When Pigs Fly

After much research, deliberation, and prayer, we decided to get our kids the Swine Flu vaccination that made its way to Prince Willaim County on Wednesday. The school sent out an email letting us know thet there were two locations in the county offering the vaccine, one at the Manassas Mall and one father away in Woodbridge. Once I made up my mind to get the shot for them I just wanted to have it done so I didn't have to think about it anymore, so on Friday I picked Cameron up from school at 2:20 and arrived at the mall by 2:40, a whole twenty minutes before they opened the vaccine clinic. When I got there the line was already past the back and forth things you see when you go to amusement parks and halfway down the mall. Gavin asked if we were in line to see Santa, I had to break the news that there was nothing fun at the end of this line. After an hour went by we had almost reached the entry to the roped off line section but there was still a LONG way to go. I contemplated just leaving but I had already sacrificed an hour, why let it go to waste? I had some treats, some small toys and books, but this was no ride to grandmas in the car, my kids were everywhere and probably contracting the swine flu by touching every surface imaginable. Poor Mason stayed strapped into the stroller because I knew if I even let him out for a second there would be no going back into the stroller and I would be chasing him constantly. Hour by hour went by and Jeremy received more and more disgruntled phone calls from me as he made his way home from being out of town. Other families had one parent wait in line while the rest of them walked the mall but I could not do that. At one point Cameron had to use the bathroom but I told him he would have to hold it because I was not going to lose our place in line! After 3 and a half hours we had made it to the entrance of the clinic and after filling out paperwork and being prescreened to get the vaccine we waited again for our names to be called. At this point Cameron could not longer wait to go to the bathroom and there was none in sight. I let the woman in charge of the charts know the situation and ran to the nearby Sears to find a bathroom, it was as far back as you could get and Gavin was having a hard time keeping up. At one point I couldn't find him and paniced that he was lost, but he had just wandered his way around the wrong corner. After the bathroom we ran back and just made it as they called our names. Cameron refused to be first, he was the most terrified to get the shot so I decided to let him see it was no big deal and watch Gavin get it. Well one lady held Gavin on her lap and when they gave it to him he screamed so loud I had to cover his mouth. Mason went next and cried, but in a minute he was fine. At this point Cameron had inched his way to the back wall and was already crying. I had to carry my big 6 year old kicking and screaming and flailing his arms and hold him down along with two others while they pulled up his sleeve and quickly gave it to him. You would have thought we were killing the poor kid. Unfortunately the tears did not end there, we had to sit in a recovery room to watch for reactions for 15 minutes and the whole time Cameron is wailing that it hurt so bad and that he didn't want to get the shot and that I am a mean mom. Phew, I had already had it and was hanging on to the last morstel of patience that I had left before I flipped out as well. We got into our car at 6:46, more than 4 hours after we started. We were starving, tired, and all grumpy, but hopefully this will help prevent us from getting this horrible disease. The best news of all? Since my children are under 10 they have to receive a booster in 3 weeks. I told Jeremy he gets to bring them next time...