Ramona is my oldest friend in the world – we’ve been friends since birth (seriously!).
The pic above is one of us taken sometime in the 80s.

And here’s a recent one of her with her family.

Ramona is maybe the funniest person I know. She’s also the sweetest, kindest, most thoughtful person you’ll ever meet.

Pretty much anyone who meets Ramona remains a lifelong friend, because that’s the kind of person she is.

Ramona needs your help this year.

Ramona was born with cystic fibrosis, an inherited disease that, among other things, has made her prone to trouble breathing and recurrent lung infections. Over time, these problems led to worsening function of her lungs, and last fall she got really sick. She couldn’t breathe on her own. It was even hard for her to breathe on life-support. She couldn’t talk to her kids or hug them or kiss them, and I was worried she’d never see them again.

Thankfully, Ramona was the recipient of a life-saving lung transplant. Recovering from what she endured is no joke. She was in the hospital for almost a year.

That’s a picture of Ramona and her husband. She’s finally home, and starting to live her life again.

But in order for Ramona’s body to thrive with someone else’s lungs, she has to take a lot of medications to suppress her body’s natural instinct to recognize the lungs as foreign and attack them. They work by suppressing her immune system. An unfortunate consequence of that is that her body isn’t going to be as great as everyone else’s at fighting infections. She also might not be able to develop immunity after vaccines the way the rest of us would.

The flu is a nuisance. Some of us don’t want the flu shot because it hurts, or because we believe that it makes us feel sick.

If Ramona gets the flu this year, she could die.

The best way to protect Ramona from the flu is to prevent her from being exposed. And the only way that can be done is if the rest of us get vaccinated. For every one person like Ramona, there are a whole bunch more who are also depending on our collective immunity.

Here’s my littlest son Cole.

He’s too young for a flu shot, and his immune system isn’t mature enough to fight the flu.

And this is Nanny, my grandmother. If anyone asks, she’s 75, but (shhh) she’s actually almost 100 and her body is too old to mount great immunity to the flu shot anymore, nor fight the actual infection.

So though getting the flu shot can be a drag, for people like Ramona, Cole, Nanny, and so many more, you’re actually saving their lives.

Getting the flu shot is really easy and no, it doesn’t cause the flu.

Save someone’s life this year – Screw the Flu!

The post Want to Save a Life? Now’s Your Chance appeared first on Talia Zenlea.

Think you got the flu from your flu shot? Think again.

Did you know that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the PHAC (Public Health Agency of Canada) now recommend the flu vaccine for everyone over 6 months of age?

That means you.

The flu vaccine is safe, even for pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses.

Can a flu shot give you the flu?

No. The flu shot can not cause the flu. The flu vaccine is made from either NO VIRUS AT ALL (recombinant vaccine) or from DEAD virus.

The recombinant vaccine is made without any flu virus at all. Manufacturers isolate certain proteins from the flu virus, and combine them with portions of another virus that doesn’t cause disease but that grows well and can replicate. This “recombinant” virus then grows and grows in insect cells, and the flu protein is then harvested and purified. When injected in you, this protein triggers an immune response, resulting in immunity to the flu virus.

The more common flu vaccine uses an inactivated, or dead, flu virus. The live flu virus is injected into either mammalian cells or hen’s eggs and allowed to grow and replicate. Once there’s enough, the virus is harvested in large amounts and killed, and the antigen (the protein in the virus that triggers an immune response in people) is purified out to make the flu shot.

The one exception to this is nasal spray flu vaccine, in which the flu virus isn’t killed. It’s just weakened (“attenuated”) to the point of not being able to cause illness. In addition, it’s cold-adapted, meaning that even if it could cause illness, it would only be able to so at cooler temperatures, not in the warm environment of human lungs.

What are the most common side effects of the flu vaccine?

The most common reactions from the flu shot are soreness, redness, tenderness or swelling where the shot was given. Low-grade fever, headache and muscle aches lasting a shot period of time (less than 2 days) can also occur.

There have been a few studies done looking at reactions to the flu shot. In one study, investigators gave some people flu shots, and other people salt water injections. The only difference was that the people who got the real flu shot had more soreness at the injection site.  There were no differences at all as far as body aches, fever, cough, runny nose or sore throat.

So you can’t get the flu from the flu shot. The whole point of the flu shot is that you don’t get the flu, or if you do, that it’s a milder illness. Check out our pulmonary and critical care expert Dr. Robyn Scatena’s 4 Reasons to Get Vaccinated. Also take a look at this Screw the Flu video from Bellyblog.ca’s own Media Producer, Dr. Seema Marwaha, along with her op-ed piece on Healthy Debate about the recent ruling striking down the “vaccinate-or-mask” policy for nurses.

The post Screw the Flu: Getting the Flu From Your Flu Shot appeared first on Talia Zenlea.

Want to stop the spread of flu? Get vaccinated.

Did you know that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the PHAC (Public Health Agency of Canada) now recommend the flu vaccine for everyone over 6 months of age?

That means you.

The flu vaccine is safe, even for pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses. And no, you can’t get the flu from your flu shot.

Here are 4 reasons why you should get your flu shot this year, and do your part to Screw the Flu.

It’s ridiculously easy. It takes about 5 minutes, and you can get it at drug stores or at flu vaccine clinics at your doctors’ office or sometimes even at work

It’s incredibly safe. The most common reaction to a flu shot is a sore arm. That’s it. Other reactions are extremely rare and MUCH less common than all the bad things that can happen to you if you actually get the flu.

You will protect yourself from the flu. You are less likely to get the flu, and if you do get the flu, are less likely to get really sick. That means less days at home in bed and more vacation days to sit on the couch or plan a winter escape.

You will protect other people, too. If you get the flu shot, you are less likely to pass the virus on to children, older people, and other people who can get REALLY sick or even die from the flu.

Check out this Screw the Flu video from Bellyblog.ca’s own Media Producer, Dr. Seema Marwaha, along with her op-ed piece on Healthy Debate about the recent ruling striking down the “vaccinate-or-mask” policy for nurses.

Get the flu vaccine soon. Flu season is just around the corner. Make sure to protect yourself and the people who you love!

The post Screw the Flu: 4 Reasons to Get Vaccinated appeared first on Talia Zenlea.