Krista's vaccinations

We were pleased last Friday to get Krista her last round of inoculations. It was one of the first things on our agenda once we had decided upon settling in Torre del Mar for a month or so. Having spent some time attempting to get the injections in Portugal then going again to a Centro de Salud near Cadiz, it had turned into a bit of an epic mission. Concerned to get them done as close as possible to Krista’s 4 month ‘birthday’ we began to wonder if I would need to fly home to get them sorted.

Day one - we found the local Centro de Salud to be told by one of the receptionists that we needed to come back the next day to see the person who dealt with foreign nationals.

Day two -We returned at 9am prompt to ensure we would be first in the queue. We had seen from yesterday that this place could get very busy. We were second in line and as we waited spoke to a Scottish woman with a 9 month old baby who regaled us with tales of how hard it might be to get the injections and that our best bet might be to go private…

Prepared for the worst we were relieved at how accommodating the administrator was and how without blinking an eyelid she issued us with the paperwork we needed to get an appointment. We got into a second queue to make this appointment and within an hour we were armed with everything we needed. The only place where our understanding of a process occurring entirely in Spanish seemed to have let us down was when we were sat waiting hopefully for the nurse only to find that our 11.49am (!) appointment was for the next day. This was marked clearly in numbers on our card. So we went for another coffee.

Day three – we returned to the Centro de Salud with butterflies in our stomachs. Was today finally going to be the day when the injection saga would end? There was a lot of buzz around the nurse’s room today which was more reassuring. It was not long before our turn came and we went in with everything we needed to say written down and rehearsed. The male nurse couldn’t speak English but was very no nonsense.
Krista charmed him with several of her smiles and was quite happy to go off to be weighed before receiving all her injections bar one that they don’t give in Spain. She felt a little hurt when the friendly nurse first pricked her in one leg then the other but after a little milk fell asleep for the rest of the morning. Jubilant but wearied by the whole process we went off for another cup of coffee wondering when our next challenge would present itself and what indeed that would be.