Got a really painful flu shot...what happened????

[CTyankee]

It was administered by the pharmacist at my local Stop and Shop. I never recalled flu shots hurting before...IIRC they are a piece of cake...but this hurt and took forever and my arm was sore for 2 days after!

Is there something different about this year's flu shot or is it just that I got a bad practitioner?

[NMDemDist2]

1. hit a nerve maybe, but this year's shot had some side effects for me too

massive headache and just felt 'bad' for about 24 hours.

[Shrike47]

2. I felt a little sore but the shot itself didn't hurt.

[uppityperson]

3. Mine had no reaction this year. Last year it was sore for a day though.

[enlightenment]

4. Friend of mine had one a couple of weeks ago

and said it hurt more - and longer - than any she has had to date.

[Warpy]

5. I always get them in my backside

because it's a much bigger muscle with fewer nerves than the deltoid, the one at your shoulder.

Chances are the practitioner was OK, s/he just hit one of the nerves in there.

Unfortunately, the pharmies are taught only to do it in the deltoid. I always have to push my very loose jeans down one inch, point to it, and say "there."

[CTyankee]

8. I'd prefer it in my backside but that ain't gonna happen at Stop and Shop!

[Warpy]

12. I've done it but I'm a retired nurse.

I know how to lower my jeans an inch over the target area and say "there."

[kestrel91316]

6. Random accidental hit on a tiny nerve.

[dtotire]

7. Flu shot

Mine was painless, except a slight prick

[CTyankee]

10. that is usually my experience. I was really surprised...

[chillfactor]

9. i had a flu shot and a shingles shot at my local pharmacy...

neither one hurt nor did I have any side effects

[CTyankee]

11. yeah, the guy wanted me to have the shingles shot, too, but I declined...

my PCP told me that the medical science isn't settled on that yet...I tend to get a zoster outbreak on my side every so often and I'm wondering if that is any indication that I won't get hit with shingles...

[SheilaT]

20. Interesting. I refuse to get a flu shot, because

I've had flu enough times in the past that I figure I'm basically immune to it. Last time I got flu was maybe 1975, and I've lived through the only major flu epidemics of the last 50 plus years.

But I am considering very seriously the shingles shot. I know just enough people who've gotten shingles, including my older brother when he was about 50 and my younger son at age 20, that I think it's something I'd prefer to avoid. And isn't a zoster outbreak essentially shingles?

[CTyankee]

21. Yes, it is shingles but at a very much smaller, localized place.

Mine happens to be on my left side but it has occurred on my right side also (amazing symmetry). It usually happens at the change of the season but I am convinced stress makes it worse. It's not a problem with me and goes away completely with no sequelae...

[murielm99]

13. Mine hurt for a couple of days.

Usually, I have no reaction.

This was not a big deal, really.

[CTyankee]

14. Not a big deal but so different from what I had previously experienced.

Also, I was coming off a string of minor, but unpleasant, health issues...all kinds of infections, at the same time having to prepare for a regularly schedule colonoscopy screening, and a diagnosis of spinal arthritis. Juggling all of this stuff at once was pretty draining on me, an old person in my 70s, so it got to be, yes, a bigger deal than I expected...

[MFM008]

15. Worse Flu

Happened to me
It was the same guy that always gave me my flu shot at Walgreens,this time it hurt, it bled and made me sick for 2 days.
That only happened the very first time i got a flu shot years ago.
He said this is a different vaccine. The last few years have been a variation of the same vaccine because the flu strain was similar, this one is not. After a couple days I was fine, but had headache, temp, stomach upset, very tired. Get it, deal with it. Its a more dangerous flu.

[CTyankee]

17. oh, boy, you went thru the mill!

hubby is going tomorrow to his doc's office for his shot. I told him what happened to me so as to warn him, just in case he has a bad reaction. Hopefully, the nurse who will give it to him will be a bit better at administering it than my pharmacist was...

[TDale313]

16. Mine was sore for a couple days, too.

I only started getting the flu shot regularly a few years ago, but yeah, I was more sore than the last couple.

[winter is coming]

18. Could be what's in this year's vaccine. IIRC there was a season, probably 2000-2001,

where a lot of people got very sore arms and the vaccine contained a B strain that hadn't be in circulation before.

[Dorian Gray]

19. hit a nerve

that happened to me once with a flu shot. But it's unusual.