Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Betrayed!

So you know how every year Matt makes me get a flu shot? He'd been talking about how we need to get them again this year for the past few weeks, and yet I suspected nothing when I got this phone call yesterday.
Matt: What are you doing tomorrow morning at 10:30?
Me: I don't know. Let me check. Why, what's going on?
Matt: I just want to know.
This was a smart move. He knows for sure that "I'm busy then" is always my first excuse when it comes to flu shots. And I never suspected a thing. I thought maybe he was going to tell me he heard about something fun that was going on.
Me: I don't have anything going on.
Matt: Good. I've made flu shot appointments for then.
Whaaa? How am I supposed to use my best excuse if you've already tricked me into saying I'm not busy!
Me: WHAT! You tricked me! BETRAYED.
Elliott: [thinking] Mom has been betrayed. Now is the perfect time to jump in her lap to show solidarity. And also to receive pets.
Elliott jumped into my lap.
Me: ELLIOTT AGREES THAT YOU HAVE BETRAYED ME.
So this morning as we walked to the car, I came up with a bunch of other excuses. He laughed at me and drove us to Walgreens. I told the pharmacist lady that Matt had tricked me into coming. She laughed, but in a nice way. She had a cool cheetah ring that was as long as her whole index finger.

Matt told me that if I got my flu shot, Walgreens would be donating an immunization to a kid in third-world country. I hope that a kid actually benefits. I would be really disappointed if it was just a ploy to get people into the pharmacy, and if I got doubly tricked. I got the shot regardless. It didn't hurt that bad. That won't stop me from complaining about my arm hurting for at least 24 hours.


Then to make me love him again, Matt took me to Dairy Queen and we shared an Oreo Blizzard, and I told him that when I'm a sassy old lady* and he's in a wheelchair**, that I am going to tell him we're going to get flu shots, and then I will drive him to Dairy Queen instead and it'll just be too bad. Besides, hopefully by then they'll have cured diabetes, so then we won't have to get flu shots anymore.

Have you gotten a flu shot this year? Does anyone else hate shots as much as I do?

*I may have also told him that I will be sassy enough that no mere flu could take me down.
**He was the one who said he'd probably be in a wheelchair due to "old man bones." I told him he needs to drink more milk. Osteoporosis is no laughing matter.

11 comments

  1. NO flu shots for me! But I did get a tetanus shot recently, and my husband also took me out for a treat immediately afterwards. It was basically just to congratulate me on only crying a little bit, and being such a big girl about it all. Ha. I'm a wuss.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No shame! I totally go get a milkshake every time I leave a doctor's office, just to make myself feel better.

      Delete
  2. Such a funny story! You already know my flu vax saga with my boys. :P Today, I went to get a quick blood draw to check my thyroid levels. It's one vial, no big deal. But the tech could not find a vein, and she had to stick me THREE times. That has never happened before, and she kept asking me if it hurt and if I was going to faint. She made me so nervous! I went to her lab because it is supposed to be fast. Yeah, right.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not yet, I feel like I probably should since I take the Metro aka "underground tube of sickness" everyday. Matt's plan was pretty brilliant btw :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha, I know. Evil! I probably would if I took public transport all the time. I got my first one when I was living in the dorms, because I didn't want to have the flu in a building full of other people.

      Delete
  4. You can only get flu shots in the UK if you are elderly or have asthma. Well, that's not true, you can pay to have them if you don't fall into either of those categories, but it's not exactly encouraged. So I've never had a flu shot, but I've also never had the flu!

    I super wish we had Dairy Queen over here. I only got to go once when I was in Canada, but it was AMAZING.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here they encourage people to get them if they're elderly, but luckily insurance covered both of our vaccines. I haven't had the flu since I was a kid, and only started getting the shots when I was 18!

      Delete
  5. The last time I got a flu shot, the folks who put them together "guessed" that the wrong strains would hit that year, so I got the flu. Womp, womp.

    I was cat/house sitting for my grad school adviser and I honestly thought she would come home to my dead body on her sofa. You'd think having had the real flu, I'd be first in line for the shot, but I spend flu season cloistered at home, reading. I have almost not interaction with people besides my husband except for a weekly staff meeting at the office.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Haha, I thought you were betrayed because the flu shot actually gave you the flu. Isn't there a chance they can actually make you sick? I've kind of stopped taking them because a few times I just felt sick afterward anyway. I think I've only gotten the flu once in five years in Swiss land.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, supposedly there's a chance they can get you sick, even though the vaccine isn't a live virus. So far I haven't gotten sick from the shot since I started getting them, though they make my arm sore for days!

      Delete