Amanda’s Vaccine

I'm going to tell you a story, boys and girls.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Amanda who lived in her grandma's 100 year old house. Amanda had many problems breathing in her grandma's house. Yes, that little girl was me (although this really only happened about three years ago, so little? Not so much).

I went to the allergist, and surprise of surprises, I have mucho allergies. I believe I've told this story before where the nurse did all the little pokes on my back and then came back and nearly screamed in fright, then ran out to get the other nurses saying, "You've gotta come and see this one." Oh yes, but it didn't hurt my feelings, only confirmed what I already knew: that I am a freak. (The nurses decided, by the way, that my back looked like a Christmas tree, all lit up with red, irritating dots instead of twinkly lights). They also discovered through blood work that I have no natural immunity to many common things like strep, flu and pneumonia. So, they called me back in to the office a few weeks later to have three shots: flu vaccine (not the one you get at Kroger, a different one, and this was before H1N1), pneumonia vaccine (usually given to the elderly) and a tetanus booster. They gave all three in generally the same place on the same arm.

Next day, my arm feels really terrible. I call the office, and the nurse who gave me the shot was like, "Buck up, lass, tetanus shots always feel a little sore. It's normal." (She wasn't actually Scottish or anything, I just made that up.) But I'm pretty tough, and this pain made me want to cry. So I went home, took my temperature and it was a whopping 104 degrees. My arm was red and swollen going up to my neck. I went to the doctor again the next day, and he gave me major antibiotics because the shots had created a cellulites situation. Yikes! And he said that they were changing the "shot-giving" policy because of me: he figured it was common sense that if you were giving more than one shot, that you would alternate arms, but now he would put it in writing.

So, because of this issue in my past, I am a little scared to get shots, you can understand why. (If you don't, then stop reading my blog, just kidding! I am desperate! Keep reading even if you think I am a wimp…please…) This past Tuesday, I went to get the H1N1 vaccine. My dad has been bugging me non-stop about it. I went in and got the shot. The Kroger guy gave me the shot and it bled like crazy. He was not really prepared for that and was kind of running around the room looking for some gauze or something. He said, "That is so strange, these never bleed," and I said, "I'm strange," (like a dork).

That night, my arm has a bump and bruise where I got the shot and I was a little freaked. Turned out to be nothing (although, when I started to feel sick about five days later with a high temperature, I wondered if this was a delayed reaction… turned out to be strep, as in the other thing that I have no natural immunity to, as mentioned above, were you paying attention?). I still have the bruise though.

(Boy, I just told that whole story, and it really seemed to go nowhere. Sorry if you were disappointed by thatJ)

One more thing I found funny about getting the H1N1 vaccine. Every time I would see my dad, he'd be, "Get the vaccine, get the vaccine, get the vaccine." (He wouldn't say it three times consecutively, but at least three times every time I saw him.) So when I did finally get it, I had this (short) text conversation with him: (real conversation here people, my phone saves these things!)

ME: Got my H1N1 shot u should be happy 2 know. I bled like a stuck pig; he said it was weird

DAD: Good, now you don't have to worry

Me worry? Now HE doesn't have to worry about me. Cute.