Wednesday, August 31, 2011

vaccines....again

Can we just revisit, for a moment, how stupid I find thoughtless vaccine requirements?

I have three children who will have to have yet another dose of DTaP, "due to increasing outbreaks," not only this year, but when they enter middle school and possibly again in high school....against a disease they have ALREADY HAD.

I have four children who will have to be vaccinated, not once, but twice, against a disease they have ALREADY HAD.

And I have two children who will have to be vaccinated again against a disease they are unlikely to ever get because someone in the public health department screwed up in 2006.

Not only that, I have a child that is something like 19 vaccines behind because he a) had a nasty reaction to his first MMR dose. b) had chicken pox (against which we will have to vaccinate him, anyway) when it was time to go in for another dose, which c) may or may not be the cause of the encephalitis he incurred shortly thereafter (the other causes which may have been either the DTaP, or Hep B which he received just before he got Chicken pox)

So no, I'm not rushing in to get their vaccines "caught up" so they can stay in school.

Talk to me about it after you've watched your perfectly healthy little boy go from being able to run and play to stumbling, walking into walls, being unable to climb stairs and unable to lift a spoon to his mouth without tremors causing the food to fall off the spoon.

Brent says I should ask myself if it's worth the fight.

Today I'm feeling like it is.

**sidebar: I have been told that we don't have to do all this if I have a signed note from a doctor saying that my children had these diseases. Interesting process, this. First, when one child gets, let's say, pertussis, it stands to reason that they all might have it. In fact, a mother might not sleep for six weeks solid. So, say, the mother makes one appt. with a doctor, and takes in all three children who are all coughing their brains out and the doctor tests one child and gives antibiotic prescriptions to three plus the two parents.....which child is the documented case? Yeah. repeat for Chicken Pox. Except WHO takes their child in to see the doctor with chicken pox, unless, say said child starts exhibiting other strange symptoms like hand tremors and lack of balance?**

4 comments:

MotherT said...

My youngest daughter had an allergic reaction to the pertussis vaccine as a baby. The doctor/health dept. nurse agreed to just give her the diptheria and tetnus shots separately. Fast forward 25 years, said daughter is working at a children's hospital and has to bring in proof every! single! year! that she is allergic to the pertussis vaccine and therefore cannot complete the hospital's required immunizations. She, also, cannot be exposed to children that are being tested for pertussis because it now poses a life or death health risk.

It's worth the fight, Jamie! It's worth the fight!

Michelle said...

I recently took my high school boy for a checkup and he had to get a 2nd chickenpox vaccine and he has to get some meningitis (sp?) next year. They also asked if I wanted him to get the guardasil too. Enough is enough already.

Senior Citizen said...

The first flu shot I got was in the army. 4 inch needle bruised my rear for 6 weeks. I also got the flu (first time) 3 days later, but still had to do basic training. Have got flu within 3 days every time since, except last winter when I got it at the VA and they promised I didnnnnnnnn't have to go back active duty if I got the flu - didn't get called up - was to sick..... Now where did that darn woman hide my coffee cup - bet it's in the medacine cabinet, Ainn't going close to it. Sr. Citizen

Kim Kysar said...

They can't MAKE you get any of the vacinations...seriously. They say they can but it's just lip-service. I had a friend's mother go to the TOP of OSU because her son in COLLEGE had a heart condition and they chose to not get vaccines. It is within parent rights to refuse. I think you have to put your request and refusal in writing, etc.