Here at our house, we’re flu shot getters, yes we are. Every year I line ’em up, they hold out their arm, & they get the little prick that means, “Hey, hopefully we won’t get the flu this year.” The fact that we always get something hasn’t deterred me. I’m sure the health care professionals are telling me the truth when they say we’ve just caught a “different strain.”
This year, like most people I know, we had trouble finding the vaccine. Our doctor’s office ran out, all 6 pharmacies I called ran out, and no one (other than the doctor) wants to give the shot to kids under 10, anyway.
Finally I tracked down the Visiting Nurses Association, pulled the kids out of school early, and showed up at 3:30 for a clinic that started at 4:00. We were 32nd in line.
So okay. I didn’t mind the wait. Everyone got the seasonal flu shot & I felt a little better. Classrooms in our district have had 9-11 kids out, regularly, mostly with flu-like symptoms. It’s been two weeks now since we stuck our arms out. We should be okay on that front, right?
I keep calling our doctor’s office to see if they’ve received the H1N1 vaccine. Nope, not yet. In fact, yesterday when I called, the message they play before you speak to an actual person said, “Please be advised that we are out of the seasonal flu shot and do not have the H1N1 vaccine yet. Please call back after November 16 to see if we have received it.”
They’re kidding, right? November 16? I left a message for the nurse to see where I might find this precious gem of a vaccine for my little one who has asthma. “Oh, he can only have the injection, not the flu mist.” (Well, duh. That much I knew.) “And we only have the flu mist.”
Huh?
“What?” I asked. “You have the flu mist for the seasonal flu, or the flu mist for the H1N1.”
“We have it for H1N1, but he can’t have that.”
“Well WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US?”
“Yes, I can schedule that.”
Can somebody help me out here? Didn’t I just listen to the recording tell me to call back after November 16?
Yep, mildly miffed.
Also, I’m having trouble understanding why the perfectly healthy members of my family can all be vaccinated, but the child most likely to have trouble is left out in the cold, waiting for an injectable vaccine that may or may not arrive. By November 16.
photo credit: Samantha Celera
Our dr office doesn't have them either. They are recommending that I search elsewhere. Unfortunately for me, I am delivering a baby either tonight or tomorrow (being induced today!) and I am not really thinking about H1N1. I'm a little preoccupied…. 🙂 I'll go back to my search next week. Hopefully, I won't be too late.
I think a ton of us feel like dogs chasing our tails {minus the fun they have doing so}.
I'm in Virginia and my little one has both her flu and H1N1 {she's at high risk} vaccination. My husband and I are still waiting.
I hope your little one gets it way before the 16th. It's getting to be ridiculous.
OR you could be like me and not get anyone the H1N1 vaccine because I can't imagine anything developed that fast is any good anyways…there's a reason why the polio vaccine and others work…because they took YEARS to develop…not months. The first round of chicken pox vaccine didn't work…that's why there is a booster now…
Not that I'm discounting little man's need for protection…just my own opinion 🙂
Mandy – Hooray! A new baby!
Kathryn – Glad to hear your daughter was able to get the shots.
Luanne – You're not the only holdout. A new study shows that "only 52% of Americans" are planning on getting the H1N1 shot." Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a special advisor to the WHO, "said that vaccinations against swine flu have started in 20 countries and that millions of doses have been delivered safely, with no adverse events." I'm banking on it!
I just figured out today the difference in the wording is probably confusing. The shots are called vaccination and the mist is not. The mist they refer to as the mist, probably because it's a live virus so not a true vaccine in that sense of the word. I've heard from my friends in bioresearch that the mist is much better to prevent against getting the flu than a shot and immunities last longer too.
I'm sorry your guy hasn't been able to get the shot yet. The Baby has had one dose so far and needs to go back for the second dose (kids under 10 years old have to have two shots, 1 month apart). I haven't been able to get anything for H1N1 for the rest of us though, mist nor shot.
That is because the mist is not dead. There is a risk of getting the H1n1 with it. I am should you would not want that to happen with your little guy.