sister to stay with me and make sure I didn't stop altogether. So yeah, when people say they have flu when they clearly have a cold, it pisses me off somewhat.

But still, the thought of going through all that again scares me less than the thought of getting stabbed with a needle for some unknown, totally illogical reason.

[Chad32]

When you describe it like that, I'm not sure I've ever had the flu. Just bad colds. Probably the worst I've been is being exhausted, but unable to sleep. I don't think I've ever been bedridden.

[Jacob(smooth)]

The simple test is this. Someone drops £100 on the pavement outside your house. If you'd go Fetch it, it's a cold. If you couldn't it's the flu.

Yes! This is how someone at my work put it, and I couldn't agree more! I got flu right after my Grandmother died, and the effort it took to go to her funeral was ridiculous. It nearly killed me, I was sat there in the crematorium when I got a nosebleed just from the physical stress of walking around. Then I picked up some other bug that made me throw up, too. I remember later that night I suddenly needed to puke and ran to the toilet, my worried sister right behind me to check I was ok, and as I puked, blood squirted out of my nose like nothing I'd ever seen before. My sister reckons the blood hit the toilet bowl before my vomit did.
So I ended up coughing, sneezing, bleeding, vomiting, headachey, in pain all over, and then got all this icky fliud on ny lungs to add to it. I thought I was dying and kept ringing NHS Direct for advice on whether or not to go to hospital. One night my breathing was so bad I got my sister to stay with me and make sure I didn't stop altogether. So yeah, when people say they have flu when they clearly have a cold, it pisses me off somewhat.

But still, the thought of going through all that again scares me less than the thought of getting stabbed with a needle for some unknown, totally illogical reason.

It's not unknown at all. It's the abstract risk of flu against the immediate reality of an injection. Allowing someone to stick a needle in you is counterintuitive, no matter how much your rational conscious brain tells you it's a good idea, your irrational subconscious tells you it's a really bad idea.

Needle phobias are both very common and very real.

We're not always the logical rational creatures we like to think we are.

[Jackalope]

The simple test is this. Someone drops £100 on the pavement outside your house. If you'd go Fetch it, it's a cold. If you couldn't it's the flu.

When you put like that... I've never had the flu.

As bad as the flu was for me, it was nothing compared to the pneumonia that followed. Couldn't eat for nearly a week, couldn't sleep due to pleurisy, fever as high as 105F. Oh, and gasping for breath. I was so delerius from fever that I didn't realize how sick I was. My roommate and friends couldn't convince me to go to the hospital. By the time I did go to the hospital, had I not been treated, I surely would have died - and I say that without a hint of exaggeration.

Made the norovirus look like a walk in the park.

[Jacob(smooth)]

When you put like that... I've never had the flu.

As bad as the flu was for me, it was nothing compared to the pneumonia that followed. Couldn't eat for nearly a week, couldn't sleep due to pleurisy, fever as high as 105F. Oh, and gasping for breath. I was so delerius from fever that I didn't realize how sick I was. My roommate and friends couldn't convince me to go to the hospital. By the time I did go to the hospital, had I not been treated, I surely would have died - and I say that without a hint of exaggeration.

Made the norovirus look like a walk in the park.

Oh yes, pleurisy is a joy. Not an uncommon sequellae.

On the other hand, I had a sore arm for hours after my flu jab!

[rexbeccarox]

You know, I did get the flu the year I got the flu shot. I don't like being called a liar. It was confirmed by my doctor. And no, if someone had dropped any sum of money on the sidewalk, I wouldn't have fetched it. It was likely the worst I've ever felt.

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That said, now that I've done more research and read some of your stories, I probably will get the shot this year. I think when I got the flu it must have been a rogue strain or something.