Shots Hurt

Some of you may know that I am going to go to Africa in 2 months to visit my parents (if you haven't checked out their blog, I have a link on the right and you should!) and to play. I am taking Marian with me. I am very excited about it and so is Marian. To be honest, she is the only one of my children I would take on such a long plane ride and on such a pricey trip. She is mellow and self entertaining enough to not whine the whole time and she's easy to get along with. Plus, she loves animals and I figured that she would get the most out of the journey. So, we're going to Africa!

Unfortunately, that necessitated a visit first to the Travel Doctor. The end result of that, in addition to a supply of Malaria pills and a Z-Pack of antibiotics (in the expected event of "travelers diarrhea"), Marian and I got some shots. I know that some doctors claim that shots don't really hurt kids, but I am here to tell you, they lie!

I had the not-pleasure of getting a Hepatitis shot, a typhoid shot and DTap that day. The Hep shot wasn't actually bad at all. The DTap was fine going in and fine for 5 minutes. The typoid felt very thick and heavy going in. While not painful, it was uncomfortable and a bit freaky. The biggest problem was that within 10 minutes, I couldn't move my DTap arm. It hurt! It really, really hurt! And it hurt for a few days. Just so you know.

Marian and I got to go back last week for the Yellow Fever vaccination. They didn't give it to us originally because it apparently is an exceedingly expensive shot, and they won't open the vial till they have at least 5 people who need it. Oh, and its only viable for an hour. So once open, they have an hour to get rid of it all before it goes bad. They called us back and last Friday I pulled Marian from school so we could get poked.

That shot stung. It stung going in and it stung a bit for the 20 minutes we had to wait before we could leave. Marian was so brave, by the way. She took each shot with a brave face. (One more reason I'm happy to bring her with me!) After that Yellow Fever shot, I ended up with a red, swollen knot that was tender, sore and itchy. Its been a week and it is still a little tender and itchy. But I'm glad they are done.

And I now have a testimony that kids cry at vaccinations because some of them plain hurt!