Immunizations

Continuing the above:

Two years ago I was in Singapore. A female colleague who was planning to visit my country asked me to accompany her to the travel clinic to find out what vaccinations she needed. This was the first time she was traveling abroad and someone had told her to check this out.

The medic there heard her out, asked her for her vaccination record. He then gave her a list of injections she had to take before the trip. These were not part of the regular immunization program and had to be paid for.

I saw her face go pale. The poor girl - a petite twenty-year-old - looked at me for help! I just nodded to her and squeezed her shoulder to comfort and reassure her.

The medic said some vaccinations came in two doses and had to be done at least ten days before travel, so she had to start immediately.

He looked up a schedule and said he could schedule her for the first round of vaccinations the coming Monday - three days hence!

Since the official confirmation of the trip hadn't come in yet, she said she would get back to him. She did not want to start the process until she knew for a fact that she had to travel - smart girl! Why incur the additional expense - was her explanation - but I did notice her licking her dry lips.

For a while we walked in silence towards the train station. She suddenly turned to me and asked if all the suggested vaccinations were really necessary, adding that she hated injections.

I knew that as long as she drank bottled water and ate properly cooked food, in decent places, she would be okay. Our company looked after its traveling staff very well. Like many others who visited, she had no real reason to worry, other than her own fears.

But I hoped she would let me accompany her for the injections on Monday - for moral support. So slyly - but rather diplomatically - I said she should follow the doctor's orders.

She nodded absently and rubbed her arms as if anticipating the needles that would be stuck there in the not too distant future.

That night, I went back to my hotel and fantasized about her getting injections in her arms and buttocks - several sites would have to be used, given the number of injections they had recommended! She was a pretty girl so the pleasure multiplied.

Unfortunately, the very next day she received a message that the trip was off.

Damn!

We were both disappointed - for totally different reasons! She, because she was looking forward to her first foreign trip and a visit to the Taj Mahal.

I was disappointed because she wasn't going to need the vaccinations any more.

In the pantry that evening as we drank our coffee and she shared her disappointment with me, I told her that there was always a bright side.

She looked up at me questioningly. The vaccinations. You don't need them any more. I told her - a bitter feeling in my heart. She smiled shyly and nodded in agreement and rubbed her arms again.

Damn, I thought!

Sadly, she left the company a month later and we lost touch...

In a strange coincidence, both of my housemates had to have tetanus boosters in the same week. My partner got a puncture wound from nail in a pallet and he had a standing appointment with his PA the next day. I went with him and asked the PA if he thought a tetanus booster was appropriate, the answer was yes. They gave the injection in the deltoid.

Our other housemate got an ugly laceration from some old chicken wire on a prop she was moving. The next day, she spoke to the shop steward and because it was a work-related injury, they sent her off to have it looked at, I think at a walk-in clinic. They advised a tetanus booster.

I got my annual jab for a flu vaccine back in October but a recent titer shows that I have no immunity to HepB even though I had the vaccine series about 20 years ago. I'll have to have the series again sometime in the future.

I would be happy to give the Hep B series again Lady, more than happy, and not in the deltoid either, if you know what I mean? (wink wink, nudge nudge, lol)

Mashie

C'mon over girlfriend, you know where I'm at and it's still (kinda) warm here!

Lately I received a tetanus shot in my butt. the flu shot was in the delt. both great shots!

Hey, I'm all up for warm, both inside and out, lol.

Mashie

If you go to cdc.gov, they have a table of childhood young adult and adult immunizations.

I know adults need boosters of tdap, for tetanus and pertussis, every 10 years. Flu and pneumonia are recommended if you're in an at-risk group or work in health care, as well as the hepatitis series if you haven't had it.

If you plan to travel to developing countries, there are lots of recommended shots bases on where you're going....check out CDC.gov for a full list.

You are my ideal nurse, Mashie. I would be delighted to get Hep B from you (as well as any other injections you "recommend") because I know there is no risk of getting them in the arm!

Hep B goes in the arm Jabbotuk, as do almost all vaccines, according to the inserts. But I am sure Mashie could find something else for your lower region.

Well, to be honest, I put all IM injections including vaccines in the tush. I do so because I understand that the medicine has to get into the muscle only. So I make sure I have a needle that will reach into the proper space, no exceptions.

