H1N1 Shot: To booster or not to booster?

I have been deciding whether to get the H1N1 shot or not.  I am one of these people who has never gotten a flu shot, and am frankly a little opposed to getting them when there is no serious reason to.  I think I echo the thoughts of many others when I say that I don’t want to just put medicine into my body time and time again without some reason.  I don’t want to contribute to “super bugs” and I don’t want to get caught on a reaction.  The point is that I am healthy, I get sick every now and again, but not often, and I don’t want to mess that up.

A story from when I was a kid is appropriate here: I went to a walk in clinic one day and told them “hey, my toe nail is a little ingrown.  What should I do?”  The doctor gave me a perscription to some kind of cream to rub on it that would soften the skin and help to remove the nail and cut it off.  No problem I thought.

Went home and did it that night–followed the instructions as best I could.  It said to leave it on overnight, so I did.  Next morning came, and my toe looked like the living dead–skin practically falling off!  I washed it off, and never used the stuff again… but the damage was done.  My toe got infected.  The ingrown toe nail got worse.  For a good 6 months, I lived with the serious pain of a badly infected ingrown toe nail.  Got it fixed.  It came back.  Got it fixed.  It came back.  Eventually told them to remove the nail entirely.  They did, and it came back.  Told them to remove it, and make it so it would NEVER grow back.  It did, and came back.  Did the same thing twice more, and then it didn’t come back….for 2 years….then it CAME BACK!  BAH!  That was the last time, and now I have a nail there again…it’s not ingrown yet, but it is not pretty.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, my toe was fine.  It was a tiny tiny bit ingrown, but the pain was minimal.  But stupid me, I went to the doctor and got something put on it that caused all hell to break loose.

So now we come back to the H1N1 shot.  I feel fine, but my wife is a nurse, and I am a teacher, so between her coming in contact with people with H1N1, and me coming in contact with 1000+ people per day (in classes and walking around campus), I am really considering getting the shot (I probably wouldn’t get both the H1N1 and the usual flu shot–just the H1N1).

So should I do it?  Any suggestions / comments?

EDIT: Well, it’s been a nice easy choice so far–even though my wife is a nurse, and I come in contact with well over 1000 people a day, I am not on the high priority list, and so I have not been allowed to get it yet.  Any other comments?

Rob

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