only your oncologist can answer this question. it's worth asking him or her too because depending on your cancer and its treatment you may be at higher risk for complications from h1n1 flu seasonal influenza and/or bacterial pneumonia. all vaccines depend on an immune system response to "learn" how to fight the bacteria or virus. if infection by that bug (like the flu) does occur later the immune system is prepared and quickly destroys the invaders before they can make you sick. as you may already know most chemotherapy suppresses the immune system. standard practice is to delay vaccination until the immune system recovers. there's no standard point to use and oncologists differ in their approach. they may wait for a certain period of time after chemotherapy or vaccinate when the white blood cell count climbs past a certain point. it's believed that this makes a good response to the vaccine more likely. other experts also recommend revaccination several months after chemotherapy is complete. generally speaking children's vaccines are given on schedule even while they are receiving chemotherapy. this information only applies to inactivated vaccines (including seasonal influenza swine flu and most others). live vaccines (measles-mumps-rubella varicella oral polio and bacillus calmette-guerin) should generally not be given to people receiving chemotherapy.
does anyone know how soon after you have completed chemo that one could get a flu shot?