Well, it's getting close to flu shot time again... I haven't gotten one in the 8 years I've been sick because my first LLMD told me I'd have to get it like an infant 1/2 the shot and then the second 1/2 a few weeks later so that it wouldn't compromise my immune system. Most doctors won't do it this way for me so I usually just skip it.
My question is, am I better off just getting the shot or avoiding it all together? What is more dangerous for me...getting the flu or getting the shot?
Posted by Rene (Member # 4870) on :
I personally will not take any immunizations. I'm sure others will be along and explain their stories. Many on here have had major flares of their symptoms after flu shots. It has been my experience, that since having lyme and co infections, I very rarely catch anything else going around. I'll take my chances with the flu.
Posted by slcd (Member # 5708) on :
You know...I've noticed that I don't catch much stuff going around now too. Can anyone explain why that is? I've always been told that I have to be really careful NOT to get sick but it really hasn't been much of an issue. Heck my daughter got the swine flu last year and I didn't even get that!
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- Lyme flips two parts of the immune system. Part is on overdrive and part is just exhausted. It does seem that some lyme patients don't catch colds, etc. (but some do). For those who don't it may be that the part of the immune system that is on overdrive clobbers ordinary stuff.
Also, though - really - with lyme one feels as if they have the flu constantly, so my guess is we are not aware with some of the more ordinary stuff comes along. We just add it to our bag of symptoms and deal with it.
Back to the main question:
AVOID VACCINES (other than for tetanus if needed.)
Flu shots are loaded with mercury and other toxins. Two half doses still give you the garbage they put in the vaccine.
Get allicin, Olive Leaf Extract, Lomatium (LDM-100), vitamin C and other support so that if you feel the flu coming on, you can address it. -
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
NOPE, NOPE, NOPE! Not ever for me!!
How'd you like last year's "epidemic"? Think maybe they were just trying to boost sales? HMMMM...
Posted by slcd (Member # 5708) on :
Keebler - The part about already feeling like we have the flu actually makes a lot of sense.
Lymetoo - Unfortunately my ex-husband (who was still my husband at the time) and my daughter BOTH got swine flu last year. Although...I'm still partially convinced that my ex made himself out to be a lot sicker than he really was since he started "getting really sick" 5 minutes after the ER told us what was wrong with Bella...lol
Posted by LightAtTheEnd (Member # 24065) on :
I got a flu shot years ago, before Lyme. My doctor recommended it in order to help prevent anything that could trigger my all-winter bronchitis that was due to asthma.
It gave me flu symptoms for a couple of days, and then triggered my bronchitis 2 months early. My doctor swore that there is no way to get flu symptoms from a flu shot.
I decided then that most flu was unlikely to kill me and would only last a week or two, and if I waited to see whether I caught it or not, it would put off the onset of my bronchitis, which was the really disabling symptom. (I couldn't breathe or sleep for months.)
I have never caught the flu in the years since then.
Now I have read that any vaccines are not recommended for Lyme patients because of both the toxic contaminants and the fact that your immune system might not react to them as intended, so besides potentially making you ill in some way, it might not give you the expected amount of immunity.
Meanwhile I've been taking lots of vitamins and supps that are antiviral, so if I got exposed to a cold, maybe they would ward it off.
Personally I don't want to risk any vaccine.
However, I am probably wrong in my comforting delusion that the flu wouldn't kill me. Some people, especially those who are weak from illness or have compromised immune systems, do indeed die from it, and some flu strains are much more virulent than others. I have other viruses, like EBV, acting up, so maybe my body would have a hard time getting a flu virus under control.
So I think you have to get your trusted LLMD's advice, do your own research, and decide which approach is most risky for you.
Once you make up your mind, don't worry about it and second guess yourself. Just believe that you made the best decision to protect yourself with the information you had, do it (or don't do it), focus on the positive reasons for it, and go on. Otherwise you will suffer more from agonizing over which decision is right and fearing you made the wrong one than from the consequences of either choice.
