Love-

I'm scared of it. I'm pregnant and there are no real studies on the long term affect it will have on unborn children. I'm just washing my hands and avoiding sick people like they were leppers. I am also using a RIDICULOUS amount of hand sanitizer.

I don't think my 9 month old willbe getting it either. It was just developed so quickly! Vaccines scare me a little anyway. We are so quick in modern society to let "professionals" shoot our kids up with stuff we really know NOTHING about. I see needle and I immediatly think drugs/chemicals and I have no clue what the risks are. Maybe I am just paranoid, who knows.

No one in my family or my friends is getting it. Too risky, in our opinion. In 1976 when the first Swine Flu vaccine was made, it gave thousands of people a very terrible neurological disease.

I would rather take my chances at having the flu than to get an un-tried vaccine.

I'm talking to DS all the time about hand-washing. We are gargling with Listerine. Taking Vitamin C to boost immunity.

Ashley, was it a conditon where a person has seizures and trouble walking/talking/eating for life?

I forget the name of it, but I think it is also a complication (albeit, rare) from the regular flu vaccine.

I am SO SCARED about this damn swine flu! I'm scared to get DD the vaccine and scared to have her NOT get it.

I personally will not be getting it but I am also not in a "high risk category" and she is.

I really do not like to make decisions based out of fear. I just don't know what to do.

Ashley---I talked to a friend of mine who is a nurse.

She said the thing in 1976 was Reyes sydrome or something like that? It *apparently* was because the flu vaccine at that time was a live vaccine. She said now the shot version is a dead one, and the nasal mist is a VERY weakened form of the virus.

So--she did say she feels that this time the vaccine will not pose the same risks.

That said, I am still really concerned and on the fence. What is bothering me is the prevalance of the flu already, and it is only mid-October!

Love-

Keepin mind that getting H1N1 is not an automatic death sentence either. There have been alot of cases in my area and no deaths. It has popped up in schools and daycares here. No child has died.

All you can do is weigh your options, measure the risks and make the best decision you can. I decided the chance of either of us getting swine flu and actually DYING from it wasn't large enough for me to risk the vaccine. That was just DH and Myselfs decision.

A little girl age 6 just died here in San Diego from swine flu.

That being said, I will not get the vaccine, nor will I get it for my 7 year old. She's had the regular flu many times, and just as my parents did when I was a kid, you treat it with common sense.

When she got the flu three weeks ago and missed three days of school I called her doctor to see what he thought. He said to let it run its course as long as she did not exhibit symptoms like shortness of breath, inability to drink/eat/go to the bathroom, etc. She recovered just fine.

I've never had the flu shot, and neither has my daughter, and unless something drastically changes, we will never get the shots. She is fully immunized, btw. I just never saw the benefit to the shot since everyone I know who got it always got sick after, sometimes really really really sick! And I get it once a year, or once every other year, or sometimes twice a year, but I figure that's normal.

Wash hands.
Practice good hygiene.
Cover your sneeze.
Don't panic.

I will get the injectable form of the vaccine. I have asthma & am a health care worker. I would not take the nasal spray as it is a weakened live vius and you can shed the virus from your nose for 2-3 weeks and spread it through droplets.

My employer put out a statement that if anyone receives the nasal form they had to remain home from work unpaid for 7 days after receiving. That said they will give out injectable.

H1N1 virus can live on surface areas for quite some time and is spread mainly through droplets from sneezing & coughing. Good handwashing is a great habit to get into but it won't do much to stop the spread of H1N1-this is a very different (mutated and ever changing) virus. Small children & up to mid twenties are extremely susceptible to it and it is rampant on college campuses. I will strongly encourage my college age son to get it.

~Cat

they are not using life vaccine anymore, it was in the past. i talked to my doctor about it and he told me that they stopped life vaccines years ago. so, no, one isn't getting sick from flu immunization.

I respectfully disagree.

The intal-nasal vaccine is a weakened live virus and they are currently giving it to non_immunocompromised individuals. The injectable vaccine is a killed virus.

They are still using live weakened viruses for many different vaccines so it pays to read the vial of the actual vaccine at the time of dosage.Individuals who do not have any chronic illness/immune disorders can usually tolerate without any problems, however with H1n1, you have the nasal shedding issue. A good place to research stuff like this is medscape.com and they have updated CDC releases also.

You are the best health advocate for yourself and your kids. Not all Docs are up to date on this virulent virus. It's a very personal decision to vaccinate or not. But beware this is not your average influenza.

I would not take the intra nasal one as I could potentially expose my patients via nasal shedding

-Cat

oh i see, cat, you are right, I only asked him and his nurse about injections, not about nasal.

I am not getting one.

Probably not getting it here. My oldest son already had the swine flu. Last month. He missed a little over a week of school. It made him feel miserable but it passed. He is the one that I really worry about regarding his health etc, because he has issues anyway. But he made it through it fine. Dr did give him tamiflu anyway to decrease the symptoms and speed what was left of recovery time.

Everyone else in the house was fine. Just one day of sickness, and it passed with them. So we are not too worried about it now.

I will probably opt for the regular flu mist though for at least my oldest.