Fear of the 'Flu Jab

The annual ‘flu jab is a bit of a chore for me. I’m really not fond of needles. It is no longer the rip-roaring phobia of my youth, but I’m still wary of someone sticking a needle into me and infecting me with small amounts of a disease or illness. However, I’d rather be jabbed than have the ‘flu. After all, a small injection is a lot nicer that influenza, right?

Well, maybe, maybe not. See, when I had a ‘flu jab earlier this week, I learnt that there may be a major downside to the injection.

The nurse administrating the jab went through the usual warning chat about how sometimes people get ‘flu symptoms for about 48 hours after the injection. I hear the same think year after year. However, this nurse had some further advice for me. Advice I had not, mercifully, had before.

“If you get a rash in the first half hour after the injection,” she said calmly, “Come back and see me, immediately.”

“What sort of rash?” I asked, frowning.

“Oh, just a sudden rash. That flares up all over your body. Oh, and also head back at once if you get breathless.”

These were not the most comforting words to hear, but I could cope with both a rash and/or being breathless. A lifetime of asthma and a childhood of eczema assists with that.

But the nurse had something else in her arsenal of worry.

“Oh, and you also need to come back at once if your lips go numb.”

There was something in that statement that freaked me out. In all my life, across a whole load of illnesses, I have never experienced numb lips. No matter how much I have drunk.

At this point, it became imperative to find out why this nurse was warning me about all these symptoms.

“Why do I need to come back so quickly if any of that happens to me?” I asked.

“Oh,” said the nurse, conversationally, “If you do get those symptoms I need to stab you in the leg with another needle. To give you adrenaline.”

And there was a moment’s pause before she delivered her piece de resistance.

“Otherwise you’ll die.”

At this point, I was seriously wondering just how bad the ‘flu could possibly be – and wondering whether the risk of the ‘flu seriously warranted risking death to avoid it. However, the nurse was happily going about preparing the needle and in a moment it was stabbed into my arm.

And as she inject me, there was an audible hiss. It sounded a lot like she had injected air into me.

It struck me as ironic that she had described the risk of death through anaphylactic shock but hadn’t touched on the risk of death by air bubble causing an embolism. Ironic and scary.

I waited for a moment, half expecting an air bubble in my blood stream to hit my brain but (as you can probably tell given I am writing this) that didn’t happen. I made the assumption that the hiss was normal – perhaps the feature of a new super new hypodermic. Whatever it was, I wanted to get away from the nurse as soon as possible. She had given me a ‘flu vaccine that could kill me, so I did not want to run the risk of her injecting my nose with formaldehyde to prevent future colds. Or try to prevent me going blind in the future by putting leeches on my eyes.

So, as a message to any medical professionals reading this: it is good to inform people of the risks of any medication being administered. However there are ways and means of delivering that message, and there is such a thing as too much information...