Have you had your flu shot yet? More women are making the choice to get the flu shot yearly

I recommend getting a yearly flu vacinne. I like to get a flu shot every year seeing as it is going to help me avoid the flu.  If you work around children or have several as I do, then it is definitely worth it. I am responsible for getting my children and my own flu shot.  If I am sick then I can’t take care of my family.  You have to watch out for number one.  There is nothing superficial about your health.  A side benefit is that you look good if you are healthy.  You don’t look good sick.  But alas, getting the flu shot (or any medical attention for that matter) is easier said than done.

Flu shot vacinne supply shortages. They always run out of the shot on us

I am the mouse, and the flu shot is the cheese.  And it is hard for me to get to the cheese.  If you are lucky enough to have insurance, good luck getting your flu shot from it.  Trying to get the flu shot covered by insurance for myself and my children is like, a true mouse hunt.  HMO insurance will theoretically cover the shot, but in my family’s case, by the time you get it, flu season will have ended.  You have to make appointments in advance (reservations) with your primary care physician’s via forever on hold phone calls to the office, to schedule the shot.  Then they don’t have a shipment.  You arrive, they are out.  Then you have to continually call to check shipment arrival times.  They are out.  Wait until next week.  In the meantime, your child gets the flu and then you do.

Take advantage of local flu shot clinics, or doc in the box urgent care centers

I made a decision while sitting next to an incredibly flu-ridden sibling of my daughter’s friend at a table at a school picnic.  She coughed right on me (I was in the gray zone of having scheduled the shot but had not gotten it yet)  and that was the epiphany.  I am not waiting.  I am going to pay.  I systematically called pharmacies all over Los Angeles to find a clinic near me that would take children five and over.  Once I found a clinic, I confirmed they had the shots, got the five of us over there and paid the pricey thirty dollars per shot for it.  Now it is done.  Trust me I want to save money.  I do.    But when it comes to easy potential for illness, avoiding it comes at a higher priority.  Any illness we get as a mature person, can turn into complications and I feel like I need to be better safe than sorry.  There is a certain satisfaction in blowing off the insurance and paying cold hard cash for what you need.  Although maybe this is what the insurance is hoping we do.

Safety concerns regarding the flu vacinne. Should you be concerned for your health?

Flu shots from the drugstore often have the mercury in them and I’ve heard care must be taken.   In fact, any time you get a shot or immunization of any kind you could get a bad reaction.  I read a horror story about a woman named Desiree Jennings who developed severe neurological problems (dystonia), due to a severe reaction to a flu shot.  But then other stories were that she got it from a psycological problem.  So who knows.  But overall I think the flu shots are relatively safe.

If you have a child younger than say five, you may want the mercury free version.   I think the flu shot is cultured in chicken egg media, so you can’t have it if you are allergic to eggs.  There are also preservations in the shot that people can have a bad reaction to.  If you are scared of it you can use hand sanitizer’s constantly instead to try and avoid getting the flu.  If you are around kids though I personally still think it is worth getting.   There are some scary horror stories floating around but getting a flu with a 105 degree temperature once or twice is good incentive to risk the shot.  Some people get sickish  from absorbing the stuff in the shot because their immune system kicks in to make antibodies for it.   I’m no microbiologist but I do gossip just like everybody else. 

If you like pesticides and are scared of needles, I’ve heard that you can get the flu shot via a mist, called FluMist.   I wonder if pretty soon we will be getting our immunizations via mists instead of shots.   My children cry over getting shots in the arm and might actually like the Flumist.  Personally, I think I will stick with getting the flu vacine via a shot.

H1N1 vacinne. Now there is swine flu and yet another vacinne to have to locate and pay for

A footnote is that the flu shot evidently does not cover the swine flu.   H1N1 (swine flu) virus is different than the seasonal flu virus.  H1N1 virus is a strain of the seasonal flu virus.  My daughter was sent home from her summer sleepover camp for one week during the summer due to the swine flu scare.  It turned out she wasn’t sick at all, but all over California children were sent home from camp if they had even the mildest fever. One week of my daughter missing camp was all I needed to become an H1N1 proponent.

I actually brought my children in to an urgent care clinic and was lucky enough to get the shot for them. Their supply was impacted however and I was not able to get back in for the second dose as yet. Children under nine were actually recomended for two doses of the shot however I heard that clinics were refusing to administer the second doses because of supply constraints. The clinic did not inform me that a second shot was needed – I only noticed that after I got home and read the find print on the paperwork consent form I had signed.

Pneumonia Vacinne. In a few more years I do intend to get the Pneumonia shot too!

They always move the cheese and we always have to adapt.  Pretty soon the cheese will be the pneumonia shot too, because when I get even more advanced in years or health compromised they also recommend that shot for me.  My understanding is that they recommend the pneumonia shot for people in their sixties, and younger if they have medical concerns and are immune compromised.  I have actually had pneumonia before during one of my pregnancies and it was not a fun ride.  We need to be like smart mice and adapt to find the cheese.  I was 44 in the above photographs.  That was about the age I began to realize that I was a mouse (needing shots).