Swine Flu Vaccine For Kids – A Guide
I’ve heard a lot of crazy and contradictory things since even the idea of a vaccine first came up. I’m about the farthest thing from a medical professional so when the media reported that they wanted young children to get the vaccine the week of November 2nd the decision was easy. Call the doctor and do whatever he says. He said get the shot.
So today was the first opportunity to get the kid his shot and according to the doc as well as the media it might be his last chance for a little while as the supply looks poised to dry up temporarily, partly due to queue-jumping hockey teams. The doctor’s office only administers the shot for one hour each day. It seemed a little odd but you play the hand that you’re dealt.
The day before I instituted No Thomas Day; the kid’s obsessed with Thomas and a break could do him good. Plus it was all part of the plan.
I began preparing to leave 90 minutes before we had to – getting dressed, packing a bag, that sort of thing. This included converting an hour long episode of Thomas for playback on my PDA.
I timed it so that we arrived 10 minutes early – we ended up 6th in line, the people immediately in front of us had been waiting 25 minutes already when we arrived and moments after we got there the line doubled. It seemed we arrived at just the right time – early enough for maximum efficiency but not so earl y as to be crazy.
So I busted out the headphones and the PDA and kept the kid at my side with some Thomas. Other parents looked at me with either admiration for my planning or contempt for the reliance on television rather than, say, a book.
The second group to go in was a couple of twins; we could hear their screams out in the hallway. This changed the remaining condescending looks from fellow parents to looks of regret and admiration as the screams caused great and often vocal anxiety in all the other children – which my son couldn’t hear. He was happy as a clam.
Knowing we were headed for a shot I dressed him appropriately in a t-shirt and button up shirt and jacket. Once in the room I got his jacket and shirt off and rolled up the sleeve on the t-shirt. He continued watching Thomas looking in the opposite direction of the exposed arm.
When the nurse came in she was shocked. She asked if we had already gotten the shot because we looked so prepared. I said no and mentioned that I hadn’t wiped the soon-to-be injection site with rubbing alcohol yet so she could do that if she wanted to feel useful. We had a chuckle. She needed to get a smaller needle and when she came back she brought a fellow nurse to show her what a prepared family looked like.
The shot took half a second. The kid made a face but beyond that you wouldn’t know that anything had happened. The nurse said she wanted to give us an award for best patient ever. As we left I overheard her telling another nurse about what great patients we were…well that was what I could make out over the screaming of the twins who were still tying up another room.
