<p>My daughter is getting a lot of shots this summer before leaving for college. We found it much cheaper, since she is under 18, to get them at the public health clinic. There is funding for vaccinating “children”, so she’s getting the Hep A, meningitis, Gardisil, and tetnus and chicken pox boosters.</p>
<p>I wish I’d known about doing it at public health before my son turned 18. Some of his were covered by insurance and some were not. $$$!</p>
<p>Umich told me not to worry about it. @@ Not exactly the information I had in mind. </p>
<p>Are the shots you’ve had on record with the doctors? Like, I have my immunization record and I know I got all the recommended shots when I was a baby, and I had the hep shots in elementary school. But it’s definitely been over 15 years since I’ve had a tetanus shot. I haven’t had a shot that wasn’t because I was sick in as long as I can remember, and I’ve never had to go to the hospital for a cut or anything and gotten a tetanus shot then. Do the hep shots need to be redone or is 12 years ago okay?</p>
<p>My mom really needed to get us seeing a general practitioner or something. Now at 20 I am totally clueless and don’t even know how I’d go about finding these records, and it’s really expensive for me to go and get these kinds of shots.</p>
<p>My daughter got it in July.</p>
<p>Most colleges that i know of require this shot, and an up to date tetanus and Hep series. Definitely have your son get it, no matter if he pitches a fit. Meningitis is a really common disease, and it can kill people very quickly. It’s easy to contract in a dorm situation where showers/food/drinks/and more are shared frequently. Also, remind him to wear shoes in the shower. </p>
<p>@TwistedxKiss: You should have an immunization record on file with the hospital/doctor where you had your shots done before. You may also have your immunization record on file at your high school (many high schools require at least a list of what shots you had and when you had them). </p>
<p>You’re okay on the Hep shots, they protect for up to 20 years after you get the series. BUT tetanus shots are only good for 10 years, so you should probably get that renewed. I mean, if your college doesn’t require it you can go without it, if you get a bad cut the hospital will give you tetanus when you’re brought in, but you’re putting yourself at risk. If you get a cut or a puncture wound that becomes infected before you can get to a hospital, you might wish you had gotten your tetanus updated.</p>
<p>I saw a pediatrician probably only the first five to eight years of my life and that was the end of me having any kind of a regular doctor, I know I saw someone else for a few years when I was little and might have gotten some boosters but I don’t know what and that office is long gone. I have the record from the pediatrician but I imagine there were shots I was supposed to have had since then. My mom just always had us go to specialists, I had an allergy and asthma specialist and a neurologist and my care has been pretty much split between them but they’ve never given me shots.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely have to look into getting tetanus done. I work at an animal shelter and get cut on fences and bitten all the time. My mom insists I had it done but I know I haven’t, so I’ll have to figure out how to manage that myself. Hopefully once I get to campus UHS will be more helpful or perhaps there’s a clinic somewhere in Ann Arbor that could help me.</p>
<p>TwistedxKiss- get to your county health department ASAP and get a tetanus shot!!! Call them and inquire about free or low cost vacccines. You are putting yourself at tremendous risk.DO NOT go without it. I am certain that the animal shelter requires these shots- they all do- and they may even be able to give it to you or send you to someplace affordable. If you don’t want to go through the Health Dept. do the pharmacies/drug stores in your area have walk-in clinics? Many states do permit those now, or there are even free-standing walk-in health centers, and you can get needed vaccines there. If you are heading back to college, again, go to the Student Health Center- they also administer vaccines and there may not be any cost at all (at most, it would be minimal and they will work with you). Your HS or even Middle School should have records of what you have had and the dates (my D had to get hers from her middle school due to a problem with her MD’s record keeping!), so you can request those. If you have not had regular primary health care, as you state, I would seriously consider going to one of the places I have suggested and talking to an MD or a Nurse Practioner. It may be advisable for you to start on a course of vaccinations and boosters since you may not have had all that is required. Didn’t you have to submit vaccination records to college? All schools require those…Having the infant vaccs and the early-years boosters, but not the boosters or shots you should have had as a teen or young adult, leaves you vulnerable to illness. You are 20 now and you need to take responsibility for your own health care. You mother, for whatever reason, was remiss, but you need to break that cycle and take care of yourself. Please, do this. Your’re smart enough to have found this great bunch of people here on CC and we want you to stick around and be happy and healthy! OK?</p>
<p>Forgot to ask this of TwistedxKiss- are you attending U of Mich now? There is no way to be enrolled at a school of that sort (unless a religious-based objection was filed and approved) without producing immunization records and being up to date on one’s vaccinations. If, by some weird chance, someone “slipped through the cracks” in high school (those also require the same proof upon entrance) they certainly must fill in all of the health forms before setting food on campus. Are we getting the whole story here?</p>
