I took the morning off work for some health things I needed to take care of. I have an appointment for an ultrasound at 11 am and figured I could get a number of other things done as well. My plan - pop into the pharmacy and pick up a vaccine (not H1N1) that I need. Slip up to my doctor's office - have the nurse administer the vaccine. Drive down the road to the local H1N1 vaccine clinic and get a ticket to bring the kids back later today for their vaccines and then go to my ultrasound.
Playing around in my head the whole time though was the words of the city's public health officer - "we will not turn school age children away from the vaccine clinics BUT we prevail upon the public to let high risk people get their vaccines first." Smart man. People who aren't high risk are most certainly getting vaccinated this week - there has been a mass outbreak of asthma all of a sudden. I feel a little cheated by those folks but I decided this morning not to join them.
My children aren't high risk. Just because I'm panicking doesn't mean we need to/should queue jump. It's hard though. Last night they announced that they will run out of vaccine next week. They've assured us that more is coming but that they had to slow down production in order to produce the non-adjuvanted version of the vaccine (which is good for me because I discovered I'm allergic to the adjuvant added to the standard vaccine (to boost its strength). Still - its nerve wracking to know they are going to run out and just trust that more will be coming. Then there was the trip to my doctor's for the shot I needed this morning. There is a big red sign on the door that reads "stop if you have flu-like symptoms put on a mask immediately on entering" or something to that effect. I opened the door. There was a little girl in a mask sitting RIGHT next to the door. The nurse was on the phone obviously talking down a freaked out parent with a child in the grips of H1N1 (any flu here is considered H1N1 because seasonal flu hasn't hit yet). I took a seat as far away from the girl with the mask as possible. Noticed another sign telling patients that they are no longer doing blood tests in the office because of the high numbers of people with flu-like symptoms (I don't quite understand that but whatever). I casually asked the nurse if they were being overwhelmed and she didn't hesitate in telling me yes - wonderful.
Still, we will wait - none to patiently - until the offer the vaccine to the general public before braving the excessively long lines.
I guess THIS is the winter of my discontent.
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