Flu Jab

[jacey]

Have you had yours?

Best Beloved,  Ageing but Active Mother and I all trooped down to the local health centre for our annual flu jab this morning. I've been having flu jabs for the best part of sixteen or seventeen years and though the doc said he didn't know why, it does also seem to be the case that immunisation against flu does also give you a certain amount of protection against the wheezles and sneezles.

There is no scientific evidence for this (he told me) but it seems to work.

As someone who was always very prone to catching coughs and colds which rapidly turn into somethig approaching bronchitis, avoiding them in the first place if I can is a sensible thing to do. I don't know about scientific evidence, but I can say that it has worked for me. Maybe it's all in my head - but that's fine if it works, it works.

I went through the whole of last winter without a sniffle.

Of course now I work from home I'm not exposed to as many people who have the dreaded lurgy, but for thirteen or fourteen of those years I was being hugged by random members of the audience after each concert - some of them only telling me afterwards that they were fighting off stinking colds. I wasn't entirely cold-free during my performing years, but I did maybe only have one (or at most two) a year whereas when younger I used to get them almost monthly.

In the UK anyone who has a compromised immune system due to illness or age (and that includes diabetics) gets a flu jab free on the national health (green_knight  this includes you now) but I noticed the other day that the pharmacy in the supermarket is advertising them for just ten quid for everyone else. Well worth it, I say.

BTW, green_knight  you are now also entitled to an immunisation against viral pneumonia and that's just a one-shot for life. Ask if your doc forgets to offer it.

Comments

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

We're lucky in that the docs at our local health centre will always make time to see an emergency case on the day you call. You might not get your own preferred doctor and you might have to wait until the end of surgery time, but you will be seen.