Are you Scared of Needles?

Nicole, who writes her blog Notes from our Nest, had such a good entry, I needed to write about it too! She is wondering if she should get a flu shot.



I am a firm believer in flu shots. I make my family get them every year and for the most part, nobody complains about them. Well, Aaron does and I'm not convinced that he actually gets them anymore now that he's not in the same house for me to nag him all the time, but what can a mother do?

Brenna gets them free from work, typically, since the hospitals all want their workers having them. Her current hospital isn't giving them until November, so she got one at a doctor appointment last week. Except they gave her the nasal mist up the nose and that will be the last time she gets it that way. That mist is an active virus and it did give her mild symptoms of a low grade fever for about 2 days. I got my shot in the arm about 2 weeks ago, so I am good to go. Ron gets his at work this week.

Usually our flu season starts in November and will go thru January. You need to have the shot in your system for about 2 weeks before you are considered protected, so we always try to get them the first week or so in October. I won't say it's always been foolproof 100%, but I will say if we still end up getting the flu, it's a much milder case.

Of course you have to hope that the flu shot you get covers the virus that goes around for the year. Even though we both had flu shots, Brenna was one of the first confirmed cases of Swine Flu in our county and then she gave it to me. The shots didn't cover Swine Flu that year, so we still got it. And let me tell you, it was AWFUL! Brenna ended up in Urgent Care, she was so bad. I just felt like death warmed over for about a week.

So, do yourself and your family a favor and get into the habit of getting a flu shot every year. A sore arm for a day or two is so much better than spending a week in bed feeling terrible.