There's probably a lot of overlap here with Health and Healing, and I'll post over there soon, but I wanted to start here in the vaccine forum.
My son had yet another bad ear infection, and again it was haemophilus influenzae, non typeable. This time there was also some staph in the mix. I think this is the third staph infection and 8th or so h. flu infection that we've actually cultured (probably many more have been the same bacteria, we just didn't culture them).
He is going to Immunology next month for another round of immune testing, we're beginning to think that we're missing something underlying (we know he has a t-cell deficit, but that's all we've found in his various testing).
His dr today suggested that he might be colonized with h. flu, and that antibiotics just don't work well enough because of his t-cell deficit (it takes numerous rounds of abx to treat a relatively simple h. flu infection) It's obvious that my son doesn't "hold" any immunity.
The dr brought up vaccines again, asking which ones he's had, I said none, and the dr said "probably a waste of time anyway, he likely won't mount a sufficient response, and if he does, he probably won't retain it for long" which has been my thoughts as well. The dr warned me, though, that Immunology will probably want to vaccinate him and do titers to better determine the type and severity of his deficiency. Prevnar and HiB are the vaccines of choice for this kind of testing.
SO...bombard me with links!! I have a pretty good understanding of the function of an immune system, I understand the role of t-cells and b-cells, I know about mitogen function. But how does one get rid of a bacterial colonization? And is there truly no other way to diagnose a specific immune deficiency without vaccine titers? And what would we gain from knowing the specific deficiency anyway?
[and yes, we're focussing on boosting his immune system through alternative ways, vit c, vit d, omegas, dairy/soy free, low gluten, he's still breastfed, etc]
My son had yet another bad ear infection, and again it was haemophilus influenzae, non typeable. This time there was also some staph in the mix. I think this is the third staph infection and 8th or so h. flu infection that we've actually cultured (probably many more have been the same bacteria, we just didn't culture them).
He is going to Immunology next month for another round of immune testing, we're beginning to think that we're missing something underlying (we know he has a t-cell deficit, but that's all we've found in his various testing).
His dr today suggested that he might be colonized with h. flu, and that antibiotics just don't work well enough because of his t-cell deficit (it takes numerous rounds of abx to treat a relatively simple h. flu infection) It's obvious that my son doesn't "hold" any immunity.
The dr brought up vaccines again, asking which ones he's had, I said none, and the dr said "probably a waste of time anyway, he likely won't mount a sufficient response, and if he does, he probably won't retain it for long" which has been my thoughts as well. The dr warned me, though, that Immunology will probably want to vaccinate him and do titers to better determine the type and severity of his deficiency. Prevnar and HiB are the vaccines of choice for this kind of testing.
SO...bombard me with links!! I have a pretty good understanding of the function of an immune system, I understand the role of t-cells and b-cells, I know about mitogen function. But how does one get rid of a bacterial colonization? And is there truly no other way to diagnose a specific immune deficiency without vaccine titers? And what would we gain from knowing the specific deficiency anyway?
[and yes, we're focussing on boosting his immune system through alternative ways, vit c, vit d, omegas, dairy/soy free, low gluten, he's still breastfed, etc]
