I haven't posted about this because she's not out of the woods yet, but I thought I would share this cautionary tale to those who are on the fence about Flu shots.
My daughter came down with Mono last October and missed some school. (She went from the Hospital E.R. to the stage where she had a lead in a musical. Despite missing some school, she wound up on the Dean's List with a 4.0...at CMU. She's amazing and I love her) But because of this, her immune system was a bit compromised.
Now, we normally get our flu shots together, but she is an adult and her doctors told her that she really needed the flu shot after having Mono. She assured me that she would, so I didn't force the isssue. She was busy with classes and performances, so it never got done.
Her roommate comes home with the Flu, and because they live in a small box together, she gets it too. We take her to two different emergency rooms, and the both sent her home. She just didn't seem right, so we took her to a third and insisted on a CT scan rather than an X-Ray. The Flu had turned into Pneumonia, and Bronchitis, and Pluracy and SEPSIS. She was on one lung and seriously, very sick.
She is in the ICU for a week, then surgery to remove the gunk from around her lungs (within the plural space) then in the hospital for another week with a chest drain. One more week to monitor her reaction to antibiotics and finally released with a PIC line and a portable IV pump for another month of antibiotics. She is seeing her surgeon, her infectious disease specialist, her PC and about three other specialists. With a lot of hard work and summer classes, she may not slip a semester behind, but it wont be easy. Bottom line, it sucked. I slept in a chair more than I slept at home.
While I can't say that a Flu shot would have completely prevented this, a team of experts said she should have gotten one. They also said that if she was elderly, very young or a smoker (or any compromised lunch condition) she would have been dead. So get your flu shot, stop smoking and hug your kids.
