Poll: When was the last time you got vaccinations?

[Section Crow]

Well, i'm 19 so I've only really had to take the one's compulsory in secondary school so that would of been 3 years or so ago.

I have no idea what the vaccinations were for, being the hap-hazard child of whimsy that I quite possibly may be, but I always take them (Not like their optional, i'm just fine with getting em.) since out of all the vaccinations I have had the only bad experience I've gotten is having a needle being stuck through a scab which hurt like a ************. Though, one of my friends had a poor reaction to a vaccine (Him being the only one it had occurred to) that had some minor side-effects (Dizziness, general discomfort) that persisted throughout our lunch break, afterwards he was fine.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I've had the MMR and the various childhood vaccinations, but I think the last ones I had were about 5 years ago, before I went to India. Can't remember what they were for, I think one was for a variant of Hepatitis.

 

[Mutant1988]

About 3 months ago I got a Tetanus Vaccine with Whooping cough booster.

Ironically I'm pro vaccine, even though I had reactions to the Measles vaccine I recived as a child that were 'medically impossible' as the Doctors said.

Just curious, what kind of reaction did you have? If you don't mind sharing, of course.

 

[laggyteabag]

I wanna say when I was 15 or 16. I like to keep up on my not-wanting-to-die-ness.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I had to get a series of vaccines before entering college, mostly because I fell behind on a couple of the later ones. The main one I needed was the Meningities/Menactra/MC4 vaccine, which is necessary for living in student housing. I also started the Hepatitis B series, but the doctor said that it was such a low priority for me that I could stop taking them if I wanted to. Considering the costs, I stopped.

I think my next shot will be in a couple years when I need to get my Tetanus vaccine updated. I think I might already be late on getting it, but I can't remember the last time I had it and would like to get an age where it is easier to remember.

 

[VanQ]

I get a flu vaccination for free every year at my workplace since I work in medicine and I'm due for my next one in the next month or so. I have only been sick once in the last 10 years of my life since starting annual vaccinations. Thanks, Science!

 

[Veldel]

I get a flu vaccination for free every year at my workplace since I work in medicine and I'm due for my next one in the next month or so. I have only been sick once in the last 10 years of my life since starting annual vaccinations. Thanks, Science!

my old job offered them also but I always refused.

I find it funny how everyone around me gets sick so often. I blame there bad habits.


I was not expecting such quick and immediate reply xD

 

[Hoplon]

got a few 2 years ago for a trip i took, hep a, hep b, yellow fever things like that.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

Last time I had one was a flu shot paid for by the workplace. I remember people were trying to psych out the next one on the list by acting like they were in agony, but to be honest I think needles have become a heck of a lot less painful than when I was a kid. Don't know if I'm just used to the pain more nowadays but it seems like they're a lot better now.

 

[Tiger King]

I got one a few weeks ago but I have had plenty over the years whilst growing up.
It was my first experience with the American healthcare too and boy was it a shock to the system!!

 

[Asita]

Including flu shots? Last...was it September? It was near the onset of flu season. Aside from that...let's see here...got a decent gamut of them when I went off to college (We were all very conscious of them at the time, considering that one of my upperclassmen died from meningitis my senior year), and then of course there was the Swine Flu vaccination when that was in the news...not too many more that are ringing a bell, but I'm fairly certain I'm up to date on my vaccinations.

 

[flying_whimsy]

I don't bother with flu shots (I'm still pretty young and I have never caught a domestic strain of the flu), but I did just get a tetanus booster a few months back while they drew blood to check my other immunities. My mom always got me vaccinated (as she had most of the diseases when she was little and never wanted me to go through it), and I'm a firm believer of the practice.

I did have a reaction once, though; my college required all sorts of other vaccinations, and my doctor gave me all of them at once (so we're not sure which one I had a reaction to). Within about 15 minutes I started shaking, got dizzy, and came down with a slight fever; about a half-hour later it was all gone and I was fine. My shoulder where they did the injections was sore for days, though.

And as far as some people saying they would rather get the disease: no, you wouldn't. The diseases are absolutely miserable experiences (why do you think they made vaccines in the first place?), and some of those have permanent consequences (most younger people have no idea how terrible polio was and what a miracle that vaccine turned out to be). I had pneumonia when I was little (yeah, I know it's not one you can get a vaccine for, but I have a point), and the fever I had from it was so high it damaged my nervous system: I've had tension tremors ever since.

 

[Auberon]

Flu shot, I think late 2012 and tetanus for military service early 2013. I trust in my immune system to deal with all the rest, and appropriate drugs if that is lacking.

