Years ago, my doctor mentioned in an off-hand way that she always gets her flu shot in October, I don’t even remember what she said about the WHY but I assume it was exactly the boring explanation you’d expect about getting it early enough in the season to be helpful, but not so early that it might wear off before the season was over. For some reason this LODGED IN MY BRAIN. As in, I turn the calendar page to October and I think “OCTOBER: FLU SHOT TIME.”
Which is to say that one of the items on this week’s To Do List was getting my flu shot, and getting everyone else THEIR flu shots. As with the new Covid booster, I had to stop trying to maximize the efficiency of this task. When the kids were little, I used to bring them all to the pediatrician at once, and the nurse would herd us all into a room together and give the shots assembly-line-style. Now everybody’s got SCHEDULES I need to work around. So yesterday as soon as Edward came home from school, he and I went to the pharmacy and got our flu shots: I was extra-motivated to bring him, because he’ll be seeing his GI/Crohn’s doctor next week and the GI/Crohn’s doctor is for sure going to ask about the flu shot. And I was motivated for myself, because of the putting-my-own-oxygen-mask-on-first parenting concept, and also because I work in a public space, and also because it seems like if I’m old enough to be getting ARTHRITIS IN MY KNEES then I am old enough to be vigilant about my flu shot.
Henry is in another play so has rehearsal every day after school until dinnertime; I’ll have to bring him this weekend. I would have brought Elizabeth today, but she said “Noooooo not todayyyyyy I’m so busyyyyyyyy.” Paul can get his at a flu-shot clinic at work; William has his internship there but we don’t know if that means he can participate in the clinic or not, so probably I will just bring him when I bring Henry or Elizabeth.
I’ve been so focused on Covid shots/boosters the last couple of years, I’d forgotten what it was like to get something that didn’t need much aforethought. I didn’t think about the brand of my flu shot. I had to remember whether flu shots were normally accompanied by side effects or not. (For me, it’s only a matter of a sore arm.) I felt briefly panicked that I didn’t have a vaccination card with me for the pharmacist to write on, HOW WILL I PROVE I GOT THE FLU SHOT oh yeah they will just believe me.
What I’ve been hearing, mostly on NPR, is that the flu season is predicted to be extra intense this year. Something that puzzled me was that they interviewed someone who was saying that the past two years the flu has been very low because we’ve all been masking and social distancing and staying home. But, like, no we all the hell have not. Some of us have, but at least in my area the VAST MAJORITY have done no such thing for WELL OVER a year now—so why was LAST year a low year for flu? I wondered if it might be because, even in my area, most medical locations (including dental, vision, the people at Edward’s infusion clinic, etc.) are still masking and requiring patients to be masked. Perhaps a lot of the flu used to be spread in medical situations, and THAT’S where it’s been reduced? But surely not in schools and businesses, where even last flu season we felt like people were looking at us funny for wearing masks.
It’s not the majority but a good portion of people are still masking. Of my friends with kids, at least half are still required to mask at school and that’s across the country, not just local to me. Among others, they’ve stopped masking daily but mask when symptomatic, which isn’t perfect but definitely stops cold and flu transmission better than we used to. I’m so bummed though, I really hoped masking would be the new normal and we could stop getting sick every year.
I keep dithering over whether to get my flu shot and covid booster at the same time, and over whether I am still riding on those post-covid immunity vibes that mean I should wait a bit for the booster, and over when would be a good day to be “out” with booster side effects (which I have had with increasing severity with every shot) but that answer is never so… I should just do them both.
Heathy people’s immune systems can handle both flu and Covid shots at the same time without sacrificing protection.
Oh good! I have more been dithering over whether it is more efficient to do them together, rather than just getting my flu shot (easy) and then doing the booster later… and in my dithering am doing neither. (NOT efficient.)
I did mine on the same day and felt pretty terrible the next day, I have to say. Headache, chills, body aches. Glad it was a Saturday when I didn’t have plans. The day after that was fine.
I’m getting my 17yo in for both flu and covid on Friday. We tried to get the covid booster 2 weeks ago but even though we had an appointment, they ran out of vaccine before we got there. What? The worse part is that they didn’t realize they had given out their last dose until they went to get set up for us. I’ve wasted time doing much sillier things but argh. So annoying.
I’ve got boob stuff going on this month so I’m waiting until after my mammogram to do my Covid booster and flu shot. The last 2 covid shots made the lymph nodes in that arm swell up a bit.
I’m trying not to panic because I got my husband to WFH next Th, so I can get my booster Wed, in case I feel terrible the next day (likely, based on experience). But The pharmacy hasn’t opened appointments through Wed yet, so I have to keep checking. At this point in covid, I have the pharmacy scheduler page bookmarked. YAWN.
We got our Covid and flu shots at the same time, in the same arm. I had a sore arm but that was it.
