Flu Shot…Or Not?
About a year ago, we were living in fear of the swine flu. (Yeah, I know it’s officially called the h1n1 flu, but I think most of us will remember it as the swine flu because of all the media attention it got last year.) And by the week of homecoming last year, the flu had hit our home.
I’ll never live down the way I initially handled Lexie’s bout with the swine flu. I got a call from the school secretary saying Lexie was in the office, feeling sick, and wanted to come home. She only had one class to go before school was done for the day and she didn’t sound too bad, so I told her I thought she could make it until the end of the day. I called the secretary back a few minutes later and asked her how bad Lexie looked. She thought Lexie looked okay to make it through the day so I just showed up at dismissal as usual. By the time we were settled in at home, Lexie had a fever and I realized I’d made the wrong call.
The next morning I took Lexie to the doctor bright and early and she was diagnosed with the h1n1 flu. We spent the next few days giving her anti-viral drugs and trying to keep her comfortable. And I went through unreasonable amounts of Clorox wipes, hand-sanitizer, and Lysol.
Meanwhile, life went on for my other teen. But we felt a bit like lepers. Once people found out that Lexie had the flu, we were pretty unwelcome. Others who had flu in their families have shared similar stories of people wanting to avoid them as they went through the course of their kids’ illnesses. While I can understand the feelings, especially in the face of the hysteria over this flu, it made one more layer of worry for Dr. Mom. As it turns out, none of the rest of us got the flu.
So this year, as I hear about the flu vaccines that are available, I am torn about whether to get in line. None of us have ever received the flu vaccine. And in all the years we’ve lived through flu season, Lexie’s bout with the flu last fall was the only one our family has ever had. I sure wouldn’t want any of us to be as sick as Lexie was last year, but I worry about side-effects of the vaccine, too.
I’d love to hear from the readers of this blog whether they get the flu shot and why or why not. Anybody have any advice for me?
Well, Karen, as a nurse, I am a firm believer in the flu shot; always have been and I have always taken it over the years and don’t remember having any sort of adverse effect. I did get it this year about 10 days ago and coincidently have suffered a very terrible “cold” during the past 5-7 days and have ended up at last on antibiotics to try to overcome what ails me! And we are NOT antibiotic people at our house unless ABSOLUTELY necessary; Flu shot cause and effect? Just don’t rightly know. But, I will take it agin next year and recommend it now to all eligible candidates!