Get Your Flu Shot, Folks!

[laundry_queen]

162. The thing is

that it's not just about you.

When I get the flu, it goes straight to my lungs. I used to think I could handle the flu just fine, even though I had asthma. When I was first diagnosed with asthma at 14, I had been dealing with bronchitis the entire winter. So my mom took me for a flu shot, which at the time was not covered by our provincial health care unless you were deemed 'high risk' (asthma was not classified as high risk at the time, but my mom's friend was the nurse submitting the paperwork and had seen me sick all year and put me down as high risk). I didn't get sick again for years and was lulled into a false sense of security and didn't think I needed to bother with a flu shot.

Then, when I was 33, I caught the flu. Bad. It went straight to my lungs. For weeks I sat in bed coughing my brains out until one day it was so bad I coughed until I saw stars and I vomited and nearly peed my pants. My now-ex was unsympathetic, so I drove myself to the hospital. Where I was rushed into a room for hours of breathing treatments. My lungs had basically closed up shop and no air was getting in. I have the type of asthma where I don't wheeze, I cough. So I didn't realize how serious the problem was.

It took me months to recover. Regular breathing treatments, inhalers, meds etc. were now part of my routine (for years I was med free with my asthma). Then H1N1 came out and my doctor told me I was now officially high risk and made sure I was there the very first day the vaccine was available. Good thing too...3 days later my daughter came down with H1N1 (we're pretty sure - the school sent home a note saying many confirmed cases at the school and the health hotline for our province said she had textbook symptoms). Even though it had only been 3 days since my vaccine, I never did get H1N1 even though I was my daughter's primary caregiver the whole time she was sick (1 week of school then a month of coughing - and she doesn't have asthma).

Ever since then, I get the flu shot every year, except one year where I caught the flu before the shot was available, and then was constantly sick until Christmas - where all our local places were out of the flu vaccine that year. When I caught the flu that one time - I, once again, ended up with bronchitis/borderline pneumonia, had to go in for breathing treatments at our local clinic and took MONTHS to recover. I couldn't even talk without choking and coughing. It drastically affected my daily life (especially because I was a single parent in school full time, I couldn't afford to miss anything).

When I do get the flu shot, I rarely get sick. When I miss it, I get sick and it lasts for months. And because the vaccine is not 100% effective, yes, when I get the flu shot, it's not necessarily going to protect me. And when you are running around carrying the flu, maybe you take a day or 2 off work and recover just fine, but in the meantime you give it to me and affect my life for months on end. In the last few years, I can't even catch a cold without it going straight to my lungs. I'm fighting a cold currently and I can feel my lungs tightening up and I know I'm in for a few weeks of choking coughs. I don't want to see how bad a flu would be now.

I do get worried - I am exactly in the high risk category they warn people about that may die. My kids need me. I do what I can - we all get the shots, we are fanatical about hand washing and we try not to get run down. However, people who think they are 'too healthy' and don't need the shot are the ones *I* need to worry about. My dad was once one of those people - until he had pneumonia a few years ago from the flu. He was really run down for a long time. It woke him up and how he goes with my mom to get vaccinated too. My xFIL is on dialysis and has immune issues, and he could easily die from one bout with the flu. One unvaccinated person carrying around the flu sneezing in a waiting room is all it takes. And most people are contagious before they even know they have the flu, so self isolation isn't necessarily going to prevent passing it on to someone who is vulnerable.

I get why people don't feel like they need it, and they are worried about side effects, or reactions. I don't get that luxury anymore. When I don't get the vaccine, and when people around me don't get it, my life is actually at risk.