flu vaccinations

Yesterday Kt took the day off school so she and uni could get the new flu vaccine which includes swine flu.

She was very brave and handled it well, without tears. Many people made a fuss of her and she was proud of herself.

Uni came home and went to bed because he had to work in the evening, and kt watched some movies we got from the video store.

Her arm was sore from early on and by the afternoon she was complaining of a headache. I gave her panadol both times to help ease her discomfort.

By evening she was lying down not looking very good at all. She said her head hurt when she walked.

Sounds like we both had severe headaches in response to the swine flu part.

I gave her a bath in the evening and helped her undress, wash, get dry and dress again.

She was very sweet ... "thank you mum"

We read stories on the couch while she lay down.

She wasn't keen to eat dinner, but after heading off to the toilet and coming back she decided she would be better off trying to eat something (especially as it was her favourite spaghetti bolognaise). She had a few bites cheerfully and then went and lay down again.

We went to do bedtime stories in her room and she snuggled under the covers and closed her eyes.

She fell asleep halfway through the first of two chapters and then woke up violently and looked at me in alarm saying that the bed had moved (I think she experienced that falling sensation we sometimes get when we fall asleep).

After that I quietened down my reading voice and she fell asleep as I reached the end of the first chapter.

I turned out the light and left her to rest, unsure of what kind of night was ahead.

I only had one dose of panadol left in the bottle and hoped it would be enough until the morning.

Luckily she slept right through the night and woke up cheerful and feeling much better this morning.

I took her to school after I was sure she felt up to it ... especially as she had the school cross country this morning.

Then I went and got more panadol immediately!!!

Because she is under 10 years old she will need to have two doses of the flu vaccine in order for it to be completely effective.

Adults and children over 10 only need the one dose.

Assuming she continues to be OK I will go ahead and take her for the second dose at the end of April ... although I will be prepared for how hard it is on her.

We got out flu vaccines as part of the majellan medical centre's flu vaccine clinic which meant that we were bulk billed for the visit and we had to pay $9.90 for the vaccine itself.

Other medical surgeries charged between $20 - $30 for the vaccine plus whatever the doctors fee is ... even though you spend minimal time with the doctor as it is the nurses that administer the vaccine.

We were booked in for 9.15 and 9.30 but ended up being their from 9am (because uni and kt were new patients and had to fill out paperwork) until 10.30am.

It seemed that they were grouping bundles of flu clinic patients together so the doctor could go around and quickly talk to each one about the vaccine one after the other.

Not quite as effecient from a patients point of view as I was expecting, but I may take kt with me next time I have an antenatal appoint and see if I can combine that with the flu clinic so she gets to come in with me to the doctor at my appointment time first thing, and then we can get kt's vaccination done when my appt is finished.

As it was we kept being moved from waiting room to waiting room until the doctor was finally ready to come and talk to us .... in the meantime she was seeing other patients in her room.