<p>I am starting in the fall, registered for classes. University health has requested my immunization report “to better serve me once I arrive”, which I have from all the shots I got when I was very young–I got all the recommended ones then, and I am sending that. That is the only health form I need to submit. The issue is shots I was supposed to have gotten since then, except hep since I had those done in elementary school. I have all of the required shots as listed in the pamphlet student health gave me. Meningitis vaccine is recommended but not required, I am guessing they just assumed I’d have gotten a tetanus booster or they didn’t care. What shots do you suppose I’m missing? I didn’t know until fairly recently that there were shots I was supposed to be getting and didn’t, so I don’t even know where to start. I am hoping if UHS can’t help me that they can direct me to a clinic in Ann Arbor that can help me. Generally speaking my parents make too much money for me to qualify for anything considered to be for low income people, but there are major extenuating circumstances which aren’t taken into consideration-- one of which being that my parents haven’t given me money for anything but community college tuition since I turned 18 and /I/ am certainly low income.</p>
<p>The Humane Society didn’t even inquire about immunizations and it never occurred to me until this conversation. Perhaps they do for employees and not for volunteers, I don’t know. But given that I work with the animals, and as I have said regularly get scratched and cut up there, you’d think the same rules would be in place for volunteers or that they’d at least mention it to us. I definitely want to take control of my own healthcare now as what I am finding out here is seriously alarming, I’m just not sure how because of the insurance issue, this is a matter of both action and education as I am just learning about these things. I am definitely going to student health when I get on campus, I know they do immunizations for a fee but I won’t be able to find out how much until I go in I guess, I can’t find it online. If it is relatively inexpensive I may be able to ask my grandma to loan me the money to get that taken care of. I hate having to do that, it embarrasses my parents and I hate borrowing money, but especially given that I am not in great health it’s important that I am not making myself even more vulnerable.</p>
<p>I just got home and find my spouse has taken our student to get this vaccine before school starts. I am disappointing that I did not find out in time to intervene as I would have never recommended this vaccine. It isn’t that effective and who knows what it does to the immune system. Just because the doctors are pushing it doesn’t make it safe. They get their info from the drug sales people who’s primary purpose is to tell the doctors that their products are best - whatever it is.</p>
<p>I am really concerned that we have done the wrong thing by getting this vaccine. I hope I am wrong in this case.</p>
<p>Dede, the meningitis vaccine is a very common and usually required vaccine. It’s been tested for a long time and hasn’t been shown to have any adverse side-effects that I’m aware of. Every single student at my college HAD to get the meningitis shot before attending and their immune systems are fine, with the added benefit that they were immune to certain kinds of meningitis. </p>
<p>And to say that it isn’t that effective is incorrect. True, it does not protect against all forms of bacterial meningitis, but it does protect against many of the most common forms. Just that small measure of protection can mean a great deal in terms of the safety and well being of your child.</p>
<p>TwistedxKiss, if you’re seeing all of those specialists, I’m assuming you have health insurance. So I would just go to a hospital that accepts your insurance (or a clinic), call them, make an appointment to see a general practicioner and have a physical. Bring your record from your pediatrician, explain that you want to make sure you have all your recommended immunizations up to date, and the GP will order you whatever you need. </p>
<p>And do go get that tetanus shot. Anyone who works around animals or sharp objects should absolutely have an up to date one. If your mom thinks that yours is up to date, well, getting two within 10 years is not bad for you. Often if you go to a hospital with a puncture wound they’ll give you a tetanus even if you have one already on record. Go and get it, and stay safe!</p>
<p>I just lost my health insurance in June. We had a cobra policy that expired, and now we have enough coverage for a doctors appointment twice a year and to cover something catastrophic, but that’s all the private insurance my parents could afford. So I am no longer seeing specialists. When we did have insurance, my mom’s preference was to take us to various specialists rather than to a general practitioner. When we are sick we went to the allergy specialist to get antibiotics or whatever was needed, and for anything more specific we went to whatever applicable specialist there may be. Those days are long gone. My mother has informed me that save for an annual gynecological visit, I am not allowed to go to any doctors anymore unless I can pay out of pocket by myself. Which I will gladly do when I make enough money to be able to afford that. </p>
<p>I was in the ER a few years ago because a different ER prescribed me two medications that reacted and caused me to overdose, and they were appalled that I didn’t have any kind of a general doctor to follow up with. Now that I am not a minor I really want to start doing things the right way, I just have to figure out what options I have available to me, I’ve never not an abundance of insurance coverage before. But like I said, I am definitely going to be taking advantage of student health. I am hoping they will be able to straighten me out, and I will get a tetanus booster as soon as I get to school and will see about Menactra too.</p>
<p>I strongly recommend that parents have their teens get the meningococcal vaccine.
