Now before you think I'm a crazy person who isn't going to vaccinate their child please know this is about ME! Yes, me.
Our district has available in October the Swine Flu vaccine (H1N1) for all school employees and I'm wondering if I should get it. I have never gotten the flu vaccine before in all of my years of teaching and didn't really plan on starting but now we have had several cases of Swine flu in our area; several on post and a couple in the next county, I'm wondering if I should go ahead and get the vaccine. My real motivation for getting the vaccine would be to prevent Wyatt from getting sick from all of the carrier monkey germs that I get from my kids during the school year. At the same token I don't like getting vaccines and don't find a flu vaccine really that necessary. I'm still baffled that kids have to have the Varicella vaccine (chicken pox) when that was such a common occurence and didn't cause any real harm to children besides itchy red dots and cabin fever from being cooped up at home for the days it took to get rid of them.
I have read Jenny McCarthy's books about autism and being a teacher I have worked with autistic kids and know the difficulty and hardships that a disability like that can cause a child and their parents. I haven't even worked with severely autistic kids and found the high-functioning ones that I have worked with to be very difficult and exhausting and I only have to be with them for 8 hours of the day!
Wyatt has his 4-month appointment in September and I'm going to ask his pediatrician if he thinks I should get the vaccine and if I do will it really be helpful to prevent Wyatt from getting the Swine flu. So stay tuned and we'll see what the doctor says!
I plan on asking Dr. Welch next week. I'll tell you what she says. Clint says that vaccinations are an o.k. thing, but we have to realize that sometimes the virus changes and our vaccine won't work. I'm still out on this one too. I got the shot one year and they hit a nerve and my arm hurt for like a year and a half! Now I'm thinking of getting one since I'm pregnant and the H1N1 is harder for peeps like me. :) I'll let you know what Dr. Welch says.
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