Got mine this week along with the pneumonia shot (and a cortisone shot in my elbow for good measure 
) H got his last week.
I need to start dropping hints to S.
I got mine a couple of weeks ago when I was at my Dr for another issue. I started getting it the season after I had the flu. I had never felt so bad and missed over 4 weeks of work when it progressed into pneumonia.
I got it in my dominant arm and it didn’t hurt the first day but a few days after it hurt a lot and it was hard to fully lift my arm. Soreness lasted over a week. My H was impressed I got mine so early but it really was only because I happened to be at the Dr. H got his the next day at CVS and he had little soreness. My oldest will get one soon. My S will put it off but eventually get one. Younger D will probably not get one unless her bf or boss nag her enough. There is really no excuse since it’s free.
H and I were going to get ours this weekend, but he just returned from a European business trip with a terrible cold. We will head to CVS to get ours once he is better.
I believe the advice is for most people is to get the shot at the start of the season, i.e. now. For those with weaker immune systems like the elderly, I think the research and advice is mixed. Official (government) sources say to get it at the same time as everybody else, while some docs say to wait until October/November. Either way if you’re over 65 there’s a special, stronger shot to take.
D and W both got theirs in September just before D headed off to school. I usually wait until closer to Halloween for no particular reason. Actually the reason is because I’m a procrastinator and that’s as long as I care to push my luck, plus I have a big, crowded conference I go to at the end of October so I always get it before then.
About how long the shot works:
Mr R and I get ours in Oct/Nov.
I got mine two weeks ago (in my non-dominant arm) and it was the first year that it didn’t hurt in the least.
DD will get her shot at work this week when the company offers them to all employees.
I got the super dooper shot last year (because I was 65.) But I tested positive for flu in early February. Because of the vaccine and Tamiflu the flu itself wasn’t so bad but it precipitated an asthma event and I didn’t really get back to baseline until July. But I’ve already gotten my flu shot this year. I hope I’m covered for the entire flu season.
Interesting that some arms hurt more this year - my 17 year old daughter reported the same thing. She gets one every year because of hospital regulations (volunteer). She got one in the beginning of September.
The rest of us don’t get a flu shot. And, to be honest, I never got one for her until she was told to get one.
Some years back, the recommendation changed from advising flu shots for only high-risk people to advising them for pretty much everyone, and I don’t think there was enough publicity about the fact that this was a change – a dramatic one.
But the current expert guidance is that everyone over the age of 6 months should get a flu shot, and I go with the experts. This year, there was no pain at all after the shot. Last year, my arm was sore for days. I wonder whether the difference some people are talking about really has to do with the composition of the shot or whether it’s a matter of the skill of the person who administers it. Perhaps we should create a rating chart for the various NPs and PAs who work at my local CVS Minute Clinic to see whether there’s a pattern.
One interesting thing I noticed this year: When I went to my doctor’s office for a visit about an unrelated matter, I was offered a flu shot. This never happened before. It’s a solo practice, that the doctor doesn’t like to stock a lot of vaccines because she has limited refrigerator space. But I think it’s a good idea to make it convenient for patients to get the shot instead of telling them “Go to the CVS or a pharmacy.” You’re a lot more likely to get the shot if you can get it five minutes from now than if you have to make it a separate errand.
DH and I will get our shots later this month, well before we see our new grandchild in Dec. S1, father of the baby due next month, will be getting his first ever flu shot this week.
Not all of us have a timely doc appointment. My doc practice no longer gives them, as it’s so easy to go to CVS or other pharms. (Maybe they could, if the patient is very elderly or can’t get around, don’t know.) And my CVS is so very accommodating about this. Unless there’s someone else in the chair, they do it right away.
Thing is, if you ever had the flu, you know how awful it is. So many hospitalizations and deaths. Mine was in my late 20’s and I hope to never experience that again.
My Dr was like @Marian. She is a solo practitioner and in the past hasn’t kept any vaccines in stock at her office. This year she has the flu vaccine. I am the first to admit that if I hadn’t been in for a visit I would have waited at least another month.
Odd… the quadrivalent flu vaccine at a pharmacy is probably less expensive than whatever flu vaccine the doctor’s office has (based on what I remember from insurance statements showing what they paid in each case).
When I got an Rx filled and picked it up, the pharmacist mentioned he had the vaccine in stock. I said OK, I’d bring in my folks and we’d all get it. The next time the 3 of us were together, I called the pharmacist to confirm he had enough vaccine in stock and we all went and got the shots–nothing easier. They even fax in the shot record to the internist so that all records are consistent.
I like to have all 3 of us get the shot at the same time and place so we ALL know it was taken care of and the pharmacy knows us so doesn’t give someone who is absent-minded a 2nd shot. Lol! The pharmacist has gently reminded one of my folks before that he already got his shot.
The kids and I got the quadrivalent at CVS in mid-Sept before S17 went off to freshman year of college. I’d heard from friends in healthcare that Texas is seeing earlier than usual cases of influenza this year. We don’t typically get much flu here until after all the winter break travel brings it back, but I didn’t know how proactive S17’s college will be about vaccinations.
I heard about someone locally getting the flu, but don’t know if that is actual flu or the generic usage. She just went through chemo so was immune compromised.and her husband brought whatever virus back from an overseas business trip. 
We’ll get ours this next week. One of the college kids got hers last week (there’s been cases of flu in her area already) and I’m nagging the other one. She means to but keeps forgetting. When the kids were little the flu ran through our household. It was awful. I went down last and ended up with pneumonia. It took months to recover and I was diagnosed with pneumonia twice more in the next few years, having never been prone to respiratory illness in the past. My doctor finally recommended the pneumonia vaccine (usually only for the elderly and I was in my 30s) and I’ve been fine ever since, but our family doesn’t mess around with flu.
^ The recommendation for pneumonia shot is usually age 65+, but my mom almost died from it when she was in her 50’s and my sister’s SIL (in her 40’s) was in a coma for weeks and hospitalized for 4 months with it. They didn’t think she was going to survive. I get it because of that and the fact I had pneumonia twice when I was a child (3rd and 4th grade) and I missed months of school both times.
I got the pneumonia shot last year. I’ve had pneumonia several times and missed several months of school growing up because of it.
I was patient 0 for H1N1 in my high school back in 08? 09? Whatever year it was. It spread so rapidly that my school was shut down about 2 days later. I will never, ever miss a flu shot unless I physically can’t get it for some reason.
A piece if me wants to reassure that you may not have been responsible , rather just the first of many to succumb to what someone else exposed the group to.