I've never gone for the flu shot. Years of exposure to a gooey stew of all things viral and microbial in the elementary schools during high flu season has given my immune system a wallopping kick in the pants (following 6 weeks of non-stop back to back illnesses that first year). Besides, the husband and I - ardent scifi readers - believe that 'the flu shot' is supposed to give you the flu so the immune system gets a much needed work-out.
Then Kitimat became the first town to be felled by the epidemic.
Gradually I became aware of several staff at the high school who were near deathly ill for 2 to 5 weeks. This began to alarm me because they all had yearly and intense exposure to the same nasty little things as I had. (talkin' germs, not students...) On Thursday I took the plunge and received the H1N1 vaccination.
The actual puncture? Less than the scratch the nurse warned me about prior to.
The injection site quickly became painful - quite surprisingly so within an hour or two and the aches settled in shortly after that. It seemed to awaken my usual areas of discomfort - sinus problems, headache, facial bones and various sore muscles. Woke up the next day about the same until oh about 2 o'clock when I got whammed in the guts with some awful piercing pains that sent me to bed with a microwaveable bag for heat. Don't know if the introduced heat was responsible but I ended up with a fever of 101F. Sweating, chills, fatigue and malaise knocked me down for the rest of the day. I drifted through the day after that in a similar, though less intense condition and managed to make and eat some dinner though it didn't take much to turn my stomach. Today - certainly on the mend which is a welcome turn around.
So,all in all I think I got the scifi version which is oddly reassuring.
No...no, I'm not going to get one next year, thank you very much.
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