Would you get a vaccine if it could potentially kill you?

[warpus]

I suppose I would do whatever medical professionals recommend.

If my son's or daughter's life was in the equation I would talk to a whole bunch of those before deciding on a course of action.

 

[Cutlass]

Isn't that the best reason to get one?

 

[FriendlyFire]

Have you look at ways of reducing your daughters egg allergy first ? It might be possible to carefully work at reducing the allergy reaction and later on healing it I think people have had some success at this
As for the vacine, I think the medical advice to test a small amount of the vacine first for allergic reaction and take it from there

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The vaccinations are available now here, and I will probably get mine at the Wal-Mart pharmacy. Last year I happened to be shopping on a day when there was an announcement over the PA that they were available, so I figured why not just get it over with. It saved me a lot of time and stress with having to book a trip to the usual flu clinic.

 

[civvver]

Have you look at ways of reducing your daughters egg allergy first ? It might be possible to carefully work at reducing the allergy reaction and later on healing it I think people have had some success at this
As for the vacine, I think the medical advice to test a small amount of the vacine first for allergic reaction and take it from there

That's what we did, they pricked her with the flu vaccine and she reacted. But in case anyone isn't familiar what they do in a prick test is they have a baseline where they prick the skin with something, I don't know what it is, and then make other pricks and put the allergic substances on them. The pricks are not enough to make you bleed, just a tiny poke in your skin so the allergic substance can react. It's unpleasant but not really painful. Then they wait for a hive to develop and measure the size compared to the baseline. That's it. So getting a hive could be the worst reaction you get which is not a big deal. It's not exactly the most advanced method of measuring reaction because unfortunately I don't think you can measure that. But in all likely hood if she got the vaccine she would breakout in hives at the injection size and that's it.

I guess we should inquire about the non egg based vaccine. I'll ask about that.

Anyway I was just wondering at what point you consider treatment for something worth the risks. Seems like a lot of people have routine surgeries or take medication with side effects without weighing the benefit vs cost and alternatives.

 

[The_J]

I guess that's a bit a matter of how serious the side effects are.
My Aspirine here can also cause diarrhea and other not-so-nice things, but nothing which would be a major issue. I'll probably not think twice about taking it.
On the other hand, I had some anti-depressants once prescribed, and I had a long look at the side effects, and decided to not take it (might have though in a different setting).
Most of the medicaments which you can get without prescription should fall in the "not-so-serious" category, or really serious side effects are really rare. Else you'd not get them without consultation with a medical professional.