H1N1 Flu

[champagne]

Has anyone else taken the H1N1 flu shot yet? The hospital gave us ours this week. Surprisingly, it hurt less than the regular flu shot. When I had the regular flu shot in September, I couldn't raise my arm for 2 days it was so sore but this shot didn't bother me at all. I was skeptical on taking it but the hospital where I work says whoever does not take the shot will have to start wearing an isolation mask the whole time they are on the premises.

Not sure about other hospitals but our has now implement a new visitation policy and let me tell you that visitors are really ticked off and the phone calls and letter writing has begun. The hospital no longer allows visitors under the age of 18 AT ALL!!! No children allowed in waiting rooms or in the cafeterias, pretty much not in the hospital anywhere unless they are waiting to get in the emergency room or a patient. The parents are not happy at all. I feel for security having to enforce this rule.

We had a 32 year old mom of 2 die last week from the H1N1 and the nurses were really upset as she had been here several weeks and they got attached. The rumor is that come January it will get extremely worse.

[lmgervais]

My family has all gotten the H1N1 vaccine lately because of risk factors. I got mine first and my arm hurt a lot for a week, and was still sore for a while afterwards. DH and the three kids got theirs on Tuesday night. The two boys (10, 16) had a bit of a sore arm, but were otherwise fine. DH and DD developed flu-like symptoms yesterday and are still home today, although their fevers are gone.

Of note, DS#2 is diabetic and his clinic appointment at the children's hospital at the end of October was post-poned indefinately. Almost all clinics at the hospital are closed until further notice and the dr's are now working in emergency or dealing with in-patients.

[heidiiiii]

Fred got his H1N1 and regular flu shots because he works in the hospital. My GP says it is next to impossible to find any of the h1n1s at all. And the regular flu shots are scarce.

The girls had H1N1 here and it hit hard and fast. I did not get sick. I am lucky. They were not as sick as some people have been but they still did not feel well AT ALL!

I am either immune because of being sick with swine flu in the 70s or Dr thinks I had gotten a booster in 1976. I dont remember the booster and my mom is no longer alive to tell me.

[Wolfie]

Doug and I are opting to not get the shots. Heard too many bad things about them.

[THmini2]

I can't get it as I had a form of Guillian Barr'e a few years back and am recommended not to get any flu or pnemonia shots. Too big of a chance to have problems. I work in a hospital cleaning but am not in close contact with patients. There are a few of us that didn't get the shot. The hospital hasn't issued any restictions on us yet. Day shift was told that if they didn't get the shot they may have to go on nights as we don't see as many patients. Usually clean rooms after the patients leave. I clean in cat scan, pet scan. ultra sound, nucluar meds, offices, mamo and in HR. Less patients come through when I'm there usually anyway. But the hospital has put notices up for patients, No one under 18, 2 visitors at a time, and please don't come in to visit if you have the following symthoms...etc. Our Er is hopping at all times of the day and night now. It scares me alittle not getting the shot, but scares me worse going through what I did when I had GB.

[pdlnpeabody]

The visitation rules may seem harsh, but considering the age bracket most at risk it makes sense. People who are infected are going to the hospital and minors in the same vicinity is just too much of a risk, so I'm all for the restrictions.

The rumor I heard recently is that people are either getting very sick from it or they get the chills for a few hours and thats all they get. About a week after Tim Tebow and his roommate got N1H1 (they're our neighbors) my wife and I got the worst chills we have ever experienced (think heater on with two blankets and a comforter) and just couldn't get warm, but it only lasted about 12 hours and that was the only symptom we had. We haven't had the vaccine yet, but I worry for my wife since she works at a hospital.

[AnnC]

We got our vaccinations about 2 weeks ago. Both of my kids are considered high risk (my daughter is 4 yrs old and has had respiratory issues ever since her premature birth, and my 7 yr old son has asthma) but we still had to wait a total of 7 hours in line to get the darn shots! Don't know what it is like in the US, but here in Canada, the lineups have been insane. People got a bit freaked out here in Ontario because 2 healthy children died from H1N1 the same week the vaccine rolled out. My arm did hurt badly for a couple of days, and I felt like I had the flu the day after the shot, but it only lasted for about 12 hrs.

