I grew up in a medical household where Asprin and Tylenol cured everything, and if your fever wasn’t over 103 it wasn’t really impressive enough to warrant medical attention. Â (By no means am I advocating this approach to your family’s health!) Â I was raised to believe that all beings need to build up their natural antibodies and as such, antibiotics were a last resort for really nasty stuff. Â Fortunately I also come from fairly hearty stock and have never been prone to illnesses, including common colds. (I get things like appendicitis and shingles)
I must have passed the lucky health gene along to my children, because in 16+ years we have had no major illnesses, and colds and flus seem to pass fleetingly over our house. Â Even when one of my children was felled by Swine Flu in the “Swine ’09 Epidemic”, the other two never got so much as a body ache or sniffle. Â
I have never gotten a flu shot, nor have any of my children. Â And fortunately we have dodged the flu in all its fury this past decade (except for the Swine Flu episode.) Â I don’t have an opinion one way or the other about flu shots, and have to admit that it is probably laziness that has prevented me from getting myself and my children vaccinated. Â However, my informal polling seems to be split on the ABSOLUTELY vs: Nah when it comes to people getting flu shots. Â I guess flu shots are like brussel sprouts; you either believe in them totally or completely eschew them. Â I see lots of signs for flu shot clinics at Target and Walgreens and CVS, but I’ve never actually seen anyone waiting for an appointment.
What are you and your family doing this flu season? Â Getting a shot or hoping that you don’t get sick? Â Send us a comment and let us know.
I have never had a flu shot in my life,, although in recent years it has crossed my mind. I have atendancy to get a really bad case of bronchitis in Feabruary of every year — although, since moving to the Cape less so… I distintcly recall the Blizaard of 1978, if for no reason other than the fact that I was as sick as a dog that whole week we were out of school with bronchitis (to the point that I was ready to report my mother to DSS (or whatever it might have been at the time) because she was talking on the phone while I was quite literally choking to death on phlegm (sorry to be so descriptive), I just could not breathe… Like Sara I grew up in a medical household, but in my home, there was always penicillin, or after that fell out of vogue, ampicillin… so for whatever ailed ya, take an ampicillin and you’d soon be better — and it worked! This flu shot thing, though I am not so sure, I’ve known so many who get the darned shot and get sick anyway… so I am still taking my chances with my usual (compromised, I am sure) immune system….