I went to see my allergist this morning for a re-eval. I was actually supposed to go in during the summer, but I forgot about it and misplaced the “you’re due for an appointment!” postcard until earlier this week. As it turned out, she had a medical student from UCI shadowing her today, so I got to be both patient and teacher’s aid. (They asked me up front whether it was okay.) It was an odd experience, partly because there was an extra person, partly because she looked like she was close to my age or maybe younger, and partly because my allergist was narrating everything.
While I was there, I got this year’s flu shot. I don’t remember having to sign a waiver last year. Actually it wasn’t so much a waiver as a “Yes, I’ve been informed of the possible side effects, and I know it’s produced using eggs, so if I’m allergic to eggs, I’ll just stop and not get the vaccine, thank you very much.” It may be explained by the fact that the flu vaccine has been added to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. I didn’t know this program existed. (Ain’t the intarweb grand?)
We’ve been having folks sign those forms for over twenty years; you’ve probably just forgotten…
Yeah, that’s probably the case.
I haven’t had a flu shot in my life, and I’m in perfect ::cough:: health. So I wouldn’t know about the precedent for those waivers. Which makes this reply somewhat pointless. Cheers!
Well, I’ve only gotten flu shots the last three years or so, since I started going to this allergist. Well, started again. I went to the same office when I was a kid, and later when she took over the practice. While I was in college I ended up with health insurance that decided I couldn’t go to a specialist without a referral from my primary care physician (which led to a lot of “Hi, can I get another referral?” appointments). Then they decided I didn’t really *need* a specialist, so they stopped covering the visits. That led to several years of staying on the same dosage of the same medications until I decided (several insurance companies later) that it was time to see a real allergist and looked to see who was on the approved list for the plan.