Posts Tagged ‘shots’
Furious.
On Oct 5th we had an appointment at our pediatrician to get the boys their Flu shots. I was relieved to get in there, because with me working at the hospital I am coming into contact with a ton of nasty stuff.
We get in the office, and are called back to the room. Jim and I are both there and we each have a kid in our lap. The nurse instructs us to pull their pants down around their ankles, and she goes out to grab the shots.
C is crying. He knows what’s coming. J is oblivious, happily chewing on his knuckles.
The nurse comes back in. “I’m sorry, we don’t have shots for them. Their insurance (state provided) hasn’t sent them to us yet.”
Umm. Ok.
So C gets his stay of execution, and we get the boys dressed and back in the car. On the way home, we stop at a local pharmacy and Jim gets his shot, because if the boys can’t get theirs yet we at least both need to be vaccinated.
That was 10 days ago. Since then we have had a local high school close because 400 students called out with Flu symptoms in one day. Our hospital is full to the brim with patients testing positive for seasonal flu and H1N1. It’s only the middle of October.
I called the boys Dr. “Can I pay out of pocket for them to get vaccinated?”
“No, we are not legally allowed to accept cash for them”
WHY THE HELL NOT?
I called the Health Department for our county. “Sorry, we don’t have any pediactric doses. Call back every day, because when we get them they will go fast.”
I called all the Urgent Care facilities. ” Sorry, we ran out already and have been waiting for a shipment for a couple weeks now.”
I called every pharmacy, grocery store…ANYONE who offers Flu shots on a walkin/clinic basis. “Sorry, we only can give them to kids 3 and over.”
I called the boys insurance. ” There is a shortage. Do they have any chronic health problems?”
“No, they are healthy”
“Well, then they will just have to wait.”
So forget that they are aged 5 and under, one of the high risk categories.
Forget that their mother works in Health Care, one of the high risk categories.
Forget that their father has severe asthma, and is in one of the high risk categories.
Let’s just punish them because they have been healthy SO FAR.
Let’s punish them because their father’s full time job doesn’t offer insurance and they have had to use state aid to stay healthy.
That’s what REALLY GETS ME. There are FLU SHOTS sitting in their Dr’s office and they can’t have them because they are on state insurance.
Fuck You.
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It was as bad as I imagined
I went for my physical yesterday. Oh boy.
I signed in, took a seat in the waiting room and pulled out my book. I only got a few pages into it before I was called back. I got taken into a room that had one of those chairs that is only meant for one thing. Getting blood drawn.
Sigh
Oh well. I knew that was going to have to happen, since I don’t have hard copies of my immunization records. They will need to run my blood to see what I am immune to, and then vaccinate from there. I thought at that point maybe I was off the hook for shots, at least until I got they got my blood work done.
I was very very wrong. She very cheerfully informed me that along with the blood draw I would be getting a Tetanus shot(also with Pertussis), a TB test and a Hepatitis B vaccine. I would also need to come back in ten days for the second part of the TB test.
That’s FOUR needles right then, another needle in ten days, plus two flu shots this fall. Holy Shit. This was not going to end well.
I told the nurse, with panic in my voice that I don’t do well with needles. I can give shots, I can watch shots…I can’t get shots. She told me if I wanted the job, I was getting the shots.
Crap. Good point.
She was fast: one shot in each arm, a blood draw in the left and the TB in the right. As she was finishing up she was turning back to tell me what a great job I had done. I chose that moment to pass out.
Yep. I passed out. Fainted. Lost consciousness.
Ya’ll can point and laugh now, I’ll understand. I’m a pansy ass. I didn’t even get a lollipop. What the hell?
