keepswimming
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I get the flu shot every year and I've never had a bad reaction.
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Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
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I don't usually get the flu shot because I haven't had a cold or a flu in 10-15 years or more. My immune system from ME/CFS seems to be chronically activated. I have had flu shots before and just felt very mildly off. Like maybe I was starting to get a cold or a flu but the symptoms were very mild and only lasted 2-3 days.
I don't know if it prevented the flu because my immune was so high already from ME/CFS and I hadn't had the flu in years. The reason I got the flu shots I did was because I thought I was catching every cold and flu there was for years.
What I learned since is that what I thought were colds or flu I was constantly catching were actually ME/CFS flares, which feel exactly like the flu.
Now I've had to (after 6 month delay due to COVID) to go back to oral surgeon for implant, and dentist for crown - I get home, within hours I have severe nasal congestion, drip, sore throat, bit of fever, enlarged lymph nodes - I feel like I have a virus - starts out like allergy, gets worse over 1st 24 hours, lasts for many many days.
So is this my "flare"? It seems like I keep getting allergies or flu - just to finish up at the oral surgeon or dentist.
I am real upset - have to return to dentist next Tuesday for post implant.
I dread getting so very sick each time.
This sure sounds like the ME/CFS flares I get and have for years. I thought for years I was catching every cold and flu within a 1,000 miles but they were flares.
It's often mentally and emotionally draining!
I wish I had a solution for you but somethings we have to, or need to do and just pay the price later. Maybe it would help if you could find ways of distracting yourself from thinking about going to the dentist?
I am currently in the worst flare of my life due to getting the flu vaccine three days ago. I have been mild-moderate for about 8 years. I cannot walk more than 20 feet without severe muscle burning and needing to sit back down and my heart rate soars to 130. If I sit up too long, I am extremely dizzy.
I will never get it again. I am going to try to get some prednisone to knock my immune system back down.
Does everyone on here get flu vaccine? I want to know if anyone had adverse reactions to the shot, and if it did indeed prevent getting the flu.
I have never gotten flu shot, and think due to COVID that getting flu shot is very important this year.
Please let me know your experience with flu shot.
Thank Starlily88
Hi Starlily. I got a flu and pneumonia shot in 1999 which was 13 years after getting ME/CFS. Within minutes of leaving the doctor’s offIce I began to shake uncontrollably. I turned around and went back to the doctor and they had me lay down for 30 minutes. They said I’d had a major panic attack.
2 days later it happened again and it was so bad I went to the ER because I was unable to stand. It happened again several times and twice my husband called an ambulance.
I was referred to a cardiologist who ran a ton of tests and put me on beta blockers and Xanax. I spent a month in bed with horrific panic attacks.
My cardiologist said my autonomic nervous system was a wreck and he’d never seen anything like it before.
I had several doctors tell me it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to get vaccines.
Im still on beta blockers and after all these years am trying to wean off Xanax.
So no, I don’t get flu shots. I would like to get a COVID vaccine when it comes out but am too afraid.
Hi Starlily. I got a flu and pneumonia shot 21 years ago in 1999, which was 13 years after getting ME/CFS. Within minutes of leaving the doctor’s offIce I began to shake uncontrollably. I turned around and went back to the doctor and they had me lay down for 30 minutes. They said I’d had a major panic attack.
2 days later it happened again and it was so bad I went to the ER because I was unable to stand. It happened again several times and twice my husband called an ambulance.
I was referred to a cardiologist who ran a ton of tests and put me on beta blockers and Xanax. I spent a month in bed with horrific panic attacks.
My cardiologist said my autonomic nervous system was a wreck and he’d never seen anything like it before.
I had several doctors tell me it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to get vaccines.
Im still on beta blockers and after all these years am trying to wean off Xanax.
So no, I don’t get flu shots. I would like to get a COVID vaccine when it comes out but am too afraid.
Feel so badly for you. Wondering if this is the first time you got the vaccine. I am praying for you that you get better. This is exactly why I don't get it - no one knows our disease/our reactions. Please know I am thinking of you, sending you wishes to feel better, I feel so badly this made you. Starlily88