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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To get a flu jab?

81 replies

QuestionableMouse · 03/10/2019 19:38

I'm mid 30s and relatively healthy. Struggle with anemia but that's it.

A couple years ago I had a really bad dose of the flu that almost put me in hospital. It took me almost a year to recover fully (and to be honest, I've never felt quite as good as I did before)

Thinking about getting a flu jab this year because I'm really scared of getting the flu again.

Aibu?

OP posts:
LadyB49 · 03/10/2019 22:17

Got mine yesterday, free. But would pay.
Have had it for 12 years. Never any ill effects other than slight tenderness at the site.

HerRoyalNotness · 03/10/2019 22:20

We all get them yearly. I can’t afford to be sick. DD then 1 got the flu and I saw how miserable it was and we got a rather large bill for it. Our insurance pays for the shots as it’s much cheaper than being hospitalised.!

DrPimplePopper · 03/10/2019 22:38

I used to get it regularly as work with children. The last jab I got made my arm red and swollen and I couldn't move it properly for over a week, never had that all the years previously. On top of that I then got flu anyway. I'm not sure if I should get the jab again as it was such a weird, bad reaction. I think I'll speak to the pharmacist about it and see why I might have had that reaction.

Original poster
QuestionableMouse · 03/10/2019 22:47

@GreytExpectations

I had it in 2015. Like I said I ended up in a cycle of vomiting which took a while to he sorted and then I also ended up severely anemic and with low vit D that meant I felt extremely ill for a long time. Took me a full year before I really got it all sorted.

Now I just feel like I get mor colds/bugs in general. Before the flu I could shake a cold off in a couple of days but now it leaves me feeling wiped out for over a week. Just little things really.

I'm not scared of bothered by needles. It was more the way the pharmacist looked at me like I was being totally unreasonable.

OP posts:
ElizaPancakes · 03/10/2019 22:48

I don’t really understand why you think you might be unreasonable? Apart from anything else, it’s not the pharmacists business what you choose to spend your money on!

I have mine every year through work and the children get it at school. None of us have ever been ill, but even a reaction is unlikely to be worse than actual flu.

HoldMyLobster · 03/10/2019 23:19

I'm a bit confused on how it's taken you a year to recover from a flu and it's left you not as healthy has you used to be, years later. Sorry if that's insensitive, I know flu is horrible but that just seems like a very extreme reaction.

Well, it killed my stepsister, so I can entirely understand how the OP might have been ill enough to have been affected in the long term.

OP, I get the flu shot every year because it's offered to everyone in my country. I've had flu twice and I never want to get it again if I can help it.

LtJudyHopps · 03/10/2019 23:31

Ignore the pharmacist. You can book online with boots I did this last year and will do so this year.

GeorgiaGirl52 · 04/10/2019 00:18

Everyone in my family gets one every year. Only side effect for the adults is a sore arm. My youngest granddaughter however develops a craving for chocolate mint ice cream immediately after the shot. Grin

SnowsInWater · 04/10/2019 00:35

Where I live in Aus everyone who can is encouraged to get a flu jab. It's free for lots of people at the GP surgery and many employers offer it to staff either onsite or via a voucher system. I think it's the equivalent of £6-7 if you have to pay for it. All decent pharmacies offer it.

greenlynx · 04/10/2019 00:37

We have one usually. One year I and DH decided not to have it. We both got a flu and were very unwell. DD had flu jab and was perfectly fine.
I bet the pharmacist was just surprised that you’ve asked questions.

GypsyRoseTea · 04/10/2019 00:38

I get it because like you I was very very ill - months of recovery, I didn’t even care about my kids!

JenniR29 · 04/10/2019 00:47

Go for it. I get one every year. People seriously underestimate the damage that flu can do.

steff13 · 04/10/2019 00:48

They encourage everyone to get them here. Pharmacists usually give them for free to anyone. YANBU to want to get one.

bellinisurge · 04/10/2019 08:24

"I'm a bit confused on how it's taken you a year to recover from a flu and it's left you not as healthy has you used to be, years later. Sorry if that's insensitive, I know flu is horrible but that just seems like a very extreme reaction."

Because flu is not a "heavy cold". That is not an extreme reaction. Post viral problems can be hellish too.

chemenger · 04/10/2019 08:30

I get mine in Sainsbury’s every year, £12 last year I think, money well spent. I’ve never discussed why I’m having it with the pharmacist. I work in a university and I encourage all my students to get it as well, university seems to be on par with nursery for spreading germs! Last year I happened to be living temporarily in the US, the only free thing that our health insurance provided was a flu vaccination.

Littlebelina · 04/10/2019 08:38

Will be getting it, first year in a while I've not got it free but worth the money to reduce the risk of getting it. We all had a flu like illness last year (must have been a strain not covered) and it was horrible. Ignore the pharmacist, surely the reason it's offered privately is for anyone who wants it...

lololove · 04/10/2019 08:53

I generally get the snuffles and a sore throat a week after having it. Last year was the first year I didn't but about an hour after I'd had the jab I got a call from a distraught pharmacist apologising profusely because he'd given me the over 65 jab 🤣 Im only mid to late early twenties!... (mid thirties). But yeah, I didn't have so much as a cold last winter/spring 🤣🤣🤣

Ohyesiam · 04/10/2019 08:58

The chances of the jab working on new strains of flu likely to be around this winter is very small.
I heard a top immunologist talking about it on radio 4, and he says it’s unlikely to be particularly effective for about the next 20 years when they have gathered antibodies to enough strains of flu to make it effective. And even then the virus can mutate rendering the jab of little value.

Sparklingbrook · 04/10/2019 09:03

I have had the jab for years and not had the flu or even a cold so that’s good enough for me.
Plus I don’t have school age children bringing every germ home any more.

WWlOOlWW · 04/10/2019 09:04

Had mine yesterday, free but I would pay for sure.

Flu is a bastard and can leave you feeling drained for ages.

Get it done.

Grumpyperson · 04/10/2019 09:07

at least you won't be the person who gives an unvaccinated person the flu that kills them

That's a rather nasty and unnecessary comment. The vaccine is only available to certain groups of people for free, there isn't enough for everyone even if you pay for it, it doesn't work part/most of the time and most people get proper flu a couple of times only in their lives (as far as I know I have only had it twice and I am 47). There is a course on Futurelearn about flu, it's free, and worth doing so you are better informed. People should be made to feel guilty for not getting the vaccine if they are in good health and indeed it is better to leave the supplies for those who are not.

However, if you have asthma I'd have thought you could get it for free via your GP (and our GP asks that you get it from them rather than Boots, Superdrug etc, as they get funding to provide it).

recrudescence · 04/10/2019 09:09

I have had the jab for years and not had the flu or even a cold so that’s good enough for me.

Ditto. Except I don’t bother with an injection and prefer to rely on my lucky rabbit’s foot.

Cleverplayonwords · 04/10/2019 09:12

It was more the way the pharmacist looked at me like I was being totally unreasonable

Did you go into a big explanation like you have here? She might have been wondering why you were going on about it.
Just go into boots and ask for it, pay the fee and walk out. No over explaining required.

AJPTaylor · 04/10/2019 09:13

I have only ever had flu once. I understood then how people died from it! I have never felt worse. I am first in line for the jab.

JamieVardysHavingAParty · 04/10/2019 09:23

I don't understand the situation. In my experience, this stuff usually goes like this:

Me: "Morning, I'd like to buy a flu jab."
Pharmacist: "certainly, cash or card? What's you name, please? Right, bear with me and my colleague will call you in shortly."

Where did the odd look come in?

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