Today I got shot. Or, perhaps I should say, I got THE shot. There, doesn't that sound better? I hope you weren't too worried.
And by THE shot, I'm referring to the H1N1 vaccination shot that the media has been carrying on about for months. I didn't mention my plans to get it before, because I really just wanted to make the decision on my own and feel good about it, regardless of what others might think.
Perhaps surprisingly to some (like Matthew) it was a hard decision to make. On the one hand, it contains the same things as the regular seasonal flu shot (apart from the strain of flu, which is obviously different), and is administered the same way, so what's the big deal, right? Even the mercury content is less than a can of tuna (so everyone is saying), so I'll just skip out on my 2 meals of fish a week tops thing, and I and the baby will be fine.
On the other hand, I felt pretty uncomfortable with the idea of having something injected into me where they don't know the long-term effects of it. I've never got the flu shot, and I've never got the flu (at least, never as an adult where I could have got the flu shot to prevent it.) I guess I didn't see the point in getting jabbed with a needle (and I hate needles...) when I had a good chance of not even encountering the illness. This H1N1 thing is a bit different, I'll admit. "They" are estimating that 1 in 3 Canadians will get H1N1 at some point (where do these numbers come from anyway???), and if it was just me I had to think about, I wouldn't worry overmuch about it.
But it's not just me. What if I get it when I'm pregnant, and go into preterm labour? What if it affects the baby somehow? What if I get it after the baby is born, and somehow or other the baby gets it from me? All these worries made me want to get the shot.
But then...what if I get the shot and it affects the baby? What if the baby comes out funny and it's all my fault, and I could have prevented it?
Too many things to think about.
Then we found out that someone we know and see at church had H1N1. That hit close to home because we *knew* someone who had been affected. It's funny how that makes a difference, isn't it? All of a sudden I felt like I needed to get the shot, and soon, because hey, this person goes to church, and what if it starts spreading around the members of the ward? I'm not going to live in complete fear and not go to church on Sundays!
So in the (almost) end, I decided to get the shot, feeling reassured that it's the same as other flu shots that pregnant women get all the time, the only different thing is the strain of the virus.
But then, which one do I get? The adjuvanted or unadjuvanted one? The un-ad. one has been tested on pregnant women, and the ad. one hasn't. The un-ad. one hasn't been released yet, though, and likely won't be for another 3-4 weeks. Then it takes 10 days to be effective. Do I wait 5-6 weeks to be protected, or do I take my chances and get the ad. one now?
I take my chances with the ad. one now. I don't want to live in fear any longer, and be ultra-paranoid every time someone coughs around me or stands too close. I don't want to lose any more sleep over this!
So we went at 8:15 am, and there was already quite a line up. It got trimmed down when we were told that today's clinic had been switched to priority only, so a lot of people left the line. That meant Matt couldn't get it today, but he stuck around anyway because I was there. It's a good thing he did, too, because he ended up being allowed to get it. I guess because I'm so close to my due date, and he's going to (soon!) be one of the primary caregivers for someone who can't get the shot, they let him in.
The shot itself wasn't bad, and the guy we had was super nice. Now my arm hurts a little, but apparently that's because it gets injected into the muscle and is an oil-based vaccination, whatever that means.
So there you have it! I chose to get the shot. What are you going to do? Are you for or against the vaccination, or do you (like Matt) not have a strong opinion about it either way???
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