The last couple of flu seasons people were masking up where I live but that isn’t the case at all anymore. My husband teaches college and he has worn his mask all semester and just a few other students do as well. People close talk, shake hands, touch their faces, wipe their noses with their hands. It’s so wild how fast everyone went back to their old, germ spreading ways.
I’m back to doing all my normal things, crowded music events indoors etc.. but we wear masks always when indoors with people we don’t live with and so far we haven’t had Covid. We do not eat indoors at restaurants. Where I live it’s possible to eat outside all year at places that have heat lamps which many restaurants now do.
Got the booster last week and the flu shot today. My company always offers the flu shot and it’s usually in the second week of October – I’m sure there is a reason why, but I don’t care – I’m just glad to get it.
From what I’ve read they are predicting the flu season to be bad based on how Australia’s flu season went – either way my mask is staying on and I’m staying home as much as possible. I haven’t been sick since this long nightmare began and I’m hoping to get through this flu season without a sniffle.
Australia is usually the leader in the “flu follow the leader” game. I think Australia was pretty locked down at first, and now, from what I briefly see on social media from an acquaintance that lives there, it’s been basically “life as normal” for quite some time. Australia was absolutely slammed in their winter with flu, so there was absolutely major transmission. Combine a tough flu season with inconsistent masking and mediocre flu shot coverage (plus that the flu shot is a “best guess” for circulating strains each year) here in the US, and it’s going to be a hard winter.
This. Australia is North America’s early warning system for flu and the bells are ringing loudly.
Get your loved ones to get their flu shots.
“They” are also expecting a slightly EARLIER flu season than normal so if you usually wait til mid November to get your shot, maybe try to get it as soon as possible this year.
Thanks so much for the reminder! I need to get this DONE. We haven’t had flu for years and I am not about to start now. Our local pharmacy has walk ins as well as appointments so I hope the boys can just go when it’s convenient because, as you say, SCHEDULES.
Okay, my flu/booster appointment is booked. Thanks for the nudge!
Good reminder! Our family has been vigilant about getting flu shots since my oldest kid was diagnosed with asthma. Our doctor emphasized the importance of preventing a severe flu for her and the rest of us don’t want a bad flu either. His examples of what happens to kids with asthma and bad flu were compelling even to a kid who really hates shots. We DID all get the flu one winter, but it really was pretty mild! Short lived fever and tiredness. Preaching to the choir here…. I’ve mentioned that story to a couple colleagues who are COVID shot skeptical but I think they are pretty dug into their positions.
My second dose and booster knocked me on my ass, so I’ve been trying to time the next one, PLUS I need to schedule a mammogram, and I think that has to happen a certain number of weeks after the booster, or at least it did last time.
I am hoping I don’t have jury duty next week, in which case I will hurry in for my jabs and hope for the best.
This is amusingly timed for me, I just got over the flu. Can confirm it was a particularly bad one, a nurse I talked to said fevers from viral infections in adults usually last 3 days but my fever lasted a good 6.5 days, plus an extra day of headache at the start. (My family doctor, on the other hand, said that as long as Tylenol/Advil were working to reduce the symptoms I could probably just assume this was the flu, and that sometimes the flu lasted up to a week. I’m feeling a lot more inclined to believe that now than I did when I was lying in bed with a 39 degree fever going BUT WHAT IF I DIE OF MENINGITIS BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS THE FLU AND IT’S THANKSGIVING AND THE DOCTOR IS CLOSED AAAAA)
Anyways, yeah, bad flu. Especially since I’m usually very healthy, before this month I hadn’t had more than one day of fever in a row since elementary school, and even that was rare. But maybe my immune system was tired or something from having just gotten over Covid a few weeks ago. I would like to not be sick again for a while kthx.
I don’t think we can get flu shots here until November, which I usually do anyway because I’ve always gotten the flu (even with shots) in March, and I have a probably totally false idea that it will wear off too soon if I get it too soon. I usually don’t have bad side effects from the flu shot, but one year my husband had a hilarious (only to me because I suck) progression of ten minutes of each flu symptom for a few hours – seriously, he was talking normally one minute, suddenly so congested he was incomprehensible the next, then normal again ten minutes later.
Yep, November here. I’m part of the Flu Watchers reporting network and it added a new question this week asking if I’d gotten my flu shot and I thought “I would have if I could have!”
This is not related to this post, but! It is Advent Present Box time! And I am gleefully making and ordering gobs of tiny things to wrap up and post to physically-isolated friends in mid to late November and it is so, so much fun. (I do not have a twitter account, but saw your tweet regarding advent calendars and it reminded me that you like this sort of thing, too.) (I also voted and am happy about that, while trying to not hope too hard… but we’ll see. Sometimes things work? Or at least partly work? )