Painting by Toby Main

Today in Vancouver, B.C. my son Toby and his step dad Dave Dawson had the H1N1 vaccination at our family doctor’s office on Commercial Drive.

Before we went to the scheduled appointment, nine-year-old Toby painted this image. He was terrified and almost ran out of the room at the last minute. But it took only a second and he later rated it a “zero!” on a pain scale of 1 to 10.

He told the doctor: “Thanks to you, my needle phobia is gone!”

It felt like an easy decision to get the vaccine for Toby – who sometimes gets asthmatic when he has a cold or flu. After much consideration and Googling, I’ve decided the risk of H1N1 itself seems much greater than the risks of this new vaccine against it. I made this choice despite much speculation that H1N1 is over-hyped.

One of my Facebook friends says: “Pharmaceutical companies are raking in the dough. Scare tactics abound. Here in Edmonton, the first five pages of the newspapers talk of nothing but H1N1. I don’t trust the f**kers one bit.”

Then another Facebook friend says: “My 16 yr old nephew, a ridiculously fit and all-around great kid is having his lungs drained in emergency right now because of the pneumonia generated fluid collecting around his lungs. Pneumonia was the secondary infection brought on by H1N1. Went to hospital on Thursday because he was having trouble breathing (after being fluey for a week), they sent him home, and he went back tonight because of his pain and coughing.”

So we went for the shot.

I made my decision based on first-hand information from someone I know – not just because of media hype. I hadn’t heard any first-hand stories about anyone getting ill from the vaccine – aside from a few stories in the U.S. news.

Rationing vaccine is something I have never seen in Canada. It’s unusual to see the doctor’s receptionist going up to a mom in the waiting room and telling her the 2-year-old can be vaccinated but the 5-year-old is not yet eligible. Toby and Dave qualified due to asthma, but as a healthy 42-year-old, I was not eligible. So I left with a Tamiflu prescription and instructions to fill it if I get an actual bone-aching fever.

*Update: 10 hours later, Toby reports that his arm hurts so much, he can barely move it. Dave’s arm also hurt and felt heavy before he left for his evening shift tonight…. Three days later, arms still hurting but pain is nearly gone.