Last week at my five-month checkup, despite the controversy surrounding the H1N1 flu shot, I submitted to be vaccinated.  Why?  Because my doctor strongly recommended it for all her patients, and I trust my doctor.  Also, because I’ve heard a lot more about pregnant women dying of swine flu than about pregnant women suffering complications from the vaccine, and while it’s not hugely likely I’d catch it, I’d really rather be safe than sorry.  I didn’t have the slightest side effect from the vaccination; my shoulder didn’t even get as sore as it did from the normal flu shot.  (Which I also got just as a precaution, even though I never get the flu, because I really don’t want to get it while dealing with being pregnant.)

Yesterday afternoon Mr. Burt and I went to Lowe’s, and while we were hemming and hawing over which winterizer to get for our lawn, an elderly man whom I’d just watched have a very confused conversation in broken English with one of the employees about garden plants versus sunroom plants, approached me and asked, “You have shot?”

Not sure I’d heard him right, or, if I had, what exactly he was asking me, I said, “Pardon me?”

“Shot,” he repeated, and gestured with his not-a-garden-plant to my shoulder.  “In shoulder.  Shot for you and baby.”

“Oh!” I said, realizing he must mean a flu vaccine.  “Yes, I just had one last week.”

“Good,” he said with a nod and a grin, and then walked away.

But a moment later, he came back.  “I not get shot so you and baby have one.”

Now, it’s very sweet (not to mention very random and very funny) that this guy wanted to do right by all the pregnant ladies out there this flu season (I wonder if he’s stopping all the pregnant women he sees to share this with them?) I’m pretty sure the FDA or whoever recommended that the first vaccinations go to pregnant women and the elderly!  I hope this man, whoever he is, makes it through flu season okay!  And that his not-a-garden-plant lives.