For us, the vaccine was a blessing. Last Friday, 7 days after having the shot, my son came down with H1N1, and the next day, his sister did as well. My son had to cancel his birthday party on Saturday:( Poor kid. Both were very very sick.....scary high fevers, headaches, muscle cramps, diarrhea, but thanks to the vaccine, neither suffered from any respiratory issues. Both had mild coughs and runny noses, but their coughing and runny noses were very mild compared to what they usually get with the regular flu or common cold. Their pediatrician feels that having had the vaccine a week earlier probably kept them from getting the respiratory issues that typically come with Swine Flu. The vaccine is supposed to take 2 weeks to build up enough antibodies (and possibly even longer for children because they got a booster), but she feels that they must have built up just enough antibodies in the 7 days to fight off the respiratory aspects of the virus. So, they didn't have enough antibodies yet to keep from catching Swine Flu, but had enough to keep it mild in comparison to others. It was still scary though....my daughter had a fever of 105 degrees for 3 nights straight!

[justmesue]

We got the H1N1, before the shot was available for the general public, so no need now.

[champagne]

We got our vaccinations about 2 weeks ago. Both of my kids are considered high risk (my daughter is 4 yrs old and has had respiratory issues ever since her premature birth, and my 7 yr old son has asthma) but we still had to wait a total of 7 hours in line to get the darn shots! Don't know what it is like in the US, but here in Canada, the lineups have been insane. People got a bit freaked out here in Ontario because 2 healthy children died from H1N1 the same week the vaccine rolled out. My arm did hurt badly for a couple of days, and I felt like I had the flu the day after the shot, but it only lasted for about 12 hrs.

For us, the vaccine was a blessing. Last Friday, 7 days after having the shot, my son came down with H1N1, and the next day, his sister did as well. My son had to cancel his birthday party on Saturday:( Poor kid. Both were very very sick.....scary high fevers, headaches, muscle cramps, diarrhea, but thanks to the vaccine, neither suffered from any respiratory issues. Both had mild coughs and runny noses, but their coughing and runny noses were very mild compared to what they usually get with the regular flu or common cold. Their pediatrician feels that having had the vaccine a week earlier probably kept them from getting the respiratory issues that typically come with Swine Flu. The vaccine is supposed to take 2 weeks to build up enough antibodies (and possibly even longer for children because they got a booster), but she feels that they must have built up just enough antibodies in the 7 days to fight off the respiratory aspects of the virus. So, they didn't have enough antibodies yet to keep from catching Swine Flu, but had enough to keep it mild in comparison to others. It was still scary though....my daughter had a fever of 105 degrees for 3 nights straight!

Andrea, I am glad your children are doing better now and that it didn't get as serious as it could have. I know you had to have been worried to death.

[Lyn]

My kids are gonna get the shot seeing they are offering it free through the school and Riley will be here at the end of January begining of Feburay. My dr doesnt recommend me getting it seeing there not sure of the effect of it on the baby. My dr already pulled me out of work due to the baby's postion he is sitting on my citac(sp) nerve and causes alot of pain.

[Wolfie]

Doug decided he wanted the shot but he was told that the vaccine is not available here in Montana yet. He even went to the VA....I told him to not bother. We're old. The high risk are the younger people.

[lmgervais]

Up until now, the H1N1 shot has not been offered to people over 65 unless they have a valid underlying condition. Seems some flu that went around in the mid 1950's is similar to this one, so older people apparently have some resistance against this one already. At least that is what the dr told my mother last week.

[grazhina]

I took my 16 yr old to be immunized at school today. They gave him the nasal spray.

They've had an unusually high absentee rate the last couple of weeks, but they don't know why, regular flu? swine flu? scared parents? The superintendant's office just doesn't know.

[lmgervais]

Never heard of the nasal spray - it's all needles here.

[Sherry]

They don't have the swine flu shots available down here yet except for medical personnel. But the news reported that one nurse suffered paralysis after getting her shot. Haven't heard if she recovered or not.

[woodland_miniatures]

I'm not taking the H1N1 shot, even though it was offered to me at my cardiologist's a few weeks ago. Don't know if they actually had the vaccine available at the time, but even though I'm at the younger end of the "older folks" spectrum that may already have some protection, there are those underlying health problems for me.

Still, I'm passing on it because back in 1976 I had a Swine flu shot, which made me pretty ill at the time. If you remember, that vaccine had some major problems with it, but I wasn't given much of a choice about taking it because I worked in the administrative office of the nursing staff at a major university hospital. I did not have direct contact with patients, but did of course have contact with all of the head nurses and a great deal of the other nursing staff. We office workers were given the choice of take the shot or don't come to work - meaning you lost your job if you didn't take the shot.

