After the last post on the subject I did send a follow up email to Public Health which it seemed they never replied to. However, somehow when I was looking up the email I had sent I saw that the reply had snuck in unnoticed, and she did have a little helpful advice, as she did say it should be a possibility to get the vaccine through the pharmacy with a prescription. So, I’d been meaning and meaning to get to the pharmacy to discuss my options, but it kept not happening for a while. (When you’re home all day with 3 kids and no car, it’s hard to get these things done and when evenings are busy and you’re always tired, it’s easy to let it slide. So I did a little – as DH pointed out he might as well just go for his 4 month check up at this point. ) Then last night, armed with a stack of pro-life letters to mail, I finally made it out to deal with this.
I stopped outside and prayed first, as the magnitude of what I was about to do finally hit me. I now had to stand up for this truth in the world etc IN PERSON. It takes a lot of courage to go up agaisnt the world and the established status quo and before it had just been over the phone/email. I prayed for God’s wisdom, for the words to say (and I rehearsed them under my breath) and I prayed for the Holy Spirit to be with me and give me courage. Then I took a deep breath and walked into the store and back to the pharmacy counter.
I said my little speiel and the pharmacist went and got her superior and I asked again, ‘I’m wondering whether I’d be able, with a prescription, to get ahold of an alternative infant vaccine to the pentacel.’
I answered her simple questions and eventually she told me she’d have to call me back the next day when she could call the company etc. Before I left though, she asked me, “just out of curiosity, obviously you’ve done quiet a bit of research on vaccines and you know what you want for your child etc, but why did you not want to use the pentacel???”
There it was, but I was prepared enough to put together my reply: ‘Because it contains the aborted fetal cell line.’
And she didn’t suddenly look down on me or anything upon hearing my response. It seems she thought this was a perfectly legitimate reason to seek an alternative. It was like she just got it. She seemed to completely respect, almost agree with my opinion. And she has been very helpful since, calling back with extra information at my request.
The verdict is YES, I can get ahold of an ethical alternative vaccine – but we will have to pay for it, and it comes 5 doses at a time. (Which is not so bad since I can easily use two of them myself.. but then it dpeends how long it keeps for…)
So.. I will probably be ordering a few shots of the ethical infant vaccine for – 2/4/6 months (the dtap 5 in one combo shot. ) in the near future. I may have some extras if anyone around here has children in that age range and would be interested… Just let me know 🙂
good stuff. glad to hear that you found what you needed 🙂
What does the pentacel vaccinate for?
Diptheriea, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Haemophilius influenza type B
I have another post on this here, which has a number of good links if you want more information… https://starrball.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/immunizations/