Do you get colds or flu?

[Howie]

I would post this as a poll question, but I don't know how to do that. Basically, I want to know if you ever get sick with colds or flu, and do you get flu shots.

I never get sick, and I don't get flu shots.

[Catdancer]

I get flu shots every year, and have gotten both pneumonia shots. I also get colds every year, just now getting over one. it started on Saturday, is down to a bit of a stuffy head right now, will be gone probably tomorrow. I think being around lots of people make me more at risk of getting a cold.

[Howie]

Good point Cat. I don't really have contact with other people. I go to the grocery store once a week, and I say hi to everyone because they know me, but you do have contact with money, and that's supposed to be very filthy.

[Gary]

I get both the shots. They are killed vaccines and there is NO way you can get sick from them. The nasal ones are a different story. The last time that I forgot to get my shot I got so sick that I would have to have gotten better just to die. Needless to say I never miss getting my shot. Same goes for my family being in the medical field both my kids get theirs as well.

[agate]

Since some time in my teens "colds" for me have always been sinus infections that wouldn't go away without antibiotics but in the last 10 years or so I've been miraculously free of these, even though I always could count on several a year before.

I've had flu a couple of times but since the flu shot came along I've almost always had a flu shot, and no flu. I had the pneumonia vaccine about 10 years ago and I believe the doctor said something about a second pneumonia shot.

When I did have the flu, I was wiped out for about 2 weeks each time. I don't want to go through that if I can avoid it.

[Pegakafarmgirl]

every time I get a flu shot, I get the flu, so no flu shot, and yes I get colds,,

[Lazarus]

Good point Cat. I don't really have contact with other people. I go to the grocery store once a week, and I say hi to everyone because they know me, but you do have contact with money, and that's supposed to be very filthy.

Good thought but, I do not get any shots and as a farmer I am always handling dollar bills. And I do not get flu or colds.

It is hard to fit the information into a decisive conclusion.......

[Howie]

Linda, we both have MS, and we both never get colds or flu which seems to point to a strong immune system. But some say we have weakened immune systems.
If that's true, then how do you and I stay cold and flu free?

I think the immune system is tricked by a certain virus into seeing myelin as a target, and not the virus itself.

[Cherie]

I don't get colds or flu and have not had a flu shot since 2001. Everyone up to that point had had serious site reactions and that one netted cellulitis that needed antibiotics to treat so I have been told to avoid in the future.

[Gary]

I guess I should have clarified that If you have a health reason for not getting the shots then, of course you shouldn't. I think that people confuse the nasal version with the injection version. My Dr said that under no circumstance should I get the nasal version. And he also recommended that no one in our house get it either as it is a modified live vaccination and anyone with immune system problems could have problems and the risk isn't worth it.

[Howie]

Thanks Gary, good info.

[funnylegs4]

I get sick. I get the flu shot some years and other years not.

[nuthatch]

I haven't had a cold or the flu since I was diagnosed with MS. I did get colds and flu pre MS, but I've never had a flu shot. When I was diagnosed with MS, I was working closely with young children at an elementary school, teaching reading. I was constantly exposed to sick kids, but never got sick myself. Go figure!!!

[renee]

No flu, yes flu shots but I don't think I've been getting them since my onset.
I don't remember when I last had a cold.

[SuzE-Q]

I never get sick, get flu shots. Just had my first pneumonia vax and had quite the reaction, my arm felt like I'd slammed it in a door, and a low grade fever caused all my MS sx to go crazy. Not a fun time. Wasn't expecting that since I never have a reaction to the flu vaccine.