Piggy Flu

By now most people have heard all about the piggy flu, or H1N1. It's not actually the swine flu, but I like to say "piggy". Since school starts next week, and the campus will be inundated with thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of people, the university has been gearing up to prevent what they think could be a massive outbreak.

Normally I would not be concerned.

I can count on one hand the number of flu shots I have received as an adult. Two.

I have never had the flu.

I've had stomach bugs and food poisoning and colds, but never the flu. And the more I hear about what it's really like, the more convinced I am that I really don't want it.

Plus, the baby Moo is coming soon. And I have to decide what to do because little tiny babies cannot get flu shots.

Which means everyone else has to.

When I told Matt this, I might as well have told him that he had to eat a turd sandwich. "But I hate needles!"

"Me too. Too bad."

"But I never get sick." It's true, he doesn't.

"Too bad, you HAVE to get one. I think it's two shots."

"TWO SHOTS?"

"Plus another for the seasonal flu."

"Whaa-haaa-aat?"

"Three shots." I tell him this more than once, just to get him used to the idea.

I was just reading the latest recommendation this morning that pregnant women are supposed to be among the first in line for shots, which also has me concerned. What kind of reactions might these shots have? They haven't been tested and they want to give them to pregnant women. Last time I checked, pregnant women are the last group of people that should be treated like guinea pigs.

So then I wondered if I should wait until after the baby is born. Now or later? I suppose this is one of those questions that parents are always having to decide: Which is the best thing to do? You can get all the information you want, a lot of it conflicting information from different sources, but then in the end you still have to decide, see it through, and then be responsible for the outcome, whatever it is.

Good God, I think this means I'm an adult now...