3 Hours Later, half-way Vaccinated

My kids haven't really gotten sick. I mean, they've turned into hacking snot-buckets several times, but our house has never really known the feverish-pukey plague. I am so thankful for that, and am trying my best not to tempt the Flu Bug to visit. But all that relative health has lulled me into a comfortable state of denial about the flu - even the dreaded H1N1.

I was't really planning on the vaccination - for a number of stupid reasons. One: seriously, ANOTHER shot?! This is just getting cruel. Two: how bad can the flu be? Three: I don't do lines, especially when it's chilly. Four: I'm getting more and more natural in my old age - trying to subtract chemicals from our life, not add them.

But, I read at Sy's school that our county's H1N1 clinic was happening yesterday, and so I started to wonder if I should brave it. Honestly, I wouldn't have thought twice about it had the weather been cold and rainy, but I knew it would be a nice day.

Not knowing what to do, I posed the question to the all-knowing Facebook. It's kind of like "Ask the Audience" on Millionaire. If you don't know what to do, ask the audience, and they will tell you. I got one no, four yeses, and two votes for Oil of Oregano, which I have never head of before. The Yeses win, especially since one came from a doctor, one came from a nurse, and one came from a mom who recently brought her child home from the hospital.

So, I sucked up all my moans and groans about personal comfort, and piled the kids in the van to head out to the Fairgrounds, where the clinic was being held. First point: The Fairgrounds sounds fun, but when there is no fair, it's just a really big gravel parking lot and some empty barns.

The clinic was scheduled to start at 2:00, and since I Don't! Give! Up! Naps! Ever!, we arrived at 2:15, at which time we got in the back of a line that was probably already two thousand people long. We waited and waited, shuffling forward every two and a half minutes. The first hour of the line was on the side of a road, so I vigilantly protected my one-year-old from dashing into traffic. With all of my energy focused on the traffic, I gave up all pretense of protecting my kids from eating rocks, picking up trash, holding hands with potentially germy kids, etc.

Two hours into the line, as the end started to come faintly into view, the line moved in front of some sort of corrals for cattle. In mass proportions, all the kids dashed over to what looked to be the first thing more entertaining than gravel. I had to rescue my kids twice from getting locked into the corrals, and am now wondering if there is Cattle Flu, which they probably got there.

I will say this - my children were fantastic. I had no idea they were capable of standing for three hours, doing nothing. (I had no idea I was capable of that.)

Simon brought a backpack full of books, and near the end, he got a good little story time going with a bunch of other bored kids. It really was precious.

Eventually, we made it into the building, where I had to make some game-time decisions. Like: is now the time to tell them that when Mommy said, "We're going to get some medicine," Mommy meant, You are getting shots? Thankfully, Sy could get the nasal spray, and both of my kids barely made a peep when they got their injection/mist. They even let me get the vaccine, which I only did because it was a spray and I am wussy about needles - would rather have the flu, thankyouverymuch.

It is then - after the three hours of waiting is over, when you are congratulating yourself for mere survival - that they tell you, "By the way, the kids need to come back in 4 weeks for a booster." Awesome.

But, Ben just called to tell me that Sy's classroom has a large sign announcing that someone in there has H1N1... so I guess half-way vaccination is better than nothing.