No flu shot shortage, thanks to me!
Do you know why there’s no panic for flu shots this year? How come everyone seems to line up in an orderly fashion and there’s no insane race to get your shot?
It’s me. And those like me. People who have weighed the options and decided to chance being sick instead of getting a shot.
I am not good with needles, mostly because of a tetanus shot I had to have in like 7th-8th grade. As if that giant needle and two weeks of immobile arm were not enough, I then had to get the measles booster a few years later. Living in a small town, everybody just schlepped down to City Hall to get it done. So while there, the woman giving me the shot asked me some question, and I turned my head to answer her which gave me a good long look at the needle she was coming at me with. I promptly passed out cold in front of basically my entire hometown. At least she had the good sense to give me the shot before they tried to wake me up!
It gives me the willies to even talk about needles for this long. I can’t see them on TV or anything either, I’m that bad.
So since I didn’t get a flu shot there’s one out there for someone else. I’d rather have the aches and the pains and the stuffy head and all the other joys of the flu than get that shot. I can’t be the only person who passes on this shot-my Mother-in-Law doesn’t have a choice, she works in healthcare, and every year she gets sick enough to take at least one day off work after she gets it-so what was the point of the shot in the first place? Did you get a flu shot? Will you? Why?
I haven’t yet - but I definitely will.
Why? Simple history, really - when I get one, I don’t get the flu. When I don’t - I do.
In your mother in law’s case, I’d argue that she would have gotten a lot sicker for a lot longer if she’d actually gotten the flu itself, given her reaction. Her reaction *justifies* the shot, in other words.
I will definitely get one, if they are available. For one thing, I am an occasional asthmatic, so it’s recommended. For another, I hate missing a week of work. The one time that my wife got a flu shot and I insisted I didn’t need one, I ended up flat on my back for days, while she had nary a symptom.
Also, that crappy feeling you get after getting a shot? That’s your immune system reacting to the vaccine. It feels like getting the flu, because the shot generates a similar immune response. But that’s what has to happen if you want your body to be able to generate antibodies to the real deal. Small price to pay, in my opinion
I never have - basically the same story as yours (except the passing out at Town Hall part) and the fact that historically I don’t get sick much. But last year I was struck by the flu bug several times, enough to make me actually miss a couple days of work (which I never do) and I’m considering it this year. Although I may need someone to go with me and hold my hand.