At the moment we are in the process of getting everything ready for our green card application. This means if it's approved we will be able to stay here for as long as we please once our visa expires. It will also make us official residents of the United States and it will make things like buying a house and a car a hell of a lot easier for us.
The early stages of this process involve all of us getting full medical checks and making sure we are all up to date on vaccinations. Daddy and I both require a booster for MMR and Tetanus, which we are going for today.
It turns out Calleigh was also in need of more vaccinations, and although both the ones she needed are optional, for our green card application they are not and she needed to get them done.
The two she needed are Hepatitis A and B. As these, once again, are not offered as part of the normal immunisation schedule on the NHS I was unsure about what they actually protect against and why she needed them. I also needed to know about all the possible side effects and if there were any possible serious ones involved with getting them done.
Both Hepatitis A and B are diseases that affect the liver. Hepatitis A is an acute liver disease, it comes on quickly and runs a short course that doesn't linger. It is the most easily spread of the two and is commonly spread by close personal contact with someone who has it or via contaminated food or water. Hepatitis B on the other hand may start out as an acute disease causing mild symptoms but has the ability to develop into a lifelong illness that can cause long term liver problems such as liver cancer. Hepatitis B is spread through blood or other bodily fluids.
So they both sound like pretty serious diseases and I was convinced that it was a good idea to get her vaccinated against them. After talking to the nurse she confirmed that both are completely safe and recommended and that there are no real concerns when it comes to side effects and I shouldn't see more than a bruise around the injection site.
She had her injections on Friday and once again, like the trooper that she is, she did little more than flinch during and was completely fine afterwards. The injection site is pretty bruised, which is horrible to see but I know it was for a good cause. Other than that she has been completely healthy and not shown any signs of having side effects, just like the nurse said.
I am really glad she had them done and once we have ours done we will have everything we need for the green card process to go ahead.
I do worry over here sometimes that I am not as clued up as I felt I was back in England. I found out the other day that Calleigh is also overdue for her Pneumonia Vaccination- another thing I didn't even know she needed.
In England I knew all of her Immunisation schedule and when she was due check ups. Over here I feel like I am just failing terribly at keeping her healthy. I think I need to spend some time looking into it over here so I can be sure I am doing what is best for Calleigh.
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