October 8th - Flu Shooting

It's not glamorous. It's not a good look. The cocktails consist of ibuprofen, orange juice and bed rest. Ain't gon be no club hoppin' if the flu's got my tail. Plus, I'm personally witnessing the flu turn my strong, vibrant boyfriend into a feverish, shivering mess. It's all over the news. It's all over the net. Hell, it's all over the world. Influenza. H1N1. Sickness. Death. Mercy!

October has always been one of my favorite months of the year. The weather transitions to a moderate mixture of warm sunlight and cool breeze. There are activities going on all over town that welcome summer vacationers back home. There's the hint of Christmas just around the corner. Costuming ideas and Halloween at the end of the month. Leaves turning to the colors of their hearts. After a month of flood waters and self-imposed early hibernation, I'm ready to revisit my new city. There's a beer festival coming up and Badu is coming to town. But when I think about the viruses that abound as I get my boyfriend to drink his kajillionth bottle of water, I dread the prospect of going out and rubbing elbows with (gasp) the infected! Therefore, for the first time in life, I headed to Walgreens today and received my flu shot.

It's the responsible thing to do as a thirty-something, all season trouble seeker. It's every bit as necessary as dental check-ups and STD (or STI) screenings. (Hello People! AIDS still exists in this country and it still kills.) I'll be the first to say that I hate shots. Having had three major surgeries over the course of my life and enough syringe pokes to last a lifetime, I'd much rather have a Coke. Alas, I don't want to get sick. So I went to get the shot and when the H1N1 vaccine is made available to me, I will get that too. We all pay tax money to support the studies and recommendations of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and to not follow their well-educated, scientifically proven directives is more than a bit silly. I'm not a doctor, nor do I portray one on television.

Walgreens is...Walgreens. I don't know what it is about pharmacies. They always seem to be packed with people who don't look like they have any good reason to be there. Sure, there are the snotty-nosed kids and the stooping elderly but there also tends to be a great deal of able-bodied, well-dressed men. Are they there for Viagra? I also always manage to hear yet another reason why our healthcare system needs an overhaul. It seems that the Walker family was also there to get their flu shots. One Walker gentlemen had Medicare, therefore his preventative flu shot was covered. His gainfully employed niece, however, had very good health coverage from her job...but the shot wasn't covered. She didn't mind paying the $25.00 to get the shot. The lady behind the counter explained how most insurance won't cover the vaccine. Doesn't make a lick of sense. Hmmm, something that will most likely prevent the ERs from being packed and people from losing days at work and insurance won't cover it. Dumb! The whole process took about twenty minutes. I filled out some paperwork. Watched the pharmacist prep my shot. Got my shoulder cleaned with some isopropyl. Felt a slight prick. Got a bandage slapped on me and then left.

Since my boyfriend is currently stricken, our doctor friends also recommended that I take Tamiflu. I asked what that would cost me and they replied that it would be about $100.00. That's when I lost it. That's comparable to charging $50 for a loaf of bread or $87 for a bottle of water or $72 for a gallon of milk. Again, this is something that will most likely cut costs, time and heartache in so many ways but the powers that be are going to GD charge an arm and a leg for it because of the law of supply of demand. Ugh. All I want to do is party out in public without fear of catching the heebies. In the words of Biggie..."Damn, why they tryin' to stick for my paper?"