60 Posts 60 Days: Day 29

What to Blog About Today?

Should it be that vicious flame-point Siamese who shares our house, demands that we feed and water him, and bites the crap out of the end of my finger (blood, missing skin) when I try to give him medicine? Or would you like to hear about the little tantrum our daughter (so sheltered) threw today after discovering that you can't just rewind TV and watch it again? Or that I was told to use my quiet voice in the grocery store by the aforementioned child?

No, let's discuss the complete lack of knowledge of an employee of the public health department. Because it really riled me up. Seriously. I called because my doctor's office does not carry seasonal flu vaccines for anyone under the age of 18 and I was hoping to get the girl vaccinated before the arrival of her little brother, but with two vaccines (yes, she'll be getting both) there were some questions I needed answered.

• Do they need to be administered at different times? And, if so, how far apart?
• Does she need two doses of H1N1 to be fully protected, or, since she has already had the double dose of seasonal vaccine at the age of one, does she only need one dose?
• Will the H1N1 injection be available through private practice or only through public health?
• Since I am pregnant, and in the priority group, how do I get notified when the injection (nasal spray not approved for preggos) is available in our area?
  

Okay, so these all seem pretty straight forward. Nothing too tricky. Except, when I call public health and talk to the immunization receptionist, these are some of the things I hear (and I will paraphrase, since after the first response I had a hard time focusing):

I'm not sure why you would want to get her immunized right now anyway. Flu typically isn't a problem until January and those shots are only good for three months.

Huh!?!?!

They don't even know if the injection is going to work so they are only sending out the nasal mist.

I'm not sure I would get that if I was pregnant.

Uh, what the hell? Here I am, calling with questions that should be answerable by any public health employee specializing in immunization, and these are the answers I get? COME ON PUBLIC HEALTH! Get your act together.

I did end up calling another office, not in our county, to get the answers to my questions and guess what? The wonderful woman I talked to could answer every one of them. Thank you, wonderful woman!!!