Meningitis Vaccine?

My insurer (Aetna) said it would cover Bexsero, but I can’t find anyone to administer it. My doctor doesn’t do shots, and Bexsero isn’t offered by Costco, Riteaid or three urgent care centers I called. I am going to call the Health Department in my county tomorrow.

@techmom99 Bexsero has a website where you enter your zip code and it tells you the nearest places that carry it. The only place near me was a few cities away. My doctor offered to order it for me, but the doctor is further away than that so I had them send a Rx to the place I found (it happened to be Rite Aid but not all Rite Aids have it).

@MSHopeful - Thanks for the info. I ran the search and the first place that popped up was the Rite Aid that told me it doesn’t have it! I am going to call some of the other places, but I also have to see what’s in network. S17 is leaving for college in less than 3 weeks so I will only be able to get one shot at this point. His college health center doesn’t have it, but maybe they will start to carry it.

@techmom99 That’s annoying! I wonder if the Rite Aid could order it? I have to go back and get DD her second shot in a couple weeks. They told me to call a week ahead to make sure it’s in stock.

Have you checked Walmart pharmacy?

@mommdc - I don’t generally shop at Walmart’s for social policy reasons, so I never thought about its pharmacy. If I can’t find anything else, I will call there.

@MSHopeful - Rite Aid said they don’t carry it and won’t order it. I expect this will change as the vaccine becomes more known, but for right now I am still looking.

I’m so proud of DS. He made us own appointment and when to the doctor for his second Bexsero shot. Along that same line, I ordered and received a copy of our insurance card for him to carry.

(Boy, I can’t type. Please excuse.)

I thought S was good to go because he got the “regular” meningitis vaccine last summer, so thanks to CC for the info on the meningitis B vaccine (which I had never heard of). I read up on it and checked with his doctor’s office, who now recommends it and stocks it. The student health center at his college also has it, although the school does not require students to get it.

Yesterday I took S in for annual physical, to include first Bexsero shot. He won’t be 18 until later this month, right before he leaves for freshman year, so I had to go along to sign the paperwork. The doctor explained briefly why there’s a separate shot for Type B, why meningitis is so dangerous, etc., and asked me to leave the room for the exam. Two minutes later he’s calling me back into the office because S fainted!

Apparently the combination of a graphic description of the dangers of meningitis, the personal invasiveness of the hernia check (am I being discreet enough with that wording?), having skipped lunch, and anxiety about the shot, S passed out. I’ve fainted a couple of times (in fact, first time I had a mammogram, I fainted dead away and wound up in the hospital with a concussion because I hit the machine on the way down). D has fainted while getting blood drawn and even while just listening to someone describe their knee surgery. I guess we are just a squeamish bunch.

So obviously S could not get the Bexsero shot yesterday; but undeterred, I will take him back in next week.

D went to get the second dose of her vaccine yesterday and I had to work so couldn’t take her. Since she is a nervous driver, the doctor’s office is about 20 minutes away and she had never gone to a doctor’s appointment without me, she was very nervous and started to say she couldn’t do it. I encouraged her to push through and handle it but it started me panicking, thinking about what is to come in the next few weeks/months. If she can’t do that, how is she going to manage taking a train to NYC, transfer from grand central station to the subway, get to LaGuardia and fly home for October break? Did she make the right college decision? Blah blah. Of course she handled the appointment without incident and I guess we’ll take one thing at at time.

Great job all, in getting the kids vaccinated. Whenever possible, I get my D to start the vaccines when she’s in HI visiting and then get the next shot in LA at a CVS Minute clinic. So far, she’s gotten the HPV and meningitis vaccine this way.