So I Had A Vaccine Reaction

When Lovebug was very small, Hot Guy had to bring him in for a vaccine while I was at work. When I got home, I was regaled with the story of how traumatic it had been for him, for Lovebug and for Ironflower. Apparently Ironflower was really mad at the doctor for hurting her brother. And Lovebug was mad. And there was much screaming. It's possible that toddler Ironflower hit the doctor.

And my first question was, "Did he get all the vaccines he needed, though?"

That's how pro-vaccine I am.

So when my GI doctor said he wanted to put me on Humira and that I would need to get a flu vaccine and Hepatitis A & B vaccines, I was all over it. I'd already had my flu shot for the year (I've gotten a flu shot every year since 1994, when a bunch of med students were giving them to seniors at the community center where I was teaching preschool and had leftovers for staff members. Those of us that got it avoided a horrible flu that went around the center.) but I figured I'd get the HepA&B vaccine the next time I was at the primary care office.

There are actually 3 shots until you are fully vaccinated against Hep A & B, fyi. The first 2 are a month apart, the next one is 5 months later.

I've recently learned that my insurance won't pay for Humira at this time (and, at $5000 a month, I kinda don't blame them for wanting me to try some other meds first), but since I had already started the Hep vaccines last month, I got my second dose Friday because otherwise I'd have to start all over again when I finally get the Humira.

And I realized that last month's reaction was real, because I had the exact same reaction this time - nauseous, dizzy, exhausted and just generally terrible. Last month I thought it might be stress or that I might be coming down with a virus, because I haven't ever had a vaccine reaction. But this time, at the suggestion of my wise husband, I took an hour long nap after I had the reaction.

And then I was fine.

I would like to say that after having this reaction, or that time Zoe almost fainted after her first HPV vaccination, made me more sympathetic to people who are against vaccines.

But it didn't.

Don't get me wrong, I get where they're coming from. Doctors can be assholes, the medical establishment can sometimes be wrong, it sucks to listen to your baby scream his head off because you're letting someone stick it with a needle full of chemicals you can't pronounce. 

But the science doesn't care how much it sucks to know your consent to a vaccine made your kid faint; the science wants to eliminate cervical cancer. 

I had an anti-vaxxer tell me that cervical cancer is easily curable. First of all, tell that to the 4000 women who died from it  in 2016. Second of all, I'd rather my kid faint than have to go through cancer treatment someday. Curing any kind of cancer is not fun like curing scurvy. 

People die from the flu. They die from measles. They die from cervical cancer. 

They don't die from vaccines. Really, they don't. No matter what you read on Facebook. No matter that you heard your neighbor's cousin's daughter died from the HPV vaccine.  No matter that there is a reporting system and a compensation system (which literally pays out 1 time per million doses of vaccine given. You can read all about how these safety guidelines are regularly exploited by anti-vax proponents here). And don't get me started on VAERS - the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System - which should be a good thing, but since anyone can report to it, also includes vaccine 'deaths' that are from car accidents within a month of a person getting the vaccine.

In summation, get vaccinated. Get your kids vaccinated. But maybe leave some time for a nap after.

Inspired By Annedroids

When my kids talk about, draw or build their dream houses, several things are always included; a candy room, an indoor slide and a science lab. From their descriptions, I'm pretty sure their science lab would also include every art and craft material known to humankind, as well as a large pile of "junk" that they could use for their various projects and experiements.

I'm pretty sure the creators of Annedroids, Amazon Original's new show for kids, have the same daydream. Anne is a kid genius and scientist, with a couple of human friends, a couple of android friends and a huge junkyard laboratory. The live action show emphasizes STEM learning, problem solving and is way more appropriate than most shows aimed at tweens.

After we watched a few episodes, I asked the kids if they'd been inspired to develop a project or experiment. Lovebug's idea was to turn the basement into our own junkyard lab, but since I'm not a TV parent, I wasn't supportive of dragging power tools, old cars and piles of junk into the house to entertain my 6, 8 and 9 year olds. Instead I pointed out that we had plenty of stuff that would work for projects in the real world, where elementary school kids don't get to repurpose cars.

Recycling household "junk" into "cool stuff" (as described by Hugmonkey) became the plan for the afternoon. Ironflower started out by sketching some very elaborate plans for turning paper towel rolls into drawer organizers. As of this writing, that project is still in progress. I do feel that the show inspired Ironflower to solve one of her organization problems instead of just complaining about it.

Lovebug's project involved all the toy catalogs he hasn't let me recycle. He's making a catalog of his own, with the "best stuff" from each of the others. He is also determined to do "something cool" with all of the scraps.

Hugmonkey immediately went for the paper towel tube. Then he chided me for not saving "all the paper towel tubes ever." I see an extra recycling box in my future. Anyway, Hugmonkey made a light saber.  When Lovebug suggested that they find a way to make it actually light up, Hugmonkey was reluctant to try it with his light saber that he'd worked so hard on, but he's will to try it with the next paper towel tube.

Possibly unrelated: Hugmonkey and Lovebug are trying to use paper towels for everything lately.

I just love the ideas behind this show. Common Sense Media named Anne one of the role models of 2014 and it's easy to see why; she's bright, creative, searching for solutions to problems and handles failure gracefully.




I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Ticked Off Tuesday: Stomach Virus, The Sequel

Approximately a month ago, we got a stomach virus. Everyone had it, everyone felt like shit (heh) for like two days. I thought I would never stop doing the laundry. Or taking out garbage bags of ick. But I remember (naively) thinking, "Well, at least that's over for this year." I mean, our living room - despite my mad cleaning - smelled like vomit for like a week.

Was that too much information?

Who wants to come over?

Anyway, guess what happened on Saturday? Ironflower got a stomach virus. Poor kid threw up in the car because Hot Guy and I are terrible parents and didn't take her seriously. Also, we wanted to bring her to Super Science Saturday, which was held at my old high school.

That was weird.

What happened instead was that we took her to my parents' house, cleaned out the car and then just took the boys to the science thing. I highly recommend Super Science Saturday, but not as much if you are an RHS alum. Because it's weird. They changed things. And yet you'll still know your way around. And there might be kids doing lights and whatnot in the theater and you'll wander in and want to spend time in there instead of the science thing but you won't because you're an adult now, dammit.

Lego motor thingies. Junior robotics? 

Lovebug got to set off one of the rockets. He really wanted his sister to see it. 

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, the fucking stomach virus picking on my little girl. She's not throwing up anymore, but she's still not herself. She couldn't even sit up for her brother's birthday dinner Sunday! I mean, she refused cake. This sucks.

She just went through this a month ago, poor baby.

And usually when she gets sick, she bounces back the quickest. So if we do all get this? The rest of us will probably feel horrible for like a week at a time.

Die, stomach virus, die.