Is the flu vaccine supposed to be that rough?

I’ve had the flu before. Happened in 2017 when I was 46, and it put me on my back for a week.

It’s brutal — and that happened to have been a year when I dilly-dallied on my flu shot. Usually, I always get the jab, and usually in October. Again, given the choice, I’d choose the vaccine over the flu.

But the older I get, the more I feel the vaccine’s effects — and I’m not liking it.

For three consecutive years, the vaccine itself has made me sick. Despite it being temporary, the symptoms were pretty close to having the flu itself:

• Almost a 102 F fever
• Strong chills
• Body aches
• Belly cramps
• Malaise

Now, I understand that the vaccine did not give me influenza. However, there is a phrase in the public relations world that I learned several years ago about reality vs. perception — and that phrase is “that is a distinction without a difference.”

At least in my book.

I got the shot at 4 p.m. Tuesday, December 23, and didn’t feel up to 90 percent until Friday morning. It has me reconsidering the shot in years to come, not to avoid protection but in hopes that I can find something close to as effective but not as harsh, because it’s clear that my body doesn’t like it.

You say, “But that’s how vaccines work!”

I’ve had vaccines before. Take the shingles vaccine, for example. You get two doses of those, and it’s the second one that most folks consider to be a doozy. I didn’t feel great after it, but it was nothing too bad.

The COVID vaccine? I’m triple-vaccinated, and none of those had any effect on me — well, except turning me into a pinko liberal. (Kidding, mostly)

And now I’m hearing rumblings that my shot might not even be a good match for the H3N2 flu strain all the experts are worried about? The good news is that having any protection will help to keep an actual case of the flu from being as bad as it could be.

I am confident I did the right thing.

However, I don’t think it was supposed to make me as sick as it did. It was a little much.

If I’m being honest, I traded feeling like I had the flu for two days in hopes of not getting it this season for seven to ten. If you’re trying to encourage more people to get their flu shot, that probably won’t be a convincing sell.

If you know of an alternative that’s close to “good enough,” let me know.

I’m not trying to virtue signal here. I’d like to find a few others who react as severely to the vaccine as I do.

Photo associated with this story was shot by Allison Saeng for Unsplash+, and I am a proud subscriber.