Time to Get Your Flu Shots

I am something of a flu shot nerd. I always make sure everyone in my immediate family gets one. Me, my husband, both kids – no one is spared. I think the dog even got a flu shot last year, seriously.

Why? I love my children and hate to see them get sick and feel bad. (I also don’t like to see them get jabbed with a needle, which is why I try and schedule the doctor’s appointment for the shot at a time that is more convenient for my husband to take them than it is for me.)

And practically speaking, I’m a working parent who has to make her sick time spread far enough to cover the illnesses of two small kids along with my own, so the fewer work days I miss, the better. The flu shot is a great preventative measure that helps on both fronts, so I’m all for it.

I signed up for Baltimore County’s email list for shot clinics back in fall of 2009, when my daughter was a toddler and I was pregnant with my son and H1N1 was making its first deadly rounds across the country. I remember frantically trying to track down a shot for me and my daughter because we were among the groups considered most vulnerable to the virus. It felt like trying to get a ticket to a popular concert – first waiting in line at a county clinic only to be turned away, then a cycle of phone calls, busy signals and redialing before I finally secured an appointment for our shots at the county’s Drumcastle Community Center on York Road in Rogers Forge.

Luckily we don’t have to compete for a precious vaccine this year: H1N1 is included in regular flu shot now, as it was last year. The county is once again offering free vaccine clinics this fall. The remaining clinics are from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29 at the Randallstown Community Center at 3505 Resource Drive, and from 1 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2 at the Drumcastle Community Center, 6401 York Road. For additional information, call 410-887-BCHD (2243).

And there’s more good news about this year’s flu shot: according to this CNN Health story, the vaccine includes the same three strains as it did last year, which means that small children who usually need two doses of the shot in order to be completely covered may only need one dose this year. So that’s something worth mentioning to your health care provider.