H1N1 Vaccine
Posted by lynnontop on November 4, 2009
There’s a lot of panic related to this vaccine. It’d kind of strange, really. It seemed initially that there wasn’t much interest in the vaccine. But then a couple of young people died. Young white people. And suddenly it seemed that everyone wanted that vaccine — at least for their kids. There were huge line-ups at the clinics when they opened for priority/higher risk population. Oddly, they only opened 2 clinics for the first week. I heard of people waiting in line with their children for hours, only to be turned away when the clinic closed. Swell.
It wasn’t an issue for us, initially. Neither of us were on the priority list. The list included children 6 months or over (those under 6 months couldn’t get the vaccine), pregnant women and women breastfeeding infants under 6 weeks, people with chronic illnesses… It made us wonder where we fit in. The Peanut was too young to get the vaccine, but not too young to get the flu. If S and I couldn’t get vaccinated, then we could catch the flu and give it to him. It seemed odd that there wasn’t anything we could do for him.
My boss had to pick her daughter up from school on Friday because she had a sudden fever. It was then that I realized how easy it would be for me to catch the flu and bring it home. If her daughter had the flu, I couldn’t be sure that my boss hadn’t also exposed me to the virus. Hypochondria set in – I had a headache…was I getting the flu? I had body aches… was I getting the flu? I was getting hot on the walk home… was I getting the flu? Or was it just because I didn’t have a second coffee in the afternoon, I had moved our summer tires/rims out of the trunk of the car the night before, and I’m often hot on the walk home.
Turns out her daughter is ok, but it was certainly food for though. Toward the end of last week, they added another category to the priority list: people caring for or living with children under 6 months.
Between being on the priority list, and the whole boss’s daughter thing, I decided to get the shot. Our family doctor is located in a clinic that was providing the vaccine to its registered clients. So S and I got our shots on Monday. Overall, not so bad. My arm hurts a bit – the injection area is inflamed. Red with swelling. Now, we just have to see if Li’l Sis will get her vaccination. Or if we’ll have to come up with a plan for what to do if she gets sick.
Welcome to the pandemic.
Update: It’s Thursday and it’s still red and swollen near the injection site. But it’s not as painful or itchy now as it was Tuesday. Tuesday was quite uncomfortable. But I’ve heard some people have suffered flu-like symptoms and body aches/joint pain as well. So my reaction hasn’t been so bad.
