Getting the Vaccine

Last Thursday I stood for 3.5 hours to get the little guy his H1N1 vaccine. It was 2.5 hours outside and 1 hour inside. We were 2 people in a line of thousands. There were 1,000 doses and I didn't know if we'd manage to secure one for my little love bug.

By the time I had dropped the babe off at a friends place at 4:25 pm, found very expensive parking (no street parking left), and gotten in line, it was almost 5:00 pm (the official start time of the clinic). There were already so many people my heart sunk. I stood and tried to keep the little guy entertained with food and toys. He was a trooper and had only brief moments of annoyance. It was cold and then it got dark. This is what flu fear looks like, I thought to myself.

My husband, who had come straight from the office, managed to make it to us just before we entered the school. The three of us stood for another hour, sans stroller, snaking along the halls of a decrepit high school with hundreds of other tired and frustrated parents and children (this was only for "priority groups"). At one point I had to break down and breastfeed the little guy while standing in the line. Unbelievable, and not great for my back.

We made it past the form checkers and down to a scary room in the basement. The fluorescent light flickered and people were looking really bad at this point. The room was filled with the sounds of screaming children. It felt like a bad movie. There were 18 people giving out shots and mist, and after waiting our turn, we were ushered to a nurse in the back of the room.

She was lovely and we managed to get the little guy his shot in the left leg (we were number 614). Next to us was an EMS team with a stretcher that had been called in for a young boy. Scary.

We waited around for 10 minutes after the shot to make sure there was no reaction. He was fine.

We headed back to pick up the stroller, then pick up the car, then pick up our daughter, then get the kids bathed and in bed. We turned off the babe's light and said good night at 10:00 pm. What a day. Can't wait to do it again.