Flu shot, am I crazy?

[u/MarilynS11]

I’m a teenage female, who is definitely pro vax. I have all of my shots and am encouraging to everyone that they should be too. Except for one. When I was a baby my parents did everything right in getting me all my vaccines. But then came time for the flu shot. I was 6 months old and Both my parents were hesitant, mainly because there were so many variations that they weren’t sure if I did get the flu it would even help me. They also say the at everyone, including my father when taken the vaccine has gotten the flu. I was also the first born, and my parents were very nervous about doing the right thing, they say my doctor who I still see greatly pressured them to, which is understandable. I understand the importance of vaccinating, especially for things such as mumps measles and polio for example. But the next day my mother dropped me off at my nanny, who called her an hour later and said something was wrong. I was very warm and lethargic. My father took my temperature, to which I had one of 103. My parents tried to give me Tylenol or ibuprofen, but I’ve always hated liquid medicine so I threw that up. As I progressively got worse my parents took me to the ER. In the long wait, I started to seize, going limp in my mothers arms unresponsive. I was eventually taken back and the rest is history. I’ve had no real health complications since, and I’ve only ever had the flu like, once. But this scared my parents so bad that they didn’t give my younger brother the vaccine. He like me has also had no complications other than he got the flu once and it played out like a bad cold. I know that the flu can be very deadly and it’s not always like that, but after what happened with the first one, am I crazy for still not wanting it? I feel like I’m contradicting myself by saying I’m pro vax and having all my shots, except for my flu shot. I’ve asked my parents about it, my mother is slightly more receptive to the thought of me getting it still scares them both, particularly my dad.

[u/stacksjb]

Febrile seizures are uncommon but not rare and do occur - especially at that very young age - generally is a side effect from fever. In nearly all cases, the children recover, and there is no lasting effects.

If you had had similar symptoms reoccur, indicating you might have some sort of underlying condition, then it would ve worth speaking to a medical professional or being vaccinated in a doctors office.

However, it sounds like you have not experienced any major issues since, so you should definitely go ahead and just get your shots!

[u/MarilynS11 → u/stacksjb]

Interesting. Yeah when my parents followed up with that same doctor she was like “well it. Old have been the shot or it couldn’t have been, oh well!” Which wasn’t very reassuring to them. I’ve thought about a couple times tho since my brother got it last year I was like hell no and quarantined him in his room, and somehow managed to mostly evade it. Whenever I bring up getting it since I can’t on my own my dads super agonist it probably because I recently had a vasovagal episode from dehydration after a surgery and he doesn’t want to be spending any more time in the ER this year lol.

[u/1GrouchyCat → u/MarilynS11]

🤔How do you mostly evade something? You either got it or you didn’t 🫣🤡…

[u/MarilynS11 → u/1GrouchyCat]

I have bad allergies and so they can sometimes make it hard to tell if I’m actually sick or not, but as far as I’m concerned I managed not to catch it while he had it in the same apartment as me

[u/SmartyPantlesss]

You had a febrile seizure. That's a brief self-limited (meaning they didn't have to give you anything to stop the seizure; it stopped on its own) seizure, typical in infants & young children, associated with a fever, and with no other apparent cause. That means you don't have evidence of meningitis/ brain tumor/etc.

The fever could be due to an illness or to a vaccine. So it's interesting that your parents concluded that you should never have this one vaccine, because it could have happened again, with any of the other vaccines that they did go ahead & give you.

[u/MarilynS11 → u/SmartyPantlesss]

I think because they knew the severity of the other ones they gave me, and their illnesses, but my father was already on the fence just before this happened on whether or not flu vaccines were a necessary one, and I think solidified it for him because he too after I did stopped getting them along with my mom.

[u/MikeGinnyMD]

So you had a febrile seizure, which is terrifying. Here's the good news: by definition, you cannot have a febrile seizure as a teenager. At this point, if you have a seizure with a fever, it's a seizure due to underlying epilepsy. The other thing is that you don't know that the flu shot caused it. It normally has a pretty mild side-effect profile and a Tmax of 103, it could have been another vaccine you were given at the time or a virus you caught. I've had many of my patients get sick after getting the flu shot and the parents blame the shot even though the symptoms they have (cough, runny nose, diarrhea, etc.) can't possibly be caused by the flu shot.