He has immunity!

I took Mason to get his H1N1 shot tonight, which was a real treat let me tell ya!  I know some of you are against it, and that's fine.  My belief is to do what is right for your own situation.  In our case, Mason did not qualify by age, however he does have asthma so that put him in the high risk category which made him eligible.I didn't just wake up this morning and think today and think I would do it, this was a major decision for me. There were tons of pros and cons, and scary ones at that.  It was a terrifying decision. 

I was afraid of what could happen if he didn't get the shot.

I was afraid of what could happen if he did get the shot. 

It was almost like on those bomb movies when they have to choose which wire to cut, the red or the black, WHICH ONE? Okay maybe not really like that, but I've always wanted to use that in a blog post.  Sort of. 

In my personal opinion, the thing to do in this situation is to do what is best for your situation.  In my case, Mason has asthma and we already had one scare (which was not only terrifying in itself, but also ended up costing me over $200 for missing work and $15 for a parking ticket at the hospital).  Mason goes to school, daycare, Beavers and on Wednesday mornings he does arts and crafts with seniors, so all the situations that he could be exposed to the virus plus the situations where he could expose someone who is more vulnerable really helped me decide. 

Even with all of that, it was not an easy decision. 

I've heard bad things.

Lots of bad things. 

So I did my research, which is the greatest (and sometimes scariest) tool we have as parents. We have google with links to sites, some of which may have facts that are not so true so you really have to be careful with your sources.  We also have things like the London Health Unit's Twitter (@MLHealthUnit) which has been doing an absolutely amazing job with keeping people in touch with information about things like wait times at clinics, clinic hours, eligibility, status of vaccines etc. 


You're going to hear things. 


From people you love and trust and it's hard when you don't agree with them and what they are saying. So I can't stress enough that you should really evaluate your situation.


Maybe your child stays home all day with you, has no underlying medical conditions and doesn't eat or make moustaches with other people's chewed gum from under the table at McDonalds.  Maybe you don't allow visitors into your home or visit others who you may expose to the virus, then great, by all means stay home in your bubble and stay vaccine-free. 


and I don't mean that to sound like it's harsh or I'm looking down on your personal decision, because I'm not, but if I was in that situation I would have no cons, I would have had an easier decision to make. 



The clinic itself was great.  I anticipated waiting for a lot longer, but because I follow the health unit on Twitter I learned the wait was only 20 minutes.  We filled out the forms.  I am not eligible, although one could argue that I do work in a medical clinic, I do not see patients regularly so I am going to wait for my turn along with everybody else. 

What took the longest was holding down my screaming 60 pound child (this was another con on my list).  I struggled for a good 5 minutes with him trying to get him still, he's just so strong.  When I saw the Health Unit worker in the black coming over I knew it was game over for him.  So he got his shot, and he screamed and yelled and jumped.  He refused a sticker, and then he wanted a sticker, and then he hated the sticker. 


Then the lady with black stubby teeth said something about people staring at her kid (Who was no word of a lie sliding across the cement floor on his stomach - WTF?) and saying that people should be staring at my kid instead because he was freaking out a few minutes earlier when he got his shot. 


I think her rotten teeth seeped into her brain because I really didn't have a problem with her psycho child sliding on the cement floor, apparently others did though.  I guess she just thought I looked the weakest and she could pick a fight with me, but I saw an old lady with a walker next to me, if she really wanted to fight someone.... (I would have picked her). 

But it was over in no time at all, psycho stubby teeth aside, it was all-in-all a pretty tolerable experience.  Until we got outside and the car was covered in snow (WTF Mother Nature??)


So I guess what I'm trying to say is, you know your family situation best, unless your kid eats/makes moustaches out of other people's chewed gum under the table at McDonalds, then maybe you don't want to know them in public.