Community Chat

[FrostyBabe1]

I had the flu once, despite having received a flu shot. My doctor said I likely had a lighter case since I'd had the shot, but I still felt pretty darned awful for a couple of weeks.

Last year, the new doctor in the practice tried to talk me into getting the super duper flu shot, as well as shingles and pneumonia vaccines. I said no, just the regular flu shot, as that's all my insurance will cover. They would cover it if I was on one of their Medicare plans, but I've a long way to go before that. She persisted until I said "no" to any shots. I went to Walgreens and got the regular flu shot. 

[ROMARY]

I just thought of something else.  Many, many years ago, when folks didn't travel much, if at all, there were probably only a couple of flu strains, more or less.   Now-a-days, with folks flying all around the world, chances are that there are all types of flu strains, and other diseases that, say, the average person living many, many years ago, would not be in contact (with). ( I know, 'Well, that's a given'. .....)

[cherry]

Virus can live on anything for a long time. Flu was carried into Alaska  by the mail. Think about how isolated the people there were. It still didn't protect them

[Moonchilde]

---

@cherry wrote:

For those of you who have never had the flu, you are very lucky..It's terrible

---

That's just it. They may think they're immune, they eat right, they're healthier than others - but in truth, they're just lucky along WITH a healthy lifestyle.

The people that I have known in my life who were obsessed with "eating healthy" - organic everything and vegan, and taking every supplement known to man - were the ones with the kwappiest immune systems who were *constantly* sick with some kind of virus.

[Moonchilde]

---

@FrostyBabe1 wrote:

I had the flu once, despite having received a flu shot. My doctor said I likely had a lighter case since I'd had the shot, but I still felt pretty darned awful for a couple of weeks.

Last year, the new doctor in the practice tried to talk me into getting the super duper flu shot, as well as shingles and pneumonia vaccines. I said no, just the regular flu shot, as that's all my insurance will cover. They would cover it if I was on one of their Medicare plans, but I've a long way to go before that. She persisted until I said "no" to any shots. I went to Walgreens and got the regular flu shot. 

---

They call it the 65+ vaccine, so if you're not very near 65 and/or don't have a serious chronic illness, I can't see the insistence. The only difference between the flu vaccines is that the 65+ possibly has one extra strain included that the regular flu shot doesn't, and it is 4 times more potent, to deal with general less functional immune systems as we age.

One possibly interesting thing - the first 65+ shot I got, my reaction was a week's worth of evil. I didn't want to get it again in 2016 but the doctor talked me into it. I still had an unpleasant reaction, but it was less than the first time and of slightly shorter duration. So I'll be very interested to see if, this coming year, it's slightly less still.

[RedTop]

@I am still oxox

Based on what I know from our own local "doc in a box", or Med Express, they are not the best place for treatment of certain conditions.   The walk in clinic here has referred several people I know to the local ER for situations very similar to your husbands low BP.   

Since Med Express physicians have no access to a patient's medical record to verify any health information on specific issues like your husbands normal low BP, they always refuse to treat that patient to avoid any potential issues.   Even if a nurse had taken the BP manually, and gotten the lower than normal reading, the doctor would not accept liability to prescribe the needed treatment.   

I think your husband was better off to receive his treatment at the ER.   Hopefully he will feel better soon.   

[sweetee2]

This is the thing,  there are many kind of flu. Each year they guess which kind of vaccines they are going to make. When I was working I would get a flu shot because I was  out in the public  around people. Now I'm not so I don't  get one  anymore.  When I go to the grocery store I always use a  wipe on the handle, when I get home I wash my hands after I put everything away. And stay home.I haven't  had the flu for a long time. Knock  on wood.

[Kachina624]

---

@Melania wrote:

---

@Moonchilde wrote:

I can't believe that people don't know or understand that some vaccines (shingles, flu, pneumonia) do not promise 100% total immunity forever after.  They *lessen the possibility/probability of getting the disease, and it lessens the symptoms most of the time.

It's not a guarantee, it's "best POSSIBLE outcome" IF you get it, and hopefully you won't.

It's better odds than doing nothing, regardless of the "I've never had X, hahaha!" All it takes is once. Being in the wrong place, around the wrong person, at the wrong time. Once.

Far simpler to get a vaccine, and if it doesn't offer 100% guaranteed protection, you're still better off than if you hadn't had it.

---

ITA!! I get so tired of the misinformation here and the haha too.

BTW: It's not just an educated guess...they go by the strains from previous years and expand on it.

---

People love to brag here that they never had a flu shot and never had the flu.   They are taking a very cavalier attitude with their health,  especially if they're seniors and have nobody to care for them.   It will catch up with you.   As you age,  your immune system weakens.  You have to take responsibility for your own well-being and immunizations are one way of doing that.   All I can say to the naysayers is,  "good luck". 

[ROMARY]

One year I had a very bad cough and cold which lasted well over a month.  I didn't send out any holiday cards that year, fearing that I could/would be spreading my germs to folks. 

[truffle]

I do think that some come from sturdier stock than others which makes sense as we cannot possibly be genetically all the same with our immune system.   I am somewhere in the middle, so I do get a flu shot each year.