Shots

It takes about two seconds to get a shot....so why was my whole day devoted to them yesterday??  Boy, was that exciting.  So, Blue Cross Blue Shield only thinks that they need to cover 4 months of a baby's first year.  It was fun finding that out after Gabrielle's six month check-up when we got a bill for about $300.  Called the doctor and called the insurance - yep, they only cover $500 worth of well-baby visits per year....that was burnt through by four months.  So we pay our bill and the vast majority of it is for immunizations and the administration of them (billed separately....I think for $100 I could jab my kid in the thigh myself seeing as I stick people for a part-time living).

Anyways, so at G's 12 month check I tell the doctor that I am going to take her to the Health Department for her shots since we are billed for everything until January.  She tries to kind of talk me out of it but I just figure she wants more money and I think I can wait my turn at the Health Department for a few hundred dollars savings.  Oh, how wrong that was!  I take Gabi down to the Health Department yesterday and the waiting room is packed with Lansing's finest.  Yes, packed as in there was no place to stand, sit, or even check in....not that I would want to anyway since like I said, Lansing's finest were packed like sardines in that room.  I was able to get my paperwork and sign in and then we went out to the hall.  Though two seconds later a security guard came and told me "no congregating in the hall".  Ok, I didn't think me and my one-year-old were "congregating", but whatever.  All the overflow from the immunization clinic had to go down the hall to the lobby and wait.  And yes, this massive amount of people were ONLY for the children's immunization clinic - not the children's health clinic, or the women's clinic, or any other clinic.....just the immunization clinic.  We were there for a total of about two hours and never even made it into the actual waiting room to wait.  I tried to entertain Gabi as best I could without letting her touch anything, anyone, or letting her run across the building.  My one-year-old's only goal right now is to walk (quickly, I might add) as far as she can....not back and forth, but just keep walking and walking in one straight line.  I tried letting her walk down the hallway and then coaxing her to turn around so we could walk back.  OMG....screaming, flailing, tantruming child.  She didn't want to walk back the way she came, she wanted to keep going straight.  Yeah, that was an awful morning. 

As soon as we got home I called her pedi's office and got us in for shots that afternoon.  Gabi is at that age now where she walks so well and all she wants to do is play with the toys and the big caterpillar maze in the pediatrician's waiting room.  So, the first step was to get her to leave the waiting room to go back to the exam room once we were there.  My poor munchkin got four sticks in her chubby little thighs :(  But I guess she will get more shots at her 15 month appointment and then she will be done with them until she is 4!  Crazy!  We were getting ready to go and the nurse said that since our insurance won't pay for the immunizations were are eligible for a program through the CDC called "Vaccines for Children" where all we had to pay for is part of the "administration fee" which was about $50!  Yep, so for all that craziness we ended up getting our shots easily at her own doctor for very little money.

Let me just tell you how thankful we are for her doctor though!  At the Health Department, the paperwork we had to fill out included questions like "Describe your current living situation" and gave the choices of "living in a homeless shelter", "homeless", "doubling up", "have a home", and a couple of other choices.  It is just so sad to even think these kids don't have a home.  The babies that were there were being carried around in carriers that literally looked like they were pulled out of a dumpster, some kids weren't wearing shoes, and the majority of the parents didn't look like they were "all there" in the head.  So sad.

Ok, well the story's not over yet.  After Gabi gets her shots we go to the grocery store (yeah, not a great idea but we had to get there).  So G's sitting in the cart eating some goldfish and all of sudden she starts crying SO hard.  Like, something happened.  I have no idea what could have happened.  Then just as suddenly her entire face is covered in these bright red dots.  Even a lady walking by stopped and asked if she was ok.  I said I didn't know!  I called her pediatrician right there in the store and Gabi started to calm down.  The spots on her face cleared up quite quickly and they said it was probably just because she was crying and that it was normal.  It still seems kind of weird to me, but they did go away and she hasn't had any issues since.  And, I think why she was crying was because she bit her tongue.  Now that little lady is getting some teeth she needs to get used to them, and I'm pretty sure that is what happened.

The drama, right?  We survived the day though, and that's what counts!