Synagis

Ava and Wes got their third round of Synagis this morning.  If i looked back a few years, I probably wrote a lot about Synagis when Taylor and Liv were the same age as Wes and Ava now. Synagis is a vaccine that is supposed to protect against and help fight a virus known as RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus).  RSV is a common virus that effects kids.  Children with normal immune systems fight off the virus and it appears to us more or less like the common cold.  Premature infants, however, can't fight off the virus and it turns out to be one of the leading causes of death and hospitalization.  So Synagis sounds pretty good, right?

While Synagis has protected my kids from RSV thus far, and lessened the effects of it when I believe Taylor got in his second cold season, its been a major pain in my rear.  The most annoying part about it is that it has be given every month, who likes to have their babies get shots every month?  I know that there are lots of kids out there who get daily or multiple times per day shots, and I sympathize.  I also know that they are babies and they won't remember... at least Liv and Tay don't...  Anyway, another annoying problem with Synagis, for whatever reason, this isn't one of these drug they teach parents to give... so I have to drag my otherwise healthy premature infants into a dirty germ infested doctor's office once a month during the worst season of the year in order to "protect" them from the germs and bugs.  Finally, the most annoying thing about Synagis... the COST...  Synagis costs over $3000 per month per child.  Fortunately our health insurance right now covers the cost completely.  When Tay and Liv got it, however, we had to meet deductibles before anything was covered.  And since it is given typically from October/November to April/May, we had to meet deductibles for two different years in one cold season. Talk about thousands of dollars gone in an instant.  Still, if the kids had contracted RSV, most or all of these deductibles might have been waved...

And we all thought prevention was the key...