FluMist Flu (utterly uninteresting but damnit, I'm pissed)

Declaration: I am not a anti-vaccination mother. I am a fan of the herd immunity. The mob mentality.

So when a never-met-before nurse practitioner suggested that I sign off on my kid taking the new FluMist combo H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccination, simply because it had just come in and my daughter was conveniently both in the office and six days above the minimum age, I rolled the idea around in my head for a bit and gave an unenthusiastic "yes."

(I did also call my husband and ask his opinion... and finally I asked the NP whether there was "any reason I should not do this." Husband answered "I have no opinion either way" and NP said "I think you SHOULD do this.")

Two days before the appointment during which this all transpired, the little girl in question had had a ball playing in her snazzy new wading pool and drank a significant amount of water from the pool's little built-in fountain. The next day, two diapers worth of nasty loose motion led me to imagine that the warning on the hose wasn't kidding about E. coli bacteria. This I mentioned to both the nurse and the NP, but with no other symptoms it didn't go much further.

So child gets FluMist nasally and one shot, a dose of seasonal flu vaccine that she had apparently missed last year.

Fast forward to Friday. Child is a little listless, and hot. Eats next to nothing, but we carry on as usual because sometimes the day after a shot this happens. Cousins arrive, and she's excited to see them. A little off her game though.

Saturday: Child eats some Cheerios for breakfast, as would be expected by a 2-year old who has eaten next to nothing the previous day. Then she comes with us to Air Force Museum and gets carried around, then refuses to eat at lunch and acts like a grade-A nutjob, then goes home and remains feverish, needy, and just bad.

Sunday: On the mend, we think, until cousins leave and she bursts into flame and feels so hot we get a little worried... as usual fever lowers with medicine and we plan to see the doctor Monday. She cries and acts like a different child on and off.

Monday: sleeps in until 11:15am (later than her atypical but regular toddler-wake up hour of 9:30am), lays in bed watching Muppets til 1:30pm, and finally drinks two chocolate milks and eats some cereal before heading off to doctor appointment at 2:45.

When I called our old doctor's office to get the new office's number, I said we needed an appointment because my daughter was having a reaction to the FluMist she was given on Thursday. The receptionist said, "Oh, she must have come in with something before they gave it." The doctor swabbed her for strep throat and said she probably has a viral infection. No one took the Occam's razor approach and just thought, "Wow! She had a flu vaccination with a LIVE virus in it... and a day later she seems to get the flu!" Hey, dickheads... the damn CDC even says:

Some children and young adults 2-17 years of age have reported experiencing mild reactions after receiving nasal spray flu vaccine, including runny nose, nasal congestion or cough, chills, tiredness/weakness, sore throat and headache.

Somewhere I had read appetite loss too. These are exactly E's symptoms. I don't see what the big fucking mystery is.

So, to summarize:

1.) I am disappointed with my pediatric care providers as a whole, for suggesting if not pushing this FluMist to a kid who had diarrhea and was only 6 days above the minimal age limit anyway, and then not even owning up to the possibility of it being a minor adverse reaction

2.) I am tired of having a sick kid, and am positive the kid is tired of being sick

3.) I do not suggest the FluMist vaccine unless your kid is over age 5 and healthy as a horse

I apologize for this post not being terribly interesting or even remotely funny, but I am pissed about this and needed somewhere to complain.