On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 03:50:01 -0600, "jmcquown"
> wrote:

>JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
>> "MOMPEAGRAM" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>>> Sounds like the stomach flu thats going around. I had it for 3+
>>>> days. Others have had it up to a week, even my Dr.
>>>
>>> I've never had the flu since I started getting my yearly shots.
>>> Don't you think that would prevent it?
>>> Helen
>>
>>
>> Flu is a respiratory illness. The vaccinations will not prevent
>> digestive illnesses.
>
>And since there are so many variations of the respiratory flu the yearly
>shots often don't cover the particular strain that winds up going around.
>

All things considered, a flu shot is just you trying to immunize
yourself against the top three viruses that the best guessers last
year thought would be traveling around this year. Sometimes they're
right, sometimes the one they thought would be an epidemic isn't....
probably because so many people inoculated themselves against it.
However, there isn't a way to research that possibility, so we decide
they were duds at guessing that year. I've been very lucky with flu
shots so far. I might feel "under the weather" (no fever or vomiting)
at some point, but I don't get so sick I have to stay home in bed.
<knock on wood>

Also, during this flu season - be your own advocate. Someone told me
yesterday that she took her teenager to the doctor and ER (twice) with
a severe "stomach ache" and was sent home with instructions about how
to care for the flu both times. The third time mom insisted on a CAT
scan. It turned out his appendix had ruptured. Long story short,
he's lucky to be alive and may have to undergo another operation if
they didn't find all the "gunk".

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