The vaxing

I’m not pro vax or anti vax. I’m sort of in the middle. Some things make sense to vax & some things seem more like hype from pharm companies. Purely a personal thing. My boys are on a delayed vax schedule that has dragged out so long I still have an active waiver at the school for a vax Mayhem hasn’t had yet that he ‘should have had’ 2.5 years ago & will actually get at his yearly physical in January. Havoc finally had a chicken pox vax last month after I kept dithering about it for 4 years & finally accepted that he just won’t be catching it.

Flu vaxes are not high on the priority list. We do all the preventative stuff and I think my healthy kids don’t need the vax & since the availability of the stuff varies wildly every year we don’t get it so others who need it more can.

Then the H1N1 came.

I haven’t been inclined toward it either, not because it hasn’t been tested enough or the other arguments against it but for the same reason as the regular flu one. We are healthy people & long term I wonder about the consequences of all this vaxing.

Not to mention had I wanted to get the boys vaxed I’d have a hard time doing it. Unless you already have an appointment for something or think you have the swine flu you can’t get an appointment at my docs in a reasonable time frame. The boys would need 2 doses within 4 weeks apart, but you can’t schedule appointments for it because there aren’t any (one of the docs went out on maternity leave 2 weeks ago so they are short handed on top of being busy with flu people). I could take them out of school and go spend a couple hours or so waiting when they have it at the health clinic, twice, hoping that the second dose is available, that there is another clinic at the right time and that they don’t catch anything while we wait. I can randomly call the local pharmacies to see if they have any, go stand in line there, pay for it, fill reimbursement with my insurance, and then repeat 4 weeks later, again hoping the second dose is there when we need it, etc. But you can’t make appointments, like the health clinic it’s show up & wait, with times to be announced at the last possible moment. Or we can do what we do every year & hope for the best.

But, my kids are already missing 4.5 days of school due to bad holiday planning by me and the school. They are only allowed 10 days off. Yes, we’ve avoided flu all this time but sooner or later it will catch us and it will use those remaining days I am sure.  So a part of me thinks maybe we should get the vax and a part of me thinks the hype is scaring me. I don’t like to be frightened into decisions. It makes me dig my heels in the opposite way & neither is a good basis for choosing.

I do this superstitious thing when I dither – everything is a sign to me when I can’t make up my mind. There are omens and portents everywhere as I consider all my possibilities. The difficulty of getting the vax is a clear sign we should not be getting it. It’s the universe pointing me in the direction I should go. No vaxing for the flu. The universe has spoken.

Then comes a letter from school – Free H1N1 vaxes! At school! Both doses guaranteed and scheduled! Just sign this form!

Apparently the universe has changed it’s mind. And in a clear and unequivocal manner. It’s basically handed me the vaxes on a plate.

Since I am in full on dither mode I ask DH what he wants to do.He wants them to have it much more strongly than I don’t want them to have it. He had some excellent points and I had nothing so …

They get their first injection Friday. I’m hoping to get a note today telling me what time because they said parents could be there when the kids are given the vaxes. I assume it will be first thing. Can you imagine trying to teach a bunch of 5-7 year olds who have been told at breakfast they are going to get a shot sometime during the day?

I’m totally useless for 48 hours when I know I am getting one and I’m 42