Walgreens | Get A Shot. Give A Shot®

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As a parent taking Amber to the doctor for immunizations was never something I looked forward to.  She was full of anxiety and her drama queen persona would melt down into something worthy of the Oscars.  Promising her a special treat and a fun bandage would calm her down just long enough for the nurse to give her the shot.  Afterward Amber would proclaim “That didn’t hurt so much!”  Yet she would still hold me to my promise of the treat 😉

I think she was fully convinced that when she finished high school all that was behind her.  She was not amused in the least to find on her university admissions forms that she needed a meningitis shot.

Oh let me tell you the performance just got better with age.

But with age comes some maturity and the idea that getting a shot so that she has the chance to earn a degree meant that a child in need would receive a required vaccination – well that she could get behind. 

Whether your school aged children need a whooping cough shot or a meningitis shot, it’s so convenient to get those immunizations at Walgreens.  Each vaccination will not just protect your child, but it will provide a life saving vaccine to a child in a developing country through the United Nation Foundation’s Shot@Life Campaign. 

You don’t need an appointment, most insurance plans are accepted, and Walgreens pharmacists will even report back to your primary care physician.  While you’re at Walgreens you can even pick up school supplies.  How’s that for taking care of business?!

We sat down and I showed her photos from when I was her age and I was working at a polio clinic in India.  Because I was in the pictures with these kids, she could better envision the disparity between the health care she’s received during her life compared to what children in developing countries have access to.

I don’t know if it was the needle poke from the vaccination that teared Amber up, or the thought that there are young girls around the world that don’t have the accessibility to education and health care that she does.  In her own way I think that she actually appreciated getting this shot, if for no other reason than she realized that this routine act of keeping healthy is an extraordinary thing for children elsewhere.

And then it was just like grade school all over again, and in my basket there ended up some fun bandages and treats.

I haven’t decided yet if the acetaminophen is for her ‘achy’ arm, or if it’s for my headache from her drama 😉  Either way, I’m truly thankful that we have easy access to vaccination resources like this at Walgreens, and that when kids Get a Shot they can Give a Shot and help another child have a Shot@Life.