Getting the second jab

is on the agenda today. 

I am hoping that I will feel better post jab than I did after the first one. My doctor's advice was to "take a couple of Panadol about twenty minutes beforehand" - and I will. Apparently this lessens the likelihood of having the migraine like three day headache I had last time. I certainly hope so. But, I will still have the jab because this virus is vicious.   

All this has brought back strong memories of my kittenhood. I have said elsewhere in this blog  that my mother was a "Christian Scientist".  Her parents were as well. 

It is a tiny sect, not to be confused with "Scientology", which fortunately seems to be growing smaller. Both are very dangerous. 

"Christian Scientists" do not  believe in any sort of sickness. It is considered to be an illusion. They therefore do not believe in vaccinations.

I sometimes wonder what my mother really believed because she chose her closest friend to be my godmother. My godmother was not a Christian Scientist. She was a member of what is now the Uniting Church - the Presbyterian branch back then. My godmother was also a nurse - a midwife.  

It was at my godmother's urging that my siblings and I were vaccinated against various diseases as the vaccinations became available. The Senior Cat authorised those vaccinations and he and my godmother who saw to it that we were vaccinated. It was a source of serious tension between my parents but we were not made aware of it. My godmother made me aware of this when I was able to make my own decisions about my  health. She was a wise and sensible woman who was concerned not just for me but for my siblings.

When I was a mere kitten there were two quite sizeable congregations of "Christian Scientists" here. As children my siblings and I were, while living in the city, forced to attend the Sunday School on alternate Sundays. My mother also tried to force our attendance at the equivalent of the "youth group" but we  successfully rebelled against that. We preferred the group at the local Presbyterian church. We knew children from school there but it was more than that. We felt comfortable and secure there. People knew us. They knew our paternal grandparents well. The activities were different. 

What would it have been like if we had stayed in the city and my mother had continued to expect us to attend her choice of church on Sundays as we grew  older? I  suspect it would not have been too long before we had been seriously rebelling. My brother, at the age of eight, was already questioning what he was being told. I know I encouraged his thoughts.  It must have been very difficult for the Senior Cat who was caught between parental unity,  his own beliefs, and our ever growing disbelief in what we were told. 

I knew those jabs for poliomyelitis were important though. We lined up at school to get our "booster" shots. I don't remember anyone in my class not getting those booster shots. There may have been a few but there was no anti-vaccination nonsense at school.

I will be keeping that in mind as I visit the Senior Cat this morning and then head off to the clinic for my second jab. Perhaps it is time to remind my generation that vaccinations really do serve a purpose?