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
