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Hi axxie,
Sorry you have been hit by this..I wonder how one with FM would react to the flu! Glad to hear that it is not to bad. I am curious as to why you need the shot now that you have the flu. Your body should now have developed the antibodies necessary to fight this off..I have been told that you cannot get it again if you have had it...Please question this before you go.
Sister in Pain, Keturah

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I was told by two doctors that I trust very much, one who is my daughter pediatric, he is very well respected in the province we live in, and also he has just returned from a week-end of H1N1 and recommends that we go for the shot.

I happened to have booked an annual exam for my daughter, we she started being sick, so it just happened when I started also being ill. The doctor advised us to go in anyway, and he was able to diagnose H1N1, he didn't have to send my daughter for a blood test, he was able to diagnose it quite clearly.

Let's just say with someone who has fibro, the symptoms are the same, as everyone else, you are sick, but I found that taking my Cymbalta, seem to take away the edge of pain from the flu, the body aches. As my daughter was feeling it more than I did.

We were all put on Tamyflu, as prevention, except my hubby, since he's military they said he wasn't sick and that they didn't believe in preventing it. Go figure......

If I'm going to take care of him, because he gets it, watch me scream bloody hell to that stupid doctors of his, you the know the kind, the one that has the same saying "our military people never get sick, not physical, nor emotional". The government is good as saying they are helping their soldiers, but I know for a fact that isn't straight facts. They should have prescribed him his tamyflu as preventive, that at least my daughter's pediatric had just returned from a week-end of H1N1 and said how important it is, to treat the whole family and not just the individual and that having the flu shot is always needed, even if you get it, because this flu is nothing like all the others we've had, and it's no reason not to have the flu shot.

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If you have been diagnosed with a blood test as having H1N1, then you don't need to get the H1N1 flu shot, just the regular flu shot (when available) to prevent the regular flu.

But you are saying the doctor diagnosed you without a blood test. This is why you are being told to get the H1N1 flu shot, because without the blood test there isn't really any way of know for sure whether or not it is H1N1.

I am very reluctant to get this vaccine as it has hardly been tested, certainly not thoroughly. The adjuvent version boasts a chemical that is supposed to "boost" your immune system so they can use less of the vaccine to gain immunity. I find it very strange that the government has never before approved an adjuvented vaccine for use on Canadians, and yet they are allowing this one without their own testing of it.

Even though I am considered to be in a "priority" group, I am not willing to be a guinea pig given how strange my body reacts to OTC medications that are otherwise fine for the general population. When I asked my doctor, he said there is no research to provide me with an answer as to how FM patients react to the vaccine. The only thing he said was, "We've come a long way since 1976."

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I agree with Canada axxie, I would research the vaccine more before getting the shot. There is tons of info out there...If you do have h1n1, you do not need to get the shot...could be headed for trouble if you do...please be cautious..Ket

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In the case of H1N1 infection, only persons with laboratory-confirmed H1N1 infection should not receive the vaccine. People who may have been informed they likely have infection with H1N1 virus which was not a laboratory confirmation should receive the vaccine.

We were not tested, because the Province of Ontario is refusing the laboratory confirmation, because of costs. The only way to get it, is if you happen to be in the hospital and points you to being chronic.

So, I as a fibro patient, I am unsure if I should and well my daughter is in the prime age where she has no immunity to very many types of influenza, she's only 16.

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I'm going to be getting my vaccine when I get the spare time that is. I already wash my hands like crazy from my OCD.

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It's a tough call axxie. I have a two year old and they don't really know for sure that the adjuvented vaccine is safe enough for kids under three. The adjuvent-free vaccine is only being made available to pregnant women right now.

I think it is a personal choice though, best of luck.

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Canada17, yes, the washing of the hands is becoming almost an obsession.

I've even changed my chlorine base cleaner on my counter top, with a combination of disinfectant using Peroxide & Vinegar. It's much more healthy for us, and it's also good for our fruits and vegetable.

"You can use vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to disinfect your kitchen counters, produce and even your cutting boards. All you need is three percent hydrogen peroxide, the type you buy at the drug store, vinegar (white or apple cider), and two clean sprayers, like the kind you use to mist plants. Fill each sprayer separately, one with peroxide and the other with vinegar (don't mix them together in one bottle - that makes peracetic acid, which isn't safe and can give you a bad chemical burn). Spritz the item you want to disinfect, first with hydrogen peroxide and then with vinegar, then rinse off under running water. University tests show that this technique killed more potentially lethal bacteria, including Salmonella, Shigella, and even E. coli, than chlorine bleach or any commercially available kitchen cleaner."

There won't be any lingering taste of hydrogen peroxide or vinegar, and neither is toxic to you even if a small amount were to remain on the produce.

Another idea is to keep your toothbrush in a glass of hydrogen peroxide in between brushings, everyone has his her own glass....

I've even stopped having buying and eating Alfalfa sprouts because, as a rule, vegetable and alfalfa carry far more E. Coli and salmonella than do meat and milk products particularly organic raw milk.

I'm still keeping my cat, no matter what he brings in, he just doesn't sleep in beds anymore and is strickly off limits to kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms.

Me, think I'm taking this to a whole new level.....lol

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The washing hands comment was from Noca, I don't clean my hands any more frequently than I did before this "H1N1" scare. Good hygiene is important to our health regardless.

We can do everything possible to protect ourselves from illness but short of living in a bubble, it's near impossible. Even getting the vaccine doesn't mean you won't get H1N1. It's only 90% effective, while that is better than the regular fly vaccine at 50-75% effectiveness, it still not 100%. And for that matter, just because it's 90% effective doesn't mean you will gain full immunity if any at all.

You could still get H1N1 after getting the vaccine. Plus, it takes seven days to start to develop antibodies and up to another 21 days to achieve full immunity, if you are a "typical" case.

Live a healthy life with proper diet, exercise, and hygiene and you will fair better. Get the shot to boost your chances of fighting off the virus but it's not a fail-safe.

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