Flu shot causing severe pain in shoulder joint

[babygrant]

My Auntie had her very first flu shot last year. She said the nurse put it pretty high up on her arm. It hurt immediately. The next day she woke up and her range of motion was so little that just functioning was hard. It hurt to move her arm. She's gone to the doctor, asked the public health nurses, and all of them say it has nothing to do with the flu shot. She KNOWS it's from the flu shot. One year later she can move her arm up about 3 inches and backwards about 1 inch. She pretty much has no use over her one arm.

Does anyone know what would cause this and is it reversable with time...or is she pretty much hooped? She starts school in mid November and they are telling her she HAS to get a flu shot. Of course she is refusing, but she won't be able to work during a flu outbreak. The public health nurse who does the shots for the company is telling her no way no how is that sore arm related to the flu shot. :

[greenrosemom4]

My sister had this happen. The nurse had actually injected the shot directly into the joint and it caused an infection and bursitus(sp?). I don't know what the treatment was.

Terri

[Magali]

My sister had extreme pain in her arm the day following her flu shot. She went to emerg. cause she thought she was having a heart attack or something. Of course, she was told she must have slept or her arm funny, because there is no way it could be related to the flu shot she had the day before:. I'm so sorry your Aunt is going through this.

[mamakay]

My computer is being goofy and I can't copy links for some reason, but google this:

A viral etiology has been proposed, while other studies have emphasized that various infections precede the onset of acute brachial plexus neuritis in as many as 25 percent of cases.3,7,8 Up to 15 percent of cases have been reported to occur following vaccinations, including hepatitis B vaccination.6,9 Our patient received an influenza vaccination before the onset of brachial plexus neuritis. Some evidence suggests that acute brachial plexus neuritis may be an immunologic disease.10

Brachial plexus neuropathy is a 100% "proven" side effect of tetanus shots, but it's not (yet?) proven to be related to flu shots.
But that's what it sounds like to me.

[MissRubyandKen]

My mother had this happen as well. She also had doctors deny the shot had anything to do with it. Over a year later she is just able to lift her arm above her head again. Barely.

[nicolebeth]

I had a lot of pain after a tetanus shot in 1985. My family made fun of me since I would talk about it hurting well after the fact. To this day, if I lean on that arm in a certain way, there's pain. I had full range of motion fairly soon (I was 13, so it's hard to remember exactly) so obviously I didn't have the severe complication, but this is interesting to see.

What ingredients do the flu and tetanus shots have in common? Aluminum? Could it be compounded by hitting the wrong spot? (That makes it especially frustrating that people can be given drive-through flu shots--who knows what kind of reaction will become apparent while driving or whether the administrator of the vaccine even knows what they're doing.)