The medical saga marches onwards

Emily's second hospital visit today - this time for an ultrasound on her kidneys. Since she had a urine infection last year, and we didn't know how long it had gone untreated, the paediatrician advised us to take her for a scan to make sure that the infection hadn't damaged anything. And, hooray hooray, it hasn't. I didn't think it had - she probably would have had some symptoms if that had been the case - but it was reassuring to have it confirmed. And she was so good during the scan - lay first on one side and then the other and then on her back, smiled at the ultrasoundist (I know that isn't a word, but it should be) and was generally lovely. And best of all, she didn't pee on me, which I was a bit nervous about since the ultrasoundist (there's that word again!) said she had a full bladder.

But that's not her only medical adventure this week - I've booked her in to have a swine flu jab on Saturday morning. I was a bit nervous about this having heard some rumours about the vaccine having been rushed out and not fully tested. Also, there's been nothing about swine flu in the papers for weeks and I think that number of cases has fallen dramatically. I don't think I'm the only one to have doubts -take-up of the vaccine amongst health professionals doesn't seem to have been very high. So I asked a doctor friend of mine what she was doing with her own twins who are just a few months older than Emily. She gave me very sensible and direct advice - better to have the vaccine than the disease, in her opinion it was safe, and her kids were having it next week. So, that's what we're doing too. I'm generally a great believer in vaccinations and don't have any qualms, but this one seemed a bit out of the ordinary. I suppose we live in extraordinary times.

The result of this week will therefore be that Emily is healthy and protected against nastiness - I guess we'll have to rely on her to nurse the rest of us if we all come down with swine flu though!