It is true that it only protects against one of several types of bacterial meningitis, but it is by far the most deadly. Viral meningitis is less so.</p>
<p>Each year, we see a few cases of college students with meningococcal meningitis in our lab…the onset is usually swift and devastating. Both my teens were vaccinated.</p>
<p>Interesting update on Umich. According to the immunization paperwork, no immunizations are even required and I don’t have to submit the form documenting my immunizations. It’s just recommended.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.uhs.umich.edu/sites/webservices.itcs.umich.edu.drupal.uhs/files/uhsdocs/immunization.pdf[/url]”>http://www.uhs.umich.edu/sites/webservices.itcs.umich.edu.drupal.uhs/files/uhsdocs/immunization.pdf</a></p>
<p>At some point down the line another program I want to participate in might require it, but it’s not a general requirement.</p>
<p>both my kids had it when they started HS as day students at a mostly boarding school. As a nurse Ihave seen first hand what this disease can do . If there is anything that I can do to prevent my kids from getting the disease I will do it. They suffered no ill effects. I am also not one to jump on every bandwagon.</p>
<p>Our school district has been requiring it for middle and high school students for a couple of years now, so all my kids have had this shot.</p>
<p>My daughter had the vaccine. It is worth it. Communal/group living makes them higher risk.</p>
<p>Parents on the fence about this vaccine should consider these points:</p>
<p>1) Meningitis can come on rapidly. Deaths can occur in 24 hours
2) Initial symptoms can be confused with many other things including flu (and we are in for an interesting flu season this winter)
3) College age kids still do not have full brain development (not until age 25) to assess things.<br>
4) College kids are busy, busy, busy and usually are not accustomed to being ill. They can be in denial that they have a problem. They tend to go in later rather than sooner.
5) Roommates can run from sincere and alert to totally not there. Don’t count on a roommate noticing how ill your kid is.
6) Medical staff at campus health centers range from fabulous to awful. An ill teen may not be able to distinguish the difference or know how to follow through if service is poor. </p>
<p>We had a local teen die three days before her graduation. I got the vaccine for both my kids that summer (age 13 and 15 then). They helped at a summer camp and, to my mind, that was the same as college in density. I had to pay out of pocket because our insurance didn’t cover it (they do now) but it was money well spent IMHO.</p>
<p>TwistedXkiss- you can call your allergist and speak to the office manager, explain that you no longer have insurance but are leaving for college soon, are working as a volunteer in an animal shelter, and are concerned both about your ongoing immunizations as well as your risk for tetanus and meningitis.</p>
<p>No allergist worth his or her salt will allow a patient with an irregular medical history to be exposed to animal bites or dorm living without the appropriate immunizations. If you need to pay $5/month out of pocket over a long period of time than the Dr. will work with you on that.</p>
<p>Do not allow the lack of a pediatrician or other primary care physician, or the current lack of insurance to be an obstacle. I am surprised that your insurance allowed you access to specialists without being referred by a primary care physican, so perhaps you are not getting the complete picture from your mother. Most plans insist that the primary care physician be a “gatekeeper”, both to prevent uneccessary visits to specialists, and to make sure that you are receiving appropriate medical care. Most neurologists will not accept "walk in " patients… there too, they want to know that if they’re seeing someone for headaches, that a primary care physician has ruled out the most common things before assuming you have a brian tumor or something that requires neurological care.</p>
<p>So a talk with the office managers of these specialists may clear things up a bit; you may have better records than you think.</p>
<p>I will give that a try, thanks Blossom! I think you’re right about my allergist, he’s been REALLY accommodating to try and help me get what I need since the insurance change, though he’s retiring at the end of the month so I may have to give the neurologist a try. The allergist has been seeing my parents and grandparents since his practice opened, he actually didn’t even see any kids besides my sister and I. And the neurologist, I THINK I started to see her for ADD prescription refills, I don’t remember. I’d seen a hand specialist a while before we started seeing her about hand complaints I’ve had since birth, and the hand specialist had told my mom I was faking, and the neurologist has been so fascinated by my case that I am 20 and she still sees me to work on that case and discusses any meds I need despite being a pediatric neurologist. We definitely haven’t had a general doctor before, maybe my allergist could have referred us despite being a specialist himself? Though I needed one to get into the gastrointestinal specialist I needed to see last winter, and my mom took me to an internal medicine doctor first so we could get that. We’ve never had to do that before. But I only ever really see the allergist, the neurologist, and occasionally the ophthalmologist. Our insurance changed in the middle of working with the GI so that didn’t even get finished.</p>