When people don't vaccinate their kids

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<p>Romani, I want you to know that I was at the doctor’s office last week, and because of this thread had a flu shot for the first time in my life. So your passionate advocacy worked on SOMEONE. :)</p>

<p>I also asked for a prescription for the shingles vaccine, since I have achieved the magic age, and have a horror of getting shingles. I know many people who have had it and have suffered terribly, some ending up with chronic facial pain and so forth. I went directly to the pharmacy to get it, and who did I encounter there but a friend who was one of the unlucky one in a million or two to develop paralysis because of a flu shot years ago! What a coincidence. :(</p>

<p>In any case, I had no apparent reaction to the flu shot, but the shingles vaccine caused inflammation and pain at the injection site that lasted for 4 or 5 days. An annoyance, but nothing that would rise to the level of a reason not to get it.</p>

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<p>This is a gross misrepresentation of the process involved in moving from a single high PSA reading to eventual treatment, if necessary. A high PSA reading will trigger a recheck on an accelerated schedule. Depending on that result, the next step might be another recheck in three or 6 months, or a biopsy. When my father had prostate cancer, about 23 years ago, they took only something like 3 biopsy “cores.” Prostate cancer does not appear as a palpable mass and can’t be seen on scans. (Nowadays, they do multiple cores on both sides of the gland, to have a more realistic chance of actually encountering the cancer if it is there.) Found no cancer. Followed up with another biopsy three months later: found cancer. Had surgery. By this time, it had spread into the seminal vesicles. Survival for people whose cancer has spread outside the gland is markedly lower, although nowadays the standard of care would be to follow up surgery with targeted radiation to the area if evidence of cancer is found outside the gland, which is likely to result in far fewer returning cancers. Eventually his cancer returned as a mass behind the bladder, spread into his bones, etc.</p>

<p>H had prostate cancer several years ago. Again, high PSA reading triggered retake a few months later, it had gone down so they waited a year, went up, had a retake, another retake, eventually a biopsy at something like 10 sites, found cancer, samples sent to two labs to be examined and staged, analysed according to scales developed at Hopkins, had surgery, cancer was found to extend right up to the border with the bladder. Watching and waiting further would have likely resulted in bladder cancer.</p>

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<p>I had shingles, but it was on my trunk, not my face. The ones which effect the face/eyes can be very serious. </p>

<p>I think I will go ahead and get a shingles vaccine even though second incidents are not all that common and my insurance won’t cover it before age 60. I read that second shingles outbreaks rarely occur at the original site, and I sure as heck don’t want to get the face/eyes version.</p>

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<p>Adults are free in this country to make foolish decisions for themselves. We take measures to protect children, and sometimes that means overriding the wishes of their parents. As I said before, we do not allow children to ride without seatbelt, work in factories or do a number of other things regardless of how their parents feel.</p>

<p>There are still people out there who believe that vaccines can cause autism, despite the fact that the “doctor” who proposed this theory has been discredited and was disbarred for falsifying his data. There is a ton of misinformation out there and some parents buy into it.</p>

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Case in point.</p>

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<p>Do you need a prescription for the shingles shot? This is the one vaccine I’m a bit worried about because it’s live. I’m also not sure about getting it with cancer in my bone marrow, even though my oncologist thinks it’s ok.
Has anyone here had a reaction to this vaccine, except for local soreness?</p>

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<p>Are you referring to Guillain-Barre syndrome? It is scary, I know. However, other than the documented outbreak in 1976 which was believed to be caused by the vaccine, GBS is actually more strongly associated with illness (including influenza specifically) than with vaccination. At least this is what I learned recently in a class on influenza.</p>

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<p>Back when my oldest was in pre-k and kindergarten I got both singles and whooping cough. I was working in both of her classes as a volunteer when I had these diseases. No one else had a case of these diseases. I have often wonder if the kids getting their vaccinations where causing my outbreaks. My oldest had her vaccination for chicken pox in February and I got shingles with in a few weeks. My nieces had chickenpox in late April and my dd didn’t get the chickenpox and was one of the few that did not. The nurse forgot to record my dd chickenpox vaccine information. The doctor kept wanting us to get another shot but I believe my mother-in-law that she got the shot. She had taken her to the doctors because I worked and she was my daycare provider. The notes stated she was to have the shot. We had to prove immunity through a titer. We were right that she had been given the injection even though the record didn’t show it. She would have gotten the chickenpox herself considering how many times she had been opposed after her injection. </p>

<p>I have had most of the childhood diseases too. I had mumps, chickenpox, both types of measles and then got whooping cough and shingles as an adult. I don’t know why I got some those as I had some vaccinations. Maybe I one of those people that to not get immunity from a vaccination. </p>

<p>I got shingles on my back and have scars. I had a fever for 4 days and blisters on my back. I didn’t find it all the painful but I bet it has to do with where you get your blisters. </p>

<p>It took 4 doctors, an emergency room visit, allergy testing, lung tests, cat-scan, many lab tests to get to the point they just did a titer to see if I had whooping cough. Took me 9 months of specialist to get to a nurse practitioner to give me something to actual make me feel better. Whooping cough left me with asthma and I get very sick whenever I have a respiratory illness now. Never have had colds very much but when I get sick I am put on steroids and then I have to take insulin because of the steroids.</p>