I resented having to make that choice back then, but now I'm kinda glad LOL!

[Anna]

Hubby had his shot earlier today and is running a slight fever right now, nothing much but he is feeling a bit worn so to speak. Hopefully a good night's sleep will help out a lot. Apparantly the vaccine over here isn't the same as in the US so there are different aspects to deal with, but feeling a little bogged down isn't to un-common. Will have a meeting with my doc on the subject on Thursday as I had a tiny bout with "a" flue that turned into pneumonia a couple of weeks ago, might have been a mild version of "flue" so not really about the need to have the shot...

Hugs

[grazhina]

While it occurs to me, I thought I'd mention that DS has had no side effects from the nasal spray on Saturday.

[havanaholly]

Depending on what my immune system is already dealing with when I get the regular flu shot, I may or may not get the achy arm and/ or "boggy" feeling, but it's always brief and never as sick as I get with the flu. When the swine flu staged its last appearance in the mid-70s was the first time we took the vaccine, and may be another reason they aren't recommending it for us older folks. That and look at all the opportunities our bodies have had to make antigens to the various flu strains!

As for the idiot lines, we have them here in the US. For a while the evening news ran footage of clinics receiving a limited number of doses and ten or more times that many people showing up to recdeive them. The pharmaceutical companies have surely missed the signals on this one, IMO!

[lmgervais]

For a while now here they have been handing out arm bands in the early morning before the clinic is open to reserve your shot (one band for each person - I had 4 on my arm) and they tell you what time to come back so there is a lot less waiting in line.

[chattycathy66]

I got the "mist" about a month ago...our hospital only got a small amount of the injection, so anyone who was under 50, and not pregnant was getting the mist. A large percentage of staff got the vaccine, and I never heard about any serious reactions. My kids got the injection though...all ok.

I heard lots of people say that they didn't want to get it because"it's too new, and hasn't been tested"...supposedly it's made similar to the yearly flu shot, and those are different every year anyhow ....I just figured I'd feel really bad if the kids had an adverse reaction to the vaccine, but I'd never get over it if I could have gotten them the vaccine and didn't, and they ended up on a ventilator or died from the H1N1....

Hopefully, the worst of it is over (although I'm not too confident since I'm hearing it'll be back later in the winter) -- we still have visitation restrictions at our hospital too...I know people aren't happy...but the hospitals are trying to protect patients ....usually people are pretty understanding about that.

[havanaholly]

Good point, Cathy. The influenza virus mutates every time, so the vaccines are made from the most recent versions of each strain available. For the H1N1 I believe they used the virus strains from the last swine-flu version available. From that standpoint, ALL flu vaccines are "new & untested" and from the track record of the vaccine efficacy, All vaccines are tried & tested and WORK. The purpose of a vaccine is to introduce a very low amount of antigen material into your body so it will manufacture all the antibodies needed to deal with it; and then when you come into contact with the full-blown disease version of that virus, your body has a head-start in recognizing and fighting off those antigens.

[pdlnpeabody]

Actually, each year the CDC guesses which flu strain will be most prevalent and the Pharmacutical companies make their vaccines based on that guess. Problem is, they've always been wrong. My sister had her twins vaccinated last year only to see her kids get sick from the shot, then get the flu strain that was actually going around a few weeks later. They spent most of a week in the hospital. The only reason the CDC got it right this time is because of Mexico's early outbreak.

[havanaholly]

As a public health nurse I used to take a day every time the CDC held a teleconference on their latest vaccination program to update us on what was available, and the info I gave is what they told us.

[chattycathy66]

I just think it's important to remember that it takes about 2 weeks for the flu shot to be effective...if you are exposed to the flu any time in the 2 weeks between when you're vaccinated and when your immune system is ready to fight, you could get the flu. If you've been exposed to the flu,you can also "shed" the flu virus before you even start feeling sick.

The yearly flu shot is usually a "dead" virus so it shouldn't be able to make you sick--I think it's mostly coincidence when people get sick after getting the flu shot---look at all the germs an average person comes in contact with--on money, door handles, shopping carts, toys, --anything sick people have touched...(unless you're in total isolation for about 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after the shot, it's hard to pinpoint how we could get sick)

It can be normal to the chills and some body aches...just think of it as your immune system gearing up for attack,lol

Even as a nurse for the last 17 yrs , I would never try to talk people into getting flu shots--If you have all the correct info, I think you just have to do for yourself and your family what you think is best ;)