 

[Spiridion]

I received all of the vaccinations I was recommended/required to when I was a child. According to the internet that was DTP, Hib, Polio, and MMR at the very least. I also received a tetanus booster after I was cut by an old nail around 5 years ago.

I've never bothered with flu vaccinations. Although I generally contract some version of the flu on a pretty much yearly basis, I've always just suffered through it. However, I haven't gotten sick at all since I decided to take a break from school, so maybe I'll be able to avoid that trend this year.

One vaccine I should probably look into getting is the one for chickenpox. I believe I was born a few years too early to have received it and never contracted the disease as a child. So at this point it would probably be safer, or at least not harmful for me to fix that.

 

[TartenRazor]

I have all of my vaccinations, but I haven't gotten a flu shot, I think ever. No one in my family has even gotten the Flu, so it just really hasn't been a priority. Do flu shots count as vaccinations through? I mean they are short term.

 

[Darks63]

I got all the one you get when your a kid like polio and the like. However I avoid flu vaccination since I hate going to get them and I also believe that its better to get sick and get over things naturally since it gives your immune system a good wargame practice.

It actually doesn't.

The wargame practice you refer to is what vaccines provide, with far less risks and unpleasant side effects than you would get from contracting the actual disease. Even relatively mild diseases can have disastrous effects or leave you disfigured for life.

Misery might build character, but getting sick when it's possible to avoid it is not doing anyone any favours.

That said, flu is a bit of a crap shoot, since there's a new strain ever so often and most vaccines only work for a single strain. So yeah, if you are in the risk groups (i.e. those that are likely to die from it) then it's a very good idea to get vaccinated.

Sorry if I sound preachy. Again, be critical of what medical companies do, but don't altogether dismiss vaccination as a method to prevent disease.

Why am I insistent on this? See the anecdote in my previous post.

Well I had to believe in something especially since I survived a trial by fire when I was born in the form of pneumonia upon birth. But don't get me wrong I'm not one of these Jenny McCarthy twits I came from a poor background so going to the doctor with any regularity was out. I also didn't have health coverage from 18 till now so going to the doctor for anything was prohibitively expensive until obamacare. I would get vaccced for anything major like tet or rabies. It just with cold and flu it feels pointless since they mutate too damn fast for it to be worth the time.

 

[Mutant1988]

Well I had to believe in something especially since I survived a trial by fire when I was born in the form of pneumonia upon birth. But don't get me wrong I'm not one of these Jenny McCarthy twits I came from a poor background so going to the doctor with any regularity was out. I also didn't have health coverage from 18 till now so going to the doctor for anything was prohibitively expensive until obamacare. I would get vaccced for anything major like tet or rabies. It just with cold and flu it feels pointless since they mutate too damn fast for it to be worth the time.

I suppose there is some merit to that train of though. Anyone that has any kind of condition that could exacerbate flu symptoms though should really, really get vaccinated. If you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, any kind of lung illness really, it's just best to not take any chances then.

But you know best how you want to deal with that sort of thing.

I'd be keen on trying a vaccine myself, because last time I got the flu it was merciless. Didn't get put in a hospital though, but then again I'm not in a particular risk group. It still sucked a whole lot.

 

[Aesir23]

Due to some medicine I have to take, I actually have a suppressed immune system to the point where a really bad case of the flu could potentially kill me. So as a result I get vaccinated for the flu every year.

As for vaccines for major diseases, I got the hepatitis vaccines way back when I was in elementary/primary school and got the usual vaccines back when I was a baby.

However, that was before the 90s so I'm thinking of getting the booster shot for the MMR vaccine so that I'm at a smaller risk of being killed by the idiot anti-vaccine people.

 

[Kopikatsu]

A very, very long time. I had a bad reaction to the shots they give you as a child, so I never finished the battery due to having a medical exemption. Don't remember what I'm not immunized against, but it doesn't really matter to me either way. If a disease kills me, it kills me. If it doesn't, then it don't.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Just curious, what kind of reaction did you have? If you don't mind sharing, of course.

When I got my measles vaccination as a child, I got full blow measles from it. That's something that my parents were assured was 'medically impossible' by my pediatrician and the doctors at the hospital. Along with the full on measles, I got febrile seizures which may have been from the extreme fever from the measles or something to do with the vaccine itself. Can't really say which, or at least the doctors didn't say which.

End result of all that was my horrifically bad ADHD in grade school from what it all did to my brain (So bad that I got Cylert, not Ritalin)


On an unrelated note for the entire thread, I'm curious as to why I haven't seen the Oral Polio Vaccine/AIDS theory coming up yet in any of this 'anti-vaccine' flurry.