I know, I know, people are sick and tired of hearing about H1N1, but that’s my topic for today. There’s the silver lining of the pandemic — it’s giving me content for day two of NaBloPoMo. But I’m not going to rant and rage about all that’s been going on. Partly because I really don’t have that much to rant and rage about, and partly because I don’t feel like opening the door to any comments about what’s been going on. Because I’m sick and tired of hearing about it too.
Nope, today’s post is just about getting the kids vaccinated. (That decision in itself could open the door to some comments…but oh well.) After a bit of trouble finding out where the mass clinics were this week (and here I must commend whoever (whomever?) is responsible for the VanIslandHealth twitter account, as not only did they apologize for something I complained about, they fixed it very quickly), we headed up to UVic for their 9:00 clinic. We got there at about 8:45 and the line had about 200 people in it. Not too bad. At 9:00 it started moving, and seemed to be moving at a fairly steady pace. By 10:15 we were close to the door to the gym. It was sunny, there were lots of kids happily playing (this is the week for kids under five to get vaccinated), and there were bunnies to watch. And lots of camaraderie among the parents. As we got closer to the door, I was thinking that this had been a breeze.
Then we got in the gym. And it was PACKED. The line continued, back and forth, all the way through the gym. There must have been at least another 200 people inside. We spent 90 minutes outside in the sun and over two hours in a stuffy gym. As one guy commented, it was a sure way to pick up some sort of bug. There was little room for the kids to play, things moved very slowly, and Greg and I both started to wonder about the sanity of our plan. But we’d come this far.
The kids did remarkably well. There was food involved (provided by us, not VIHA!), including a chocolate croissant for Elliot. Let’s give him chocolate while he’s penned up with a bunch of other people. At one point a grandmother started reading a book to her two granddaughters and within minutes she had about 10 kids surrounding her, Elliot included. In general I was really impressed with how well all the kids did (and their parents).
At about 12:30 we were finally shepherded in to the room where the shots were actually taking place. We didn’t have to wait long there. Elliot went first while I walked around with Amy. He was a superstar. He cried only as the needle was pulled out, but quickly calmed down when we reminded him of the cookie that was waiting for him. More chocolate. Amy didn’t even flinch. We waited the recommended 15 minutes before leaving, and finally left at about 1:00. We were both planning to go back to work, but it wasn’t worth it for me. Not to mention I couldn’t have dropped the kids off as it was in the middle of nap time at daycare.
So we dropped Greg off at work and headed home. I was exhausted, so I lazed on the couch while Amy slept and Elliot watched TV.
The icing on the cake was at about 3:00 this afternoon when I got a call from my family doctor…asking if I wanted to bring the kids in for their H1N1 shots. ARGH! I had assumed that she wouldn’t have enough for them, so I hadn’t even bothered calling.
And watch…it’ll just be our luck that the kids will be exposed before the vaccination has time to take effect. But I’ll cross my fingers.
Oh, and our kids ROCK. Over four hours of waiting around doing pretty much nothing, only to have it end with a jab in the arm. They were awesome.
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