Last year I got my flu shot at Walgreen's, so this year they sent a notice with some of the paperwork already filled out, letting me know it was flu shot time again.

I'm leery of getting the flu from a flu shot, though you will be told you can't get it that way--but years ago I did. So being prepared, I loaded up the inside and outside frige with gallons of water, cases of water, soft drinks, soups, canned fruits and edibles I wouldn't have to cook, should the shot make me ill.

So I get to Walgreen's and I ask the woman giving the shots if it is a live vaccine--I don't want a live vaccine, just the old attenuated one. All she said was this year's flu shot included the H1N1 vaccine. I also asked for the Pneumovax shot--it's been years since I got one.

Flu shot went into one arm, Pneumovax into the other. I hung aroung to shop for a while, in case I had a reaction. Bought grandbaby a Mississippi Tee shirt, dawdled and left. Yesterday evening my arms got sore and achy and I couldn't believe it--I started running a fever. By midnight I was hot as a poker and took some Tylenol. Then I read the cautions on the materials given to me at Walgreen's, and it's scary all the side effects and problems the flu shots could cause.

By nine this morning I was feeling okay and the fever's gone, so I hope that's the end of that. I might not have gotten vaccinated this year, but a writer for the paper wrote an article about how his wife got the flu, it made the rounds of their friends, then he got it, and he had never been sicker in his life and is only now getting over it. So maybe it's a good thing to go ahead and get the flu shot yourself--just stock up on fluids and cold remedies--just in case.

susil