No Flu Shot for Me This Year I did not get my flu shot this year. Collective gasp!

I think the major risk is Guillain-Barre.  I can find no research to tell me that if you had Guillain-Barre before you are at risk of getting it again, with this vaccination.  But that is what it said on the only printed informed consent instrument I could find.

I have a peripheral neuropathy.  About 20 million folks do in these United States.  Eight million stems from diabetes and the rest from other metabolic stuff.  Sometimes it’s from medications — like chemotherapy –and that is plenty enough nerve damage for me to deal with in life.

I do not have any of the “checklists” of reasons not to get the vaccine, like egg allergy.  I am unsure of adjuvants, or other exploded “myths,” but would probably bite the bullet to protect my patients if not for the fact that I already have a lifetime worth of nerve damage.  I know there is an increasing amount of risk to the 20 to 50 age group.  I am over 50, nearly 60. Good Lord, I have actually slipped into the high risk age.

I did not and will not get a flu injection this year.  I am taking my airborne clone, fizzies, and immunostimulants with plenty of disclaimers on the box.  I do a lot of commonsense things, like covering my mouth when I cough.

That is enough for me, for now.  Or until there is enough information to reasonably cover my personal informed consent.