I am planning to speak with Dr Tennpenny about Tetanus

[TonyaW]

Dr Tennpenny takes phone consultations, and I am planning to schedule one. I have been on the fence about whether to vaccinate my son with the DT vaccine, excessively worried about tetanus as well as seriously concerned about giving the vaccine.

I plan to talk to her about the risks associated with the vaccine specifically for my son with mental illness on dad's side of the family (possible autism in his grandpa) and autoimmune disorder in me, my family, and his dad. Also I have a history of seizures as a kid.

I plan to discuss all my concerns and worries about him contracting tetanus from little puncture wounds like splinters which cannot be properly cleaned, or the puncture bite he received from a cat and general wound care. I plan to ask about the overall risks of getting tetanus and how to allay my concerns, under what circumstances would she give TIG, and treatment with the following for the prevention of tetanus, Ledum, colloidal silver, buffered C, chlorella, aloe vera, hydrogen peroxide, and or povidone and finally when to give antibiotics.

If anyone has any suggestions about questions to ask, please do share.

I plan to report back all the information I get from her, but unfortunately I cannot schedule an appointment until November.

[BeckyBird]

I am very interested to hear what she tells you. Especially about using colloidal silver for wound care.
Could you ask her if she knows anything about using liquid silver in a nebulizer to treat pertussis (or even strep throat)?
I'll try to think of more questions

[TonyaW]

Unfortunately, I will have to keep it only to the topic of the DT and Tetanus since it is a half hour consult that is quite costly.

[LionLady13]

I can't wait to hear what she says as this is the one vaccine I cannot stop worrying about with my two year old son. I worry as well about splinters!

[HappyMonkey]

I don't have stats on hand, but read recently that tetanus is almost non existant in our culture now, and people are HIGHLY unlikely to ever come in contact with it? That would be worth looking into....

[Llyra]

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5203a1.htm

The average annual number of tetanus cases during 1998--2000 was 43 --- 45 cases in 1998, 42 in 1999, and 43 in 2000

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/medical.htm

According to Storm Data, a National Weather Service publication, over the last 30 years the U.S. has averaged 58 reported lightning fatalities per year. Due to under reporting, the figures are more realistically at least 70 deaths per year.

Which I interpret to mean that you are more likely to DIE from being struck by lightning, than you are to contract tetanus. Never mind dying from tetanus-- just contracting it.

[TonyaW]

I am aware of the statistics. Believe me, I think I have spent the last 2 months literally reading about it everyday. I worry about it. It isn't like the other childhood diseases in my mind. It is a poisoning that if you contract it, there is no mild case unless you have had some previous vaccination. That is even according to the statistics I read in one of Tennpenny's articles.

I wish I could be guaranteed that my son would never contract this awful disease, but I can't be certain and feel that some of the lower incidence in children is a result of vaccination according to all the statistics I have looked at.

So, right now I am planning to schedule him for a DT again, which he was previously scheduled and canceled. Otherwise, I am going to worry every time he gets a splinter. I can't even enjoy my darn vacation right now because he has gotten splinters in his hands literally every singe day.

[maeby]

but aren't those stats for the us where the mass majority of people are vaxed for tetanus? what is the risk for an unvaxed person?

[wholewheatchick]

Thