I just got a flu shot for the first time on Sunday. but the next day i had a horrible headache and a minor sore throat. it persisted onto today with slightly less strentgh but still enough to bother me. also my mom who had recieved the same thing had a sore throat (she daily suffers from chronic headaches so she couldn't tell if she had one out of the norm or not) but it wasn't her first time getting the shot. my sister (afriad of needles and doesn't mind being sick so much) would not get the shot. she is not experiencing any of these symptoms. is this a side effect or are we really sick? or is getting sick just happen with the shot?
It could be you were just coming down with something before you got the shot too. If the symptoms are minor, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If they become more severe, maybe a visit to the doctor would be in order.
Could very well be side effects of the shot. The base for the flu shots is eggs and though filtering processes have greatly improved, some of the foreign protein from the eggs as well of course as the protein of the attenuated virus are passed to you. Your body reacts to the protein and it can give you body aches, pains, headache, sometimes fever, chills, etc. You do not actually get the flu as the virus is rendered to prevent that, but you react to the proteins involved. I really didn't like the flu shot when it first came out back in the 60's as I was a great reactor to the proteins and it was just as bad as having the flu, so I would refuse it. Over the past 7 years I have taken it each year and do not have the reactions I once did. According to the studies on people taking the flu shot, even if the shot will not cover the particular strain of flu this given season (it is a best scientific guess as to what type of flu will show next year) it still gives a kick to the immune system and helps ward off infections. One thing that will help tremendously for stopping the flu is hand washing and washing down inanimate surfaces (door knobs, counter tops, chairs, etc) where people sneeze or cough and handle anything. The flu bug is picked up from the surface of inanimate surface and introduced later into the mouth by our hand, eating, drinking, picking at our teeth.
I had the flu jab once a few years ago because they were offering them free to everyone at work who wanted them. For the next two or three days I felt rough, like quite a bad cold and ended up taking time off work. I was not the only one, though I was one of the worst. I didn't bother to have it the following years. When I was young I would get every cold going - three or four during the course of the winter was not unusual. Now I rarely get them and when I do they don't tend to affect me too badly. I had the one going round at work at the end of last week. I had a couple of rough days and am now over it. Others have been off for up to a week and are still suffering. So I leave my immune system alone and take my chances.
I don't get the flu shot either... My (ex) wife, as a nurse, doesn't get them because she worked with another nurse years ago who suffered very severe side effects. I'm sure it's VERY unlikely that it would happen to either of us, but like Paul, we both take our chances.
