It’s that time of year. Some people are gearing up for Halloween, others are lining up for flu shots (and I suppose some might be doing both.) I got my flu shot today for the fourth year in a row. It’s funny to me how people get nervous about it. If you’ve never had one, or if you get bad reactions, then I get it. What amuses me are the folks who worry about the pain of the flu shot.
Then again, I guess I’m not really amused. I’m actually jealous. It would be nice to think of a flu shot as terrible pain. I suppose that if you rarely experience pain, if you measure pain by a stubbed toe or hitting your funny bone (I did that this morning; it’s really not so funny) then sure, a flu shot seems bad. I’m jealous, because I have so much pain so frequently that a flu shot feels like nothing. Ok, it’s not nothing; I felt it and it hurt a bit. My arm is sore. Do I care? Not really. I know it will make it a bit harder to sleep for a couple of nights. I can sleep through other pain because I’m used to it, but pain in a new location will throw me off for a bit. And then it’s gone. That’s the thing, we all know that it’s temporary. I would so love to know that my pain and other symptoms were temporary.
So come on people, I know you can do it. If you don’t want to get the flu shot because you don’t believe in vaccines or something, that’s your choice. But please don’t avoid it because of the “pain.” My guess is that one day you’ll experience real pain, and you’ll look back and wonder what you were so afraid of. If you want it, just do it. At least this pain goes away.
[Note: To get free emails of posts to this site, simply sign up in the top right corner of any page.]
Chronic Rants 