DH got his flu vaccine today

tigersmom

And I am wondering if he'll ever be getting another. DH has gotten this vaccine religiously for as long as I have known him. Today we stopped outside the pharmacy and I said, let's go in and get your flu vaccine. Frown. "I don't get that," he replied. I convinced him that he always did, and he went in with me.

This is our neighborhood independent pharmacy, and they know him, and me, well. Thank god for that. He gave me grief the whole time I filled out the form for him. Since it was chilly today, he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt. When the pharmacist said the sleeves needed to be rolled up more than was possible, he had to take the shirt off. Stay with me.

Before he would let her poke him, he wanted to talk. With the needle poised, I asked him to be still and get the shot first. She asked him to relax. Angry because he thought I wasn't letting him talk, he tightened his arms and clenched his fists into balls. Shot finished, he started his usual dialog about wildlife and the 50 hyenas and wolves he walked beside many, many years ago. He's still half-naked. When I asked him to put his shirt on, he ignored me. When I finally got him to do it, he was still talking. Then, so he could tuck aforementioned shirt back in, he loosened his belt and unzipped his pants in front of the pharmacist. In the drugstore aisle!

The pharmacist, who had been very kind and patient with him, decided to retreat at this point. I had to go to the register and sign on the touchpad for him. He started all over again with the wolves and hyenas with the cashier. Eventually, to get him out of there, I thanked her and said goodbye. To him I said, "I'm leaving now!" and headed for the door.

Sorry for the rant, but how do other people do this stuff? We have to go back in a few weeks for a Covid booster. Not looking forward!

Jo C.

Or . . . next time . . . short sleeve shirt AND as soon as the injection; (or even before), chocolate chip cookies come out of the purse to keep his mouth busy at something else.

Amazing how the easiest things can turn into a major event.

Rest and treat yourself to something good; because you did good under some "interesting" circumstances. Whew!

J.

Ed1937

Jo's suggestion is simple, inexpensive, and usually effective. Can't get any better than that. Just make sure you have enough cookies. 🙂

Denise1847

OMG, I cannot imagine how you felt. Jo had great ideas. My only addition is to either let the pharmacy know that your DH has Alzheimer's or pass a note to whoever is going to do the injection that states your DH has Alzheimer's. I would hope they would understand and patience.

Quilting brings calm

Get the shots in the doctor’s office if possible. It’s also possible that you will have him in a care facility by this time next year - our county sends people to the ALs, etc to give the shots. I wouldn’t worry about next time - you made it through now and it’s hard enough to get through now without worrying about then

upstateAnn

Call ahead, whenever possible. and tell them your husband has dementia. I am stunned at the difference a little notice can make.

JDancer

Any thoughts about skipping the COVID booster?

Jo C.

From my personal perspective, I would not skip the COVID booster for my LO. Too much risk for a variety of too many bad outcomes. Prevention or less serious disease as much as possible would be my choice. Some people get the virus and have done well without harsh disease; but that is not always the outcome as we have personally found out. Protection from last year's COVID vaccination has now waned pretty much down to nothing, just like our flu vaccinations that we need to repeat each year.

We just recently had our adult son and DIL come down with COVID. It was in all probability picked up at DILs work as a Vet Tech; she comes in contact with some but not all of their customers and that was her only source of exposure. Our son was home bound due to a work related shoulder injury and had no exposure except for his wife. Both son and DIL are healthy but DIL has Type 2 Diabetes.

Our DIL symptomatically came down with COVID proven by COVID test. Two days later, son had first symptoms of COVID also proven with COVID test. Both of them started on five days of Paxlovid.

DIL had a five days of being very ill with fever, cough, chills, headache, very sore throat, fatigue, sore muscles; diarrhea, and being completely down and out and slept most of the time. After that, she began to improve and did well.

Son had much more severe symptoms and they have been longer lasting - three weeks because he relapsed . . . fever, chills, headache, severe debilitating fatigue, severe productive cough; diarrhea that kept repeating; severe sore throat with difficulty swallowing; severe sore muscles, he mentioned very cloudy thinking and difficulty processing thoughts during the worst of it. After about a week and a half he began to improve when suddenly, it all came back again in relapse. He is now, finally pretty well getting better; still has a small cough especially at night, but the fatigue will suddenly hit out of nowhere and it is so severe, he must sit down or lie down as it is that bad. It is not with him always; but he never knows when it will hit. We are hoping this will not be long haul syndrome he is going to be stuck with. My friend's 32 year old daughter had COVID and after nine months, she still has difficulty with cloudy thinking which is difficult as she is a high school teacher.

Our son's Physical Therapist is a healthy man in his 30's; he had COVID some months ago and recovered BUT one month after getting well, he developed pulmonary emboli in his lungs - twice - and is now on life long anticoagulant therapy.

I would not want my LO with dementia to be hit with severe COVID illness if it is preventable and even be at risk of hospitalization or worse. As said, last year's COVID vaccination protection will have worn off just as our annual flu shots wear off and we need to repeat them. Cannot imagine a LO with dementia suffering the range of COVID symptoms on top of all else.

Just my personal feelings about it. And; I need to get my booster too.

J.

ImMaggieMae

Thank you for the warning, Jo. Very scary indeed, especially when hospital personnel and people in doctors offices are not required to wear masks, at least in California.

Ed1937

I think people have pretty much made up their minds whether or not to get it. I'm going to get it, but probably not until late Oct. unless it starts to get bad here. So far we're OK.

Jo C.

We were very concerned. Our son and DIL were at our home visiting with the rest of our four adult children; we were together all day into the evening three days before they became ill with the first symptoms. So there we were.

Incubation period is considered two days to fourteen days; most contracting the disease in just a few days. We watched carefully for the fourteen days and kept out of the public. Fortunately all of us stayed well which is good as one son has severe cardiac disease.

Here we go again . . . . another winter ramp up coming early as numbers are rapidly increasing out here in SoCal.

J.

tigersmom

Thank you so much for all these great responses. To answer a few of your questions, I have chosen to go the pharmacy route instead of doctor's office because it is simpler. His PCP is great but the wait is always long, and I figure that 10-15 minutes in the pharmacy is better than an hour at the doctor. The pharmacist is well aware of his dementia diagnosis, since all his meds are filled there. And Jo, you are right: short-sleeved shirt is essential. I always made sure he wore one for the covid shots; for some reason, I hadn't truly planned on getting the flu shot that day. It was more of a spontaneous decision, which I guess was a bad idea. Planning, planning, planning. Jo, so very sorry to hear of your son and DIL's Covid cases; not getting the booster is not an option where we live. We've both had six shots and will be getting a seventh. So we will go back -- with a short-sleeved shirt, and armed with cookies. Thank you all again for your support and understanding.

Iris L.

Where I live in Southern California, all staff I have observed when I went to my outpatient medical appointments wore masks. The staff also screen everyone for Covid symptoms, take temperatures and offer masks if desired.

Iris