Mist available at another location

There is H1N1 flu mist available for healthy kids over 2 at a practice called Care connection (found by one of our enterprising moms)
They are giving the mist on a walk in basis from 3:30-5:00 pm Monday through Thursday

their phone number is 864-4444 and the address is 508A 14th street
When I spoke to them this morning they told me they were reasonably certain that they would have plenty this week.
Hope this info is useful!

Monday

I am sorry that there is nothing to report this morning.
We have not gotten any notice of impending shipments.
We still have a tiny amount of the baby H1N1 vaccine left.
I anticipate that we will be giving the rest of that today to our higher risk babies.

I will absolutely be back on here later today if anything changes!

Happy Thanksgiving

Nothing new to report.
We are giving the baby H1N1 to our highest risk young patients.
On Monday we will surely not receive vaccine but will possibly get notification about our next shipment.
I will keep the blog updated as soon as I hear anything.

As far as the neighborhood update I am talking to quite of few parents frustrated by the never ending mild cough.
We are seeing a bit of strep throat. ( fevers and sore throats should be checked out, if there is congestion in the mix that makes it less likely that it is strep)
There are also quite a few wheeze rs out there.
If you think your child might be wheezing please do NOT wait until Monday to be checked out! Call PERC if needed 387-9293

Best wishes for a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.
We are closed Thursday and Friday
I will give an update on Monday!

Tuesday update

We just received a tiny amount of vaccine. We now have 60 doses of the pediatric preservative free.
Because it is such a limited amount we are going to try to give this to those who need it the most.
IF your child is under 3 and has a history of wheezing and nebulizer use, call the office as soon as possible to get on the list for this allotment.
If you have a child under 3 who has a sibling who is less than 3 months old we would also consider you.
I Don't want this to be a feeding frenzy and we do expect to get more shortly.
Call if you think your child qualifies for this batch.

Monday update

We currently have no H1N1 vaccine.
According to the folks in charge we are still on the list but will NOT get any this week
Once we do have the vaccine it IS worth getting the second dose for any patients under 9 who have been lucky enough to get the first dose.
We still have plenty of seasonal flu for the under 3 year olds and a bit left of the regular seasonal flu injection.


It does seem a bit quieter as far as the "flu patients" go. Our phones remain busy, but today I have been talking to folks that seem to have typical colds and coughs.
There also seems to be a mild tummy virus going around.
I am also seeing several cases of head lice...

I will update next on Wednesday unless we get surprised by a shipment ( I am not holding my breath!
Thanks again for your patience!

thursday update

Unless you have spoken to us and put your name on the list, we are now OUT of the H1N1 mist.

I will update the status tomorrow.

Please remember, although we would love to vaccinate all of our patients and families, none of the actual cases of H1N1 that we have dealt with in this office have been anything more than an annoying several days of typical flu symptoms!!

Thursday's update

This week we received 150 doses of the H1N1 mist. This is indicated for healthy folks over the age of 2. Severe asthmatics and pregnant women should not get this.
Most of these doses will be gone by the end of this week.
Hopefully next week or the week after we will get another shipment. I will keep this blog updated.

in the meanwhile let me address some of the more frequently asked questions.
Q. What's with the thimerisol?
A. years ago, the only flu vaccine available came in multiple dose vials that had some preservative.
The amount is tiny. ( less than you would get from eating a tuna fish sandwich) However, why put any substance in our bodies if we can avoid it? We were delighted when they came out with the preservative free version.
So far this season ( as you know) we have not had an adequate supply of the H1N1. We have seen NONE of the preservative free so far.
The government has gone as far as issuing a Thimersol exemption. It is permissible for pregnant women and young children to get the flu vaccine from the multi dose vials.
Children under three will get .25 cc rather than the full dose which is .5 cc

Q. what happens if my child had a shot but now when it is time for the second dose only the mist is available

A. ideally we would like to give 2 of the same type of vaccine, but they can be mixed and matched

thank you for your patience

This flu season has been unprecedented.
We are faced with lots of flu cases and limited supply of vaccine.

Currently we have PLENTY of seasonal flu vaccine for children less than 3. This is preservative free.
We have a small amount of seasonal flu vaccine for the over 3 crowd. We have no more seasonal flu mist and no hope of getting any more of that this year.
As far as I can tell, we are NOT seeing any seasonal flu yet this year.

We are seeing tons of H1N1 cases.
SO far none of our cases have been serious ( although we have had plenty of miserable kids)
The typical case is 3 to 4 days of high fever, decreased appetite, some congestion, some vomiting.

We hope to get more H1N1 vaccine within the next few weeks.
We are as frustrated as all of our patients regarding our lack of adequate vaccine at this time

testing the site

In an effort to communicate more easily with our patients it has been suggested that we start a blog.
We may try to use this to let folks know about the availability of the elusive flu vaccine