Since I travel too damn much, my wife insisted I get a flu shot. So I got the stab yesterday, and have two questions.
Woke up this morning feeling like s*** with a really sore arm - could barely lift it above my head as the deltoid feels like Barry Bonds followed-through into it. Decided to blow off this morning’s swim until later today. Have never even noticed a flu shot before - so Q1 = anybody else reacting to this year’s version?
(And no, this isn’t any type of hypersensitivity or allergic reaction - just plain ol’ ‘flu-like symptoms’ and muscle soreness that some folks get after these vaccinations - but it seems odd to react this way for the first time.)
And Q2 = Any reason I shouldn’t throw myself in the pool and gut out a swim this afternoon? Friday’s my endurance swim day, so the repeats are longer (and about 30% of the workout is kicking). It’ll be unpleasant, but I know I’m not really sick, just achy.
I’ve heard A LOT of people who have reacted to this year’s flu vaccine strongly. For me it was fine- my arm was really sore for about 12 hours and then it passed.
Get in the pool- it’ll loosen up that arm and help dissipate the inflammation
Doc,
Q1: I got the mist this year and it has been awesome. My head was a little dry for about 6 hours, then no side effects at all. Haven’t even had a sniffle, and that is with 3 snot-nosed, sneezing, wheezing, coughing kids running around.
I’m no doctor, but my doctor swore up and down that there is absolutely no way that a flu vaccine can make you sick. As he said, it is DEAD and can’t make you sick under any circumstances. If that is true, it may actually, and despite your opinion to the contrary, be an allergic reaction of some sort. You’d know more than me for sure, but don’t people develop allergies later in life or at random times on occasion?
If it is possible to get flu symptoms from the vaccine, why is my doctor so wrong? Is he a kook?
I had a similar reaction to the shot so I guess it’s normal.
My advice is that you should skip the swim. If your arm still hurts, it won’t get worse but it will kill you during the workout. Plus, when you take a shot you should take extra care with your health on that day since your immune system will be facing a half-death virus but it’s still a virus.
Not sure if this is accurate but I’ll give it a shot- flame away if I’m wrong:
You can not get the flu from a vaccine. But…
The purpose of the vaccine is to activate your immune system to begin making protective antibodies. Activation of the immune system, especially for highly active vaccines (this year seems to be extra immunogenic), can cause some symptoms that might mimic being slightly sick because of the immune response itself.
An allergy would probably be immediate and fairly obvious (anaphylactic).
Accurately - it cannot give you the flu. It can, however make you sick if you are allergic to the medium they breed the vaccine in. It gave me allergenic encephalitis when I was 7. Damn near died, and was fortunate enough to only exhibit enough brain damage to do triathlons. Thank gods for Sick Kids of Michigan.
Yup. Mild systemic effects (low-grade fever, malaise, muscle and joint soreness, etc) are pretty typical with viral vaccines, as is mild injection-site inflammation. This one just seemed more pronounced than I’d ever experienced. Steve’s doc is right - the flu vaccine won’t make you ‘sick’ - e.g., won’t induce an illness (other than very rare things like the occasional Guillain-Barre), but it can make you - or me - feel pretty crappy.
Not at all - just not an option for me. I have had all the standard vaccinations for diptheria (when was the lst time you had a booster shot - it was required for me when I immigrated to the US) etc, was prophylacticly vaccinated for rabies when my work involved dealing with potentially rabid animal carcasses, etc. Perhaps that should have been flu vaccine free for 39 years. In general I prefer to let my immune system do its job, and at this time in my life wouldn’t bother with a flu vaccine, but where required or appropriate, have no issues with vaccinations. Probably if I was of an age to go off to college I would get the Hep vaccine as well.
The reaction I had to the flu vaccine is relatively rare - last I heard was somewhere in the 1:150000 range - and that is sampled with young children only, whose immune response system is still developing - not adults.
when you say vaccine free, as if its something to be proud of, its hard not to assume.
However, more to the point, If your reaction was so rare, why go without the vaccine? If you get in a car accident, you may be more careful on the roads, but you still drive…and that’s a higher risk that a bad reaction to a vaccine. What I’m saying is, people misunderstand risk. There are relatively high risk things we do everyday (biking, driving, stepping outside in a city) and don’t think twice about, but when one person hears of a very rare medical issue, somehow they begin to believe they are at high risk for it (ie. autism caused by vaccines: even if true, the risk is amazingly low). Just never understood people’s personal risk assessment. You’re more likely to hit the lottery, than get most of these things people worry about
Are you talking about jriosa in particular? His reaction was rare, but it is a documented reaction. Once you have a reaction to a vaccine it is wise to avoid vaccines made with the same components in the future. Allergies like that tend to just get worse, not go away.
Reply to: The purpose of the vaccine is to activate your immune system to begin making protective antibodies. Activation of the immune system, especially for highly active vaccines (this year seems to be extra immunogenic), can cause some symptoms that might mimic being slightly sick because of the immune response itself.
Jodi
Well put. I’m a nephrology RN. In our unit we administered over 200 flu vaccines this year. There were no major problems noted. Most common side effects were pain at the site of injection and slight malaise. I always inform patients of this and tell them to take Tylenol if needed. I also got the flu vaccine(always do) and had a sore arm and felt a little malaise.
I always get this statement from some patients and health care professionals, “The flu shot gives me the flu”, I can’t say they don’t have hyperimmunogenic response to the vaccine.
Why not? - simple - recommendation of my physicians. There is no adequate test to determine if I will still react with the medium. While it is entirely possible that physiologically I have lost that particular response, there is also equal reason in my case to suspect I could react the same way. It is not an experience I care to repeat. But that is my particular case. The rest of my family gets flu vaccines annually. I have nothing against the vaccine per se.
The simple point was being made that a physician saying the vaccine will not make you sick is not correct. It will not give you flu. However there are the possiblities of adverse reactions with just about anything once we start playing with body chemistry or immune responses. It is up to the individual to make an informed decision.
I agree that most people have no idea of the mathematics of risk assessments, or even understand the clinical trilas that lead to these numbers. I do have a backgound in vertebrate anatomy and physiology, and a masters in biostatistics, so I cna actually read and assess the trials. I think the physician has to walk a fine line between presenting what the risks are so a patient is knowledgable enough to know if they are having a bad reaction to the drug, to not scaring the patient stupid. I know my mother would have much preferred they not pull her arthitis meds off the market, and let her live with the risk of heart complications. It often comes down to what you are personally willing to accept.
Jim
If you do a search, there was a thread a month or so back about vaccine reactions. There was some very good input from some knowledgeable STer’s. It’s worth a look and you don’t have to leave the forum to do it.
Doc,
There are 2 injectable influenza vaccines–whole and split virus. We only use the split as it is the only one approved for young kids. If I recall, but don’t hold me to this, the whole virus is more reactive. I got the split and did have some malaise and soreness the next day. I react about 20% of the time to flu vaccine, so I time my dose on the expectation that I might not feel great the next day.
The nasal flu vaccine–live attenuated–is not approved for those 50+ and asthmatics, so I was DQd on both accounts.
