Flu shots?

[agate]

Some years ago I got my first high-dosage flu shot, intended for people over a certain age. It hit me so hard that I've tried to remember to specify that I want just the regular flu shot, please, ever since.

Every year I've remembered to do this. But this year it slipped my mind.

I completely forgot that there is this high-dosage flu shot. I went to the doctor's appointment ready for "a flu shot," got it, and went home. It was about 2 hours in between the shot and the time when I arrived at my building.

I was wheeling toward my apartment door, going through the (empty) media room when suddenly I felt very strange, as if I might pass out at any minute. I just wanted to shut my eyes because it seemed as if my eyes had gone all wonky. This may have been another episode of nystagmus, which plagued me many years ago but hasn't bothered me much for years and years.

Somehow I got into my apartment but had to sit down with my eyes shut and do nothing for a while. Luckily this passed and I was even able to eat lunch after a bit. But it was scary.

Later the "summary of office visit" was available through the doctor's office's patient portal. I learned that I'd had a flu shot--but it was the high-dosage one--which of course I'd have been given automatically since I didn't ask for anything different.

Has anyone else here tried the high-dosage flu shot and had any problems with it?

I'm pretty sure it's what caused today's problem, but it might also have been just that the ride home had taken about 30 minutes and involved quite a few turns. Making turns used to bring on episodes of dizziness and nystagmus for me, years ago.

[flatcap]

I have never had a high-dose flu shot, so I have no experience with them. I did get my regular shot yesterday, along with a COVID booster. The flu shot gave me zero problems. The COVID booster resulted in a pretty achy upper arm, but I expect that will pass in a day or two. That's how it's gone up until now, anyway.

On a somewhat related subject, I remember people on forums such as this one* saying some years ago that a flu shot could bring on an exacerbation, which made them somewhat controversial. I asked my PCP about it at the time, and he strongly recommended I get the shot, so I did. I did not experience an exacerbation and never have after a flu shot.



* It might have been on other forum(s); I don't remember exactly where I saw the conversation(s).

[agate]

Many people have a bad MS reaction to anything that raises body heat, including fevers, and flu shots often cause a person to run a slight fever temporarily. I don't know if I've heard of any real exacerbations from a flu shot but I definitely get worse MS symptoms whenever I'm feverish. However, Tylenol helps.

[flatcap]

I haven't suffered one in decades, so I never gave any thought to fevers and how they might affect one's MS. It makes sense, though, that they would have a negative impact.

I will keep Tylenol in mind. I rely on aspirin for most things (e.g., headaches) but appreciate your bringing Tylenol up. I will have to look into it and find out whether it is better than aspirin for fevers (which might be useless for them; I really don't know).

[agate]

Aspirin has been my go-to remedy all my life, but after the fall last spring, when I had a problem with bleeding that went on much too long, I had to realize that the time had come to cut out the aspirin entirely. As people get older, our reactions to drugs change and we have to be more careful.

My mother always relied on aspirin, but when she was in her late 50s, she suddenly was going deaf. It turned out that the aspirin she'd been taking for arthritis was causing it. When she cut it out, her hearing was restored.

I still think aspirin is a great drug, so simple and usually free of weird side-effects. But even a tried-and-true drug like that can create problems at times.

[Virginia]

I can't take aspirin due to internal bleeding. Some years ago my then PCP told me to take one coated baby aspirin a day. I can't remember how long it took but it probably was a couple of months. I noticed when I looked in the mirror I looked like a ghost. It was beyond pale, just ghostly. I stopped the baby aspirin. When I told her she said I was right to stop it, and that is what it could do. At that time I had a healthy look and she said she was surprised that little bit would do it.

Now all I have is Tylenol. Like Agate, my Mother was a big fan of aspirin, but she didn't take one every day.

[agate]

That sounds scary, Virginia.

I've wondered if the reason why the bruising on my face lasted as long as it did after the fall in May is that I'd been taking aspirin regularly. Or maybe it's just the way older skin is--slow to recover from bruising. I still have a little bruising showing under my eyes.--5 months later.

I guess any medicine that does anything to the blood has to be watched.

[flatcap]

I wonder if my taking a baby aspirin every day causes the tinnitus I suffer. My ears are ringing right now. I think I'll stop the daily aspirin and see if it goes away.

[agate]

I haven't heard of that low dose of aspirin causing problems but it's worth a try. I wouldn't want to put up with tinnitus either.

[Virginia]

I took a high dose flu vaccine one year. I have always gotten my flu shots at my doctor's office, but this year I went to the drug store and I didn't say anything about it because they were very busy. When I did get the high dose, I don't recall any really bad side effects. I have wished that I had gotten it this year but I didn't.

[agate]

I'm going to make a note to myself and put it where I'll be sure to find it reminding myself not to get that high-dose flu vaccine again.

What happened on Wednesday after the flu shot was probably nystagmus hitting me again. There could be other causes of it, or contributing factors, such as the fact that I'd been making quite a few turns while on the van and then made a couple of turns coming into the building. Turning too much used to trigger it, but that was about 35-40 years ago. I haven't had much of a problem with it ever since, maybe because I learned to slow down and avoid making too many turns.

Having your eyes whirl around in your head is scary. I can't see at all. The world doesn't go black but everything whirls around and it's all a blur. I have to stop wherever I am and shut my eyes and stay very very still and hope that it will calm down. Along with it goes a sensation of being about to pass out.

It's really odd that this symptom has come back after so long. It was quite a problem years ago but it always happened during walking. This time I'd been in the wheelchair for hours.

[jingle]

This morning I had regular flu vaccine and Covid. Thank goodness - I feel "normal", no ill effects at all.

[agate]

Congratulations, jingle! It's good to know that the latest COVID shot hasn't been creating any problems for people. I've had several of the others and they weren't bad at all.

I wouldn't have wanted both flu and COVID shots at once because that might be more of a sore arm than I could deal with. The doctor's office doesn't give COVID shots, and I may not be getting that latest COVID shot for a while yet.

[Virginia]

Jingle, you are brave to get them both at the same time.

Agate, is nystagmus the same thing as vertigo? I have had vertigo in the past and it will definitely stop you in your tracks. It has been a while and I hope I never have it again. There are certain symptoms that the DMT I am on seem to help. I just hope it keeps on. The other one is optic neuritis. I didn't go blind, but everything just turned brown and got dark.

[agate]

No, but nystagmus and vertigo often go together. Nystagmus is an eye movement disorder that may or may not be related to a problem in the vestibular system that controls balance---that bunch of intricate little semicircular canals in the ear.

If you have vertigo, you might also be having nystagmus, and vice versa because the two systems are closely related.

Nystagmus causes "dancing" or "wobbly" eyes. Sometimes my eyes would feel as if they were whirling around in my head, and at the same time I would feel disoriented, a sensation close to vertigo but not quite as bad.

With vertigo I would feel as if the whole world was out of whack. I wouldn't walk--I would veer and lurch instead. That is why I fell face forward and knocked out some front teeth--that was the worst episode of vertigo I've had. I'm so glad it never came back that severely.

Ophthalmologists don't seem to concern themselves with eye movement disorders, or at least I've never known one to. It's always been an issue for an otolaryngologist and a neurologist.

They figured out that my nystagmus (and possibly the vertigo too) was caused by a brainstem lesion. Often it has other causes.

Yes, optic neuritis! That's a different kind of problem but I remember how dark things could get when I had that. Red and green and brown still often look like black to me.