Flu shots

Ugh.... It's flu season again. I got a flu shot once, in nursing school. I think it was about 9 years ago, and I haven't had one since. So we all know the media hype about H1N1 (otherwise known as the swine flu) this year. There's seasonal flu every year that can be pretty virulent, but this swine flu has everyone up in arms. We're isolating pts with flu symptoms in separate rooms and dressing in masks and gowns to care for them until their flu swabs come back negative. The entire women's services has adjusted the visitation policy to severely restrict the number of visitors a pt can have- usually something only the NICU does. And our triage sees more "r/o flu" pts now than I think it ever has before. Anyhow, I decided to get my flu shot this year..... It wasn't so bad. But, I've also decided to get the kids vaccinated.

Our pediatrician offers my kids the flu shot every year. I always decline, mostly because my kids aren't in daycare, and until this year weren't in public school. But now Aiden has made it to kindergarten, and is in school with exponentially more kids than he was before. And we have a baby in the house again. So, I called the office wanting to make appts to get the kids their shots. Shouldn't be a problem, right? They have the flu shot (and we're only talking the seasonal vaccine here) every year..... Wrong!!! I was informed that I missed the first "flu clinic" and that I needed to call back the next week. Seems they had run out of vaccine and were waiting for another shipment. Really??? How does one even find out about these flu clinics? Shouldn't the office send out an email, or make phonecalls, or something???? Well, I called back the next week. Apparently they could vaccinate Finn, but not the big kids. Since we live a good 45 minutes away from our pediatrician I opted to wait and call back yet again in another week. That was this morning. This morning I was asked if I'd been put on their call back list (Nooooo.... I've called twice and this is the first I've heard of that......), and told that there was a definite shortage of vaccine for my older kids, but that the office "has something in the works". The receptionist took my number and said they'd be getting back to me. Fantastic.

Does Walgreen's vaccinate kids???