Watch Out for H1N1 Vaccination

First I want to start this post out by saying that I think that it is really important for everyone to get an H1N1 shot. The vaccination advantages easily outweight the risks of getting the flu itself.

But we ran into some scary trouble yesterday.

My daughter recently got diagnosed with Asthma and so here in Canada she is treated as someone that is high risk for H1N1 and was able to get a vaccination yesterday. All went well with the shot and they kept her for 15 minutes at the clinic to watch for any adverse reactions but there were none so my wife, son and her left.

About 30 minutes after getting the shot my daughter started getting all tingly and shaky. She was scared, wide eyed and pale and my wife got just a little hysterical and called the medical helpline, they asked questions and then had us call 911.

I called 911 they asked a few questions and dispatched the paramedics and we had them over at our house about 10 minutes or so later. My daughter was still shaky, trying to throw up and was panicking pretty badly.

The paramedics were great. They told her to watch her breathing, keep the breathing rhythm slow and if she started panicking again to just watch her breath. Breathing too fast for too long is will over oxygenate and not allow your body to get rid of carbon dioxide. The paramedics checked my daughters pulse, blood pressure and assessed the whole situation and my daughter started calming down. Thankfully for all of us this was a fairly quick episode but it really underlines how little we sometimes know as parents.

How to prepare for an H1N1 shot

In the end in casual conversation the paramedics were telling us that many people are having bad reactions after the H1N1 vaccine shots. This is expected by them although the public at large is not really being warned enough I think. If you get an annual flu shot, like me, you know that afterwards you can do whatever you want but in the case of the H1N1 flu shot it is best to plan for a quiet afternoon with Tylenol and lots of liquids.

The other thing that the paramedics warned us about was the flu itself. They expect most people to come down with the flu and from everything that i have heard so far the flu comes on strong within about three hours and your fever spikes quickly. A high temperature to worry about is 102 or 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius). Take Tylenol and this should control your fever within about two hours and if it still keeps going up or maintaining after that then call 911 immediately.

We all want what is best for our kids and as I said before I am a big fan of getting flu shots. Most importantly though is to be prepared for the aftermath of the shot and have a game plan to take care of the kids before this happens. We have kids Tylenol in the house so that is not a problem but who wants to be stuck in the situation where you are panicking, trying to get to a store and have your kids sick and scared at the same time. Preparation is key.

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