Mashie

You using the 2.5" needles, Mashie? Because many tushies need that length to get sufficiently into the muscle.

Oh mashie, I want to get a shot from You!

no, better 2 - one in each cheek!

What do you say or do if a patient objects to getting immunisations in the bottom, Mashie?

I at the very least use a 1.5, usually a2 incher though, and have gone up to a 2.5 inch needle. So the answer is yes, I do use the longer needles. It ensures proper placement.

I don't have patients object to me giving them in their fanny because I never give them that option to start with. I start right off with telling them where it's going to go and then I let them pick which side they want it do go in and how they would like to receve it, ether sanding or laying on their belly. On the off chance that one might say to me that they didn't want it in their tush, I again would just put my nursing cap on a bit tighter and explain to them that this shot has to go in the backside, there is no other choice, now bend over. Been doing it this way for 11 years now and have not had to back down once.

Mashie

Mashie, Be careful. If a patient tells you "they don't want it in their tush" and you go ahead a give it there, you could be charged with battery, unless you can document their affirmative consent.

Once again, Mashie, you make me envy your patients.

Nick

When the Hep B vaccine first came out, in the late 80's, it was generally given in the bottom, because it was a larger volume (1 cc, rather than the 0.5 cc that most vaccines come as). Later, they decided that there was a slower rate of absorption when given in the bottom vs the delt, so most offices began giving in the delt instead (I'm sure with some exceptions). Gardasil is another 1cc vaccine, and I know many places give that one in the bottom as well.

They do, but they shouldn't, @Brett. The package insert instructions state: "GARDASIL should be administered intramuscularly in the deltoid region of the upper arm or in the higher anterolateral area of the thigh."

I remember having to take a GG shot (Gamma Globulin) before going to Vietnam back in the day. It was, what seemed to me at the time, a 'horse needle' and lots of liquid. It was administered in the back side and it reminded you that you just got it for at least 3 days; not a shot that anybody would soon forget. Surprise! Processing to leave to go back to the world, yet another one of those nasty double G shots. Wondering if the Hep B shot mentioned in posts here is the same thing or similar?

I've had 2 of the 3 Hep B shots in the srm in the last 3 months. No biggie.

@blogger333. The Hep B shots and GG are totally different.

It depends on age and gender and if you travel a lot. I've had hepatitis and typhoid shots. Pneumonia shot if you are older or care for someone older. Also consider shingles vaccine.

Yes I find vaccinations in the bottom more fun, shame in the UK it’s only on deltoid

All ordinary immunizations or vaccinations I0ve received were injections in my arm. There were 3 exceptions all gamma globulin injections. they were of course in my bum.

Mashie, I would definitely bend over and let you jab my tush with any injection you wanted.

I'm not quite 30, but I'm passed the age for most of my shots...I think you need to update tetanus every ten years, but I get a flu shot yearly.

The need for tetanus shots is greatly overrated. Clostridium tetani lives in soil and is an anaerobic bacterium. You get tetanus from a deep puncture wound like stepping on a "rusty nail" in the soil, not in your basement and certainly NOT from a cut with your kitchen knife.

You're brave getting yearly flu shots. I'll take my chances without them. They rarely protect you against whatever strain of the flu comes around since the strain the vaccine is made for is a guess.

I disagree Susie. I've seen a case of tetanus in someone who hadn't been vaccinated in fifty years. It wasn't pretty. I've also seen tetanus in female skin poppers. As for influenza shots you're just not in a high risk population. Yet!! Also I remind people to update polio vaccinations when traveling abroad to endemic areas. Adult polio frequently causes quadraparesis. As for Hepatitis A and B and Herpes Zoster, HPV the list goes on and on. You're crazy if you don't get them.

I agree with the immunization issue. Doc makes sure my Tetanus shots are kept up to date and I get my flu shot every year. About 5 years ago Doc tested me for HPV and when i tested negative he gave me the HPV vac. Even though I am out of the recommended age, it made sense since I tested neg. My girls also received them. I also gave the HPV vac to Doc as well. But with men they only need the one dose I believe, if I remember correctly.

Extra injections in my backside, lol, I wasn't going to argue about it. The more the better.

Mashie