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<p>I was told that you do. FYI, the vaccine is frozen, so I had to sit around until it thawed (15 minutes). The pharmacist then asked me to stay in the waiting area for 15 minutes or so just to make sure I didn’t have a reaction to the shot. (Which I was happy to do because a good friend of mine actually DIED in an allergist’s office after a routine seasonal allergy shot…)</p>

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<p>I know, but that’s what she told me. She’s old enough to have been vaccinated in 1976.</p>

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<p>It’s unlikely you got shingles because you were around someone who received a chicken pox vaccine. Shingles occurs in people who have had chicken pox in the past. If that person is then under stress or their immune system weakens for whatever reason, that person is vulnerable to a shingles outbreak.</p>

<p>In other words, most likely a coincidence.</p>

<p>As to getting whooping cough, if you go to the grocery store, movies, anywhere of a public nature, you could have been exposed. It did not have to be a close contact such as your job or home.</p>

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<p>Thanks to this thread I was reminded to finally get my flu shot for the year. I just walked into the local Rite-Aid, got stuck, and didn’t have to pay a nickel because it was covered by my insurance. Much more convenient that having to schlep to the doctor’s office.</p>

<p>Several vaccinations next year are going to be free for almost everyone next year. I wonder if doctors will outsource childhood immunizations to drugstores.</p>

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<p>Whooping cough is a nasty affliction- so sorry momof3. Pertussis is the one vaccine that my Dd reacted to badly when she was an infant. Her pediatrician left it out of the last couple of shots in her series, and she did fine. She hasn’t had protection, though, so I guess she’s lucky that she hasn’t been exposed. If you’re one of those people who can’t take a vaccine for one reason or another, you really appreciate the ones who can and do.</p>

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<p>I had my shingles vaccine a few months ago. No problems whatsoever. Piece of cake.</p>

<p>I had my flu shot about 6-8 weeks ago and promptly came down with bronchitis that lasted a month. It was awful. BUT, it is correlational, not causal. I caught it from my husband, who caught it from someone at work.</p>

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<p>My facility gave free flu shots to all employees a couple of weeks ago. Some hospitals and medical facilities will require all employees to get the shot as a condition of employment. Those who refuse are either terminated or required to wear a mask while working with patients.</p>

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<p>My daughter is old enough that there was less questioning of vaccines when she came through the pipeline but I certainly would vaccinate. That being said, we have enough autoimmune issues/severe allergies in our family that I would have to find a doctor who would cooperate with me and unbundle the grouped injections so if there were a problem we would hopefully have some idea of which vaccine caused it. D had enough of a reaction (not immediate, but within a reasonable length of time) after her second Gardasil injection that she and her doctor decided not to go for the third, just in case. </p>

<p>It is my understanding that the pneumonia vaccine covers a certain bacteria that can cause pneumonia and other diseases. I have had pneumonia a number of times and will get the vaccine sooner rather than later. My grandmother had a bout of shingles and it wasn’t pleasant…I will be lining up for that one as well.</p>

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<p>:D </p>

<p>I’ll be getting mine this weekend. For whatever reason, I had a small bug for like 2-3 weeks that I just could NOT kick and didn’t want to get the vaccine because I consistently had a small but definitive fever. My insurance doesn’t cover it and my fiance doesn’t have insurance, but we get a 20% off coupon if we get them at CVS so that’ll probably pay for itself. I’m also due for my pneumonia vaccine (before I started getting the shot, I got pneumonia every year). I don’t know how much that one is without insurance so it might have to wait until my ACA-approved insurance kicks in in January .</p>

<p>On a side note, my mom’s new doctor is telling her that she can get the vaccine now. She has Graves Disease and her previous doctor told her that because of her immune compromised status, it wasn’t safe to get it. She’s going to get another opinion. She has never gotten the flu since getting sick (she did get a full-blown case when she was young and living in Spain, not that that necessarily means anything), she’s had Shingles, and she hasn’t had a shot since she started the radiation treatments 5+ years ago. We recognize that we’ve been very lucky that she hasn’t gotten sick, especially with a kid that is ALWAYS sick (me). </p>

<p>So much misinformation and conflicting information out there :/</p>

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<p>[Staff</a> called my baby a “loser” for lack of vaccinations - CNN.com Video](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/11/08/dnt-mom-says-hospital-called-her-baby-loser.wis.html]Staff”>http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/11/08/dnt-mom-says-hospital-called-her-baby-loser.wis.html)</p>

<p>I don’t think the nurse was referring to the baby when she wrote loser…</p>

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<p>I don’t care who she is calling a “loser”. Either way it is uncalled for, cowardly, and shows a lack of professionalism.</p>

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<p>Coincidentally, I just found out that S is going to do a piece on anti-vaccination for his master’s project in journalism school.</p>

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<p>Very interesting Consolation. It’s a fascinating topic. I’d be interested in to see what he finds out.</p>

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<p>Regardless of my personal feelings about any particular subject, as a nurse I feel strongly that it’s not my place to ever be judgmental about a patient or family, at least as it relates to any kind of outward expression.</p>

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<p>I agree, nrdsb. I am not defending the nurses- I think it was a stupid thing to do. I thought the story was interesting and I was referring to the headline.</p>