November
2009
H1N1!!!!11!!!1!0
No, by the grace of Miss Piggy, we don’t have it.
Around the middle of October, we started to hear tell of kids in other states getting vaccinated, but no matter who we called in NH, no one ever had any. Then we heard tell from Grammy of non-essential hospital personnel getting it in her area (aka some of her friends — people in the wrong age group and with no patient contact). We started calling potential sources more frequently after that, and eventually, the week of October 19th, we heard that some shots had arrived up north, where our specialists are. But neither they nor we wanted to risk bringing Dorrie to the hospital, and they thought for sure that our ped would have them the next week. Our ped’s office insisted this was not the case, but I thought maybe the hospital might have some insider information no one else was privy to. Reluctantly, I tried to stop myself from trying to plan ways to drive ourselves up there to get the vaccine.
Then, suddenly, everyone changed their mind. Why? Did our incessant badgering finally get results? Did the fact that someone from the hospital actually talked to the nurse at the ped’s office finally make their assertion that they had no vaccine real? I have no idea. But somehow, what had been on Friday ‘wait until the ped’s office get some’ became on Monday ‘the nurse will drive down with a dose and give it to Dorrie on Wed’.
First shot acquired and given, check. I tried to stop thinking about it, figuring that by the time she was due for her second shot, there would be more supply and we could worry about it then.
Sure enough, mid-November, the ped’s office called to tell us that they were finally going to get some vaccine in and did we want any? Hell yes, I said, and noted to the woman on the phone that Dorrie had actually gotten her first dose on 10/28, so if we went by the minimum three weeks in between shots, she could get her second dose on 11/18. And could we just have our home nurse go by the office and pick it up and give it? She left and (I assumed) went to relay all this information to the doctor. She returned to the phone to say this was fine and we could come pick up the shot on Wed morning.
Wed morning rolls around and the nurse heads over to pick up the shot. Except once there, they are happy to hand over the vaccine. But what they won’t do is actually provide her with the order that allows her to give it. Why? Because even though every single piece of vaccination guidance states that the second shot can be given after 21 days, their office policy is 30 days or bust.
The nurse very wisely took the shot (possession is 9/10ths of the law!) and came back to report this latest idiocy. We put the dose in the fridge and began calling people again. But we couldn’t get anyone to sign off on it, so in the fridge the shot remained over the weekend. On Monday we tried calling again and still the ped was being recalcitrant. At this point we were getting irritated — they were saying they wouldn’t even give the order for the next Wed (the day before Thanksgiving), because that was only 28 days and not 30. (Because somehow the terms ‘month’ and ‘four weeks’ became equivalent in their heads.) Because of the holiday, we had no nursing coverage after Wed, so that would essentially mean putting off the shot for nearly a whole extra week.
Fortunately, once again persistence and nagging paid off. More calls on Tuesday eventually produced the desired result. Someone decreed from on high that bending office policy to follow state guidelines might not be the end of the world and we finally got our order to give the dose at 28 days. So now, theoretically, as long as Miss D remains swine flu free for the next couple of weeks, she should be pretty well covered.
We just have to figure out where and when to get Bob and I some vaccine.