THANK YOU FOR ASKING FOR THIS. I am definitely the squeamish sort and really struggle with it.
Like HaH, I got mine back in May with my DH and toddler. Join the herd! Embrace your inner cow!
(@anomalily this is the best badge idea ever, a cow, and I’m definitely going to find it easier to get my shot again next year because I’m gonna be muttering “you are a cow, moo” to myself the whole time)
I also got mine earlier in the year (along with a measles booster shot)
The toddler and I did ours a month or so ago. We were late in the season down here but so glad we did it. My brother and his girlfriend both caught it after we all went on a holiday together.
My work does them for free so I got mine last April 
Flu shot question: is it ok to get the flu shot if you’ve got a bit of a cold? I feel like I heard somewhere that you should wait, but I really want to get this checked off the list.
Yeah, you’re supposed to wait if not feeling well (when you go, they usually ask if you’re sick). Not sure what would happen though…but if not a huge deal, wait 'til you feel better.
Don’t do this. Boyfriend did this. His cold got so so so much worse and lasted a long time (and then I had to argue with him for the next year that no, the shot did not give him the flu!).
I’m getting mine Friday after work since my stupid body always feels like utter death for the following 24 hours or so (aches, fever, chills). Not looking forward to having to lie around on the couch all day Saturday. Hopefully I can sleep through most of it. Sigh. Still better than actually getting the flu.
I’m confused. What I think you’re saying is do not get the shot while I have the cold, but when I first read it I read it as you saying not to wait.
I know that getting the flu shot will not give me the flu. I will get it no matter what at some point in the next month. If my throat isn’t sore on Friday I’ll go ahead with it. If it is, I’ll wait and go next week or as soon as I feel better. I wish they’d just had the damn thing when I had my physical, I hate all the planning that needs to go into me getting a stupid 2 second shot because I have to make sure it’s covered and that our stupid health plan knows I got it so they lower our premiums.
ETA: I’m whining about this because of the mental effort that goes into planning this. If I have to make sure I have the car to be able to get to the office, get the baby ready because she has to come too, wait in the waiting room and then get told (again) that I can’t get the shot after going to all the effort, I will be upset. If I could just do it on my regular grocery run at the pharmacy in Wegman’s it would be no big deal if I got turned away. I also have to do it before 31 October because the stupid health plan thing won’t give us a significant premium discount if I don’t. Otherwise I wouldn’t be stressing about it.
Ah, sorry, I meant, don’t get the shot if you’re sick, based on Boyfriend’s experience - but then, we are all different and all react to these things differently. If he’s not already sick, Boyfriend will have absolutely zero effects from the shot. Same with all my co-workers - we can get the shots at work but I never do because I don’t want to have to take a sick day the next day (seems unethical to purposely do something that I know will result in me missing work?). Meanwhile, I’ll be on the couch feeling like crap.
That does sound like a lot of frustrating logistics to sort.
Got mine a couple of weeks ago at Target. Spent my coupon the same trip!
Not yet, but I did announce to my family that is was flu shot time again. I got a death glare from my shot-phobic daughter, but Husband and Son both said, “Yea!” Weirdos. We will get it together and go soon. Sometimes having a huge HMO for our health insurance is annoying and sometimes it’s quite convenient. Kaiser Permanente makes getting your flu shot pretty darn easy.
Yea, wouldn’t it be a novel concept if american health care wasn’t so effed up that you didn’t have to stress a bunch about which place gave you a 2-second shot otherwise it’s not free?
Right?! And honestly I wouldn’t care about paying for the shot itself if it came down to convenience, but when it is going to cost me a significant monthly premium discount it pisses me off. And they say I can submit paperwork to say that I got it, but the last time I submitted paperwork to them to say I ticked one of their boxes I had to submit it 3 times and hound them to say that they actually got it and gave me credit for it.
The really rage inducing part of this is that H works for the largest health system here. It’s an incestuous system so you’d think they’d be able to see all the things in their system given that I have their insurance, see their doctors, at the facilities that they own. But no.
Thankfully there are rumblings about this current way of doing the discount going away. I really hope that is true.
Ditto with the other Southern Hemisphere folk I (and the rest of my family) had our flu shots in May/June. We have asthma in the family so our shots were free. Also free when I was working, lots of employers here cover the cost for employees.
Bam. Thanks workplace for arranging for CVS to come to us. Kiddo is getting his in mist form at school too so we’re all taken care of in our household.
Just got my shot! Even though it wasn’t covered by my insurance 
I don’t have a regular doctor here yet, so decided the cost was worth the convenience of just getting it done. Mooooooooooooo
Did not get mine yesterday at work because I tend to feel a little under the weather for a few hours after, and I had a long drive to make that same afternoon. But I’m going to get it either this weekend or Monday.
The main reason not to get an immunization while you are ill is that the point of a vaccine is to stimulate your immune system. If your immune system is already fighting something, it’s not optimal for your body on either side - fighting the existing illness is harder, and you may not build adequate immunity to the illness prevented by the vaccine.
It’s also why I spike a fever and feel like absolute poo after all vaccines; my immune system is an overreactive jerk
I got my flu shot today at work.
