To urge you to get your flu jab…

[sundriftwanderer]

i got flu over Christmas and it’s genuinely been the most poorly I’ve ever been. It hit me out of nowhere on Monday night and I’ve been so unwell. Night sweats, fevers, diarrhoea, the most horrendous cough, sinus congestion, a three day headache. I tested positive on Wednesday (I only tested because my dad had it), but I knew before that I had it.

Im at the point now where I slept until 11am today, had a bath at 7pm and I could go back to bed now and probably do another fifteen hours. It’s been horrendous. I’m hoping I’ve turned a bit of a corner, but I can’t imagine how it would be if I hadn’t been vaccinated.

My dad tested positive on Monday and had to have an ambulance today, thankfully he’s not gone in to hospital but he’s been asleep for pretty much five days now. He’s also vaccinated and I dread to think what would’ve happened if he wasn’t. I think we could’ve lost him.

It’s been awful. Please get your vaccine, it could’ve been a lot lot worse.

Erm what? Of course they do! As per the paramedics who attended my dad this afternoon, he’d have been hospitalised and potentially in ICU without the vaccine!

This thread has highlighted that, despite a pandemic, some people can't grasp how vaccinations work. Or that flu, like any other virus, can induce severe symptoms in some, but mild symptoms in others.

Get well soon OP.

lost my hearing as a result of flu several years ago and now have to wear hearing aids

had my jag every year since and encourage others to do the same.

it’s a horrible illness.

yes you can still catch it if vaccinated but the jag can help minimise the effects of
full blown flu and decrease your likelihood of hospitalisation or worse

Vaccines work precisely because we have an immune system. The H3N2 strain affects the elderly more than younger people and is continually evolving

Ds loves and works in a major city. Availability is very different there.

I rarely use my inhaler. Just occasionally, maybe every few months.

Just tell a wee porkie! Honestly, they are extremely unlikely to check unless it’s your own GP who is very familiar with your meds.

That sounds awful!

I’ve just tried to book us all in but there are none available anywhere. At least that means lots of people are getting it I suppose.

The local pharmacy (but they don’t have any available anyway at the moment) are attached to my GP & all my prescriptions are sent there.

Unless one's immune system has been blasted by chemo or by lupus or by all kinds of autoimmune diseases or is lowered because you've had an organ transplant and you are taking drugs to suppress the immune system that would reject it.. What an ignorant comment.

Nowhere near me sells it. None of the independent pharmacies or those attached to the supermarkets have had any stock since the beginning of November and I live in a large city. I'm fortunately covered as I was eligible for a free one but my DD can't get hers at all and she's been trying since November.

If you had the Jab why so poorly? It always makes me confused...I've not had a flu jab since probably 2013 and I've not had flu since I was a kid. People who seem to get really ill are often people who are vaccinated? Why?

Because the flu is a very, very nasty illness. It would be much worse without the jab!

I (knowingly) had flu in 2008 whenever I’d never had a flu vaccine in my life. I still didn’t get the vaccine for the next 10 years. Never had it again that I know of. I now get vaccinated. Still haven’t had it again. There isn’t a conspiracy where people who get vaccinated get it more.

I managed, with help from DH, to take a bath when I had pneumonia.

Just saying.

I'd take back the covid vaccine if I could. Stupidly I listened to the government and was forced into it . I had a holiday booked August 2020 to Barcelona and that's when we had to have covid 'passports ' id have cancelled and rather have lost all the money in hindsight.
If never put another poison jab in my arm again , including the flu jab
You do you .

You weren’t forced into anything.

how has this “poison” affected you?

Just book it online and say you are vulnerable. You will get it.

Don't be ridiculous

Why is it ridiculous? I'd take something tomorrow if it meant getting that shit out of my system. Ive never been so sick with fucking all sorts of illness since I got the jab

My big strapping 18-year-old came down with flu on Christmas Day and I've never seen him so ill. He had a raging fever, agonizing sore throat, full body aches, and he's still exhausted and barely eating a week later. He's visibly lost weight. We did a test and it was Influenza A. I had my flu jab on the 15th and I'm blooming glad I did - I felt as if I was fighting something off for a couple of days after DS became ill but it didn't develop into anything beyond feeling vaguely grotty and headachey. This was despite being in close proximity to him, helping him to take his temperature and get to the loo (he was too dizzy to walk unaided on days 1 and 2), changing his bedlinen, and sitting keeping him company. I haven't had a flu jab before, but I'm 100% going to get one every year now, and DS has said the same. It's been scary seeing him so ill. I've had real flu twice, many years ago, but this was in a league of its own.

I am the same. Looked in many pharmacies prior to Christmas and none had availability.

The Covid vaccine doesn’t stay in your system. Entirely your choice whether to have it or not - but it doesn’t stay in your system.

Vaccines are recommended to prevent severe disease and reduce hospital admissions. There are many flu strains and, each season, the vaccines are adapted to cover what experts predict to be the dominant strains that particular year.

this information is everywhere, I’m surprised you are unaware of it.

Not at all.
It’s most effective 3-4 months post vaccine.
Also the big peak was earlier this season so I think it’s better you had it then.

💯 agree with the op. I’m always first in the queue as I’m immunocompromised but I can say that I rarely even get a sniffle as long as I’ve had my jag