Posted by Elaine G (Member # 20735) on :
I haven't taken a flu shot in a many years. Last year I got H1N1, the next week pneumonia and sinus infection. It affected my balance so much I had to hang on walls to walk into the doctors office. It was horrible.
It took me 3.5 months to feel better. I don't know which is worse, the shot or getting the flu and what it leads to. Posted by kidsgotlyme (Member # 23691) on :
No No No!!
I just read an article that a lot of the vaccines have human diploid cells in them. Human diploid cells come from aborted fetal tissue.
Not only do you get the antibiodies to whatever you are being vaccinated for, you also run the risk of your body turning on your own tissue because you've been vaccinated for it!!
Posted by 'Kete-tracker (Member # 17189) on :
slcd, Don't be too hard on the hubby re: feeling really sick "5 minutes after the ER told us what was wrong with Bella". lol
He was probably "pushing himself" to get her to the hospitbal & Dx'ed. Then the pressure was off & his underlying (developing) flu symptoms came out. Posted by LymeMom Kellye (Member # 24807) on :
My daughter was so ill this fall and before being diagnosed with Lyme and Co she would get anything going around, ten fold symptoms of what others had.
Now that she has been on abx for several months maybe things will be different.
She did get an H1N1 vaccine last fall because she was so ill I thought she'd die if she got the flu.
She never got the flu last year but has been bound almost 90% of the time since she had the shot.
Coincedence? Hmmm....
Posted by BoxerMom (Member # 25251) on :
My Lyme doc won't let anyone get a flu shot. I've seen healthy people spend days in bed after a flu shot. That makes, let's see, several months for us?
Posted by onbam (Member # 23758) on :
Never.
Posted by jwall (Member # 22999) on :
I got the flu shot and then had a very rapid health decline. I was very healthy at the time and was actually pregnant...9 weeks. I had a miscarriage the following week and then rapid onset of lyme symptoms...didn't know it was lyme at the time. I believe my immune system was doing its job to keep lyme at bay...and then the flu shot overwhelmed it causing lyme to flare which caused miscarriage. this is my theory at least. It took 1.5 years to diagnose, but until I was diagnosed, I thought the flu shot did this to me. Never will I get another flu shot.
Posted by steve1906 (Member # 16206) on :
I have never got the short. By I also (rarely catch anything else going around) since I have had Lyme Disease.
Posted by Pinelady (Member # 18524) on :
This years contains the swine flu also. I do not do vaccines.
Posted by JunkYardWily (Member # 24271) on :
i got the swine flu shot last year in the midst of my worst lyme symptoms. i had no ill affects from it and noticed no difference from it. i never contracted h1n1. i plan on getting the shot again this year though im going to try and get the one without mercury in it.
im kind of terrified of getting the flu, something i never use to be afraid of in the least. going through this sickness without knowing what was going the same time this new flu was going around. tack on the media blitz telling people they would die if they got it brought on this new illogical fear ill probably have for life.
Posted by Pinelady (Member # 18524) on :
Thats right. And we're not sick either. Its all in our heads.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Watch this!!! They are planning to quadruple the dosage for seniors. Oh, that is just great.
They just now found they could not shut off the genes in the borrelia and now say it would be a daunting task to even try...
People have argued that the Lyme vaccine did not have genetic material in it...What do you suppose band 31 and 34 is ice-cream?
Yet now 1.4 million people have it inside them....
They cannot pretend to know what this can do in my mind when they have had 25 years to work on borrelia and could not get that done either....
Posted by AlanaSuzanne (Member # 25882) on :
I will never let my children get a flu vaccine again. Pre-lyme one of them got the vaccine and became extremely ill. Since then even for routine boosters I have their titers tested beforehand. Why have a shot if you are already immune to something? One of mine was unable to get additional pertussis vaccines because of unusual crying after the first shot...yet now years later has antibodies to pertussis which is a basis for not getting the dtap booster (also has antibodies for diptheria and tetanus). Gardasil was a no for me as well. Thankfully we have a pediatrician who is on the same page.
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