Lucan's first year is absolutely flying by. I could just eat him up, he's so adorable, as you can see here. His smile just rocks my world. I must rock his, too, from the look on his face. Either that or he was happy about pooping for the first time in 3 days. Ya never know.
I've been looking at older pictures of the kids, and there is still a strong resemblance between Lucan and Arden, as you can see here. I'm not sure when this photo was taken--there isn't a date showing on it like our others, and it's just in a folder that tells us it's from a batch of pictures we had printed in August of '04. But the fact that he is lying down with Tobin instead of sitting up tells me he is probably fairly close to Lucan's age now.
Now for a question for my mom friends who are vaccine gurus. We're not really uptight about getting shots at the recommended age (I was, in fact, yelled at by a tech for bringing Charis in for her first set of shots when she was one year old). However, I did go ahead and get Lucan's 2-month immunizations done at his 2-month well-baby check-up. There was simply no incentive for me to drag 5 kids all the way back to Nellis from across town to do shots a different time when we were already there for the appointment. So, the point is, he got his 2-month shots at his 2-month check-up. Got that?
OK. So fast forward to his 5-month-and-one-day birthday, last Friday, to be exact. Ted went with us to the hospital so we could get all the kids caught up on their shots. Charis and Tobin "needed" the varicella boosters (still not sure I'm keen on that, but I'm past the fighting stage), Arden and Kenna needed a few, and Lucan was of course ready for the 4-month series. As an aside, all 5 kids did EXTREMELY well. The tech looked very nervous when we arrived, but to his credit he did not make any worrisome comments and in fact complimented us all when it was over. He handed us the updated printout of the shot records along with the info sheets on each indivual shot, and away we went.
Well, when I got home and finally had a chance to sort through all the papers, I realized that Lucan's printout only showed the shots he got Friday--meaning there was no record of his having received the 2-month shots at his 2-month appointment. That means the guy gave him the 2-month shots instead of the 4-month, because obviously he thought Lucan hadn't had any shots at all. He did not ask us about this, and we assumed that, like all the other kids, his shot records were in the system and he would be given what he needed. We did specifically say that he had missed his 4-month appointment because of our move and we needed to get his shots...but I suppose he didn't investigate since Kenna and Arden were a little behind according to their recommended schedule.
So now I'm a bit worried--what happened to the records?? Did they not get put into the computer at all? What is the difference between the shots given at 2 months and at 4 months?? Ted does plan to do some investigating, but by the time we discovered this on Friday, it was too late to call Nellis. In the meantime, Lucan seems to be doing all right. He did have a low-grade fever and was rather fussy with minimal appetite for the remainder of Friday and all day yesterday, but today he seems to be much better. I know the early shots are a series of the same vaccines, so I'm hoping that there really is no difference and that we can get the computer records updated.
Sigh. Technology, meh.
5 comments:
As far as I know the various doses of shots are all the same. So if you have a record somewhere of the shots that he got at 2 months then you will know where he's at. If at this appointment he got say Hep B and HiB then that means he's probably had 2 of those shots and will only need one more (rather than 2). Does that help? :)
If you want more info on shots in general I can't recommend enough The Vaccine Book. It seems to me to be a pretty well balanced book written by a doctor. It recommends not getting clumps of shots all at once, but spreading them out. Of course that's not as easy for you when you have to drive clear across town with 5 kids since it does require more trips. :)
Thanks, Krista. We are at least much close to the base here in Ohio than we were to Nellis when we lived in Las Vegas. Yes, what you said made sense, and what I was thinking of but didn't say as well as you did--I'm thinking he's got 2 down of those series. They do the same shots at the same times across the board, I believe, with all military hospitals sticking with one standard (I hope I'm right here), so hopefully it won't be too hard to figure it out.
I would imagine that he got Prevnar, Pediarix, Hib, and Rotateq at his 2 month appt. Then he should have gotten the exact same series of shots at this last appointment, and he would get the same series once more at one year. Those are all 3-shot series, and like you said, all military hospitals give them like that!
I think the 2-month and 4-month and 6-month shots are identical. Only real issue is that if you don't start Rotateq by a certain age and don't do the follow-ups at all the right intervals, the baby can't finish the series. I guess because it wasn't tested or FDA approved for babies past a certain age. (We haven't given that one to either of our kids who was born after it came out.)
Do you have shot records for each child? Our pediatrition gave us a paper shot record that we take to each appointment and they up date as well as the computer at the office. Also, here in OR the state has a record that is kept updated by the dr.s. You might check to and see if Nevada has something similar. When I volunteered with the audiologist and we would go to Fort Lewis to test kids hearing most parents requested copies to keep at home since it seemed that other records kept getting "lost". I know it's another thing to keep track of but it may be worth it to get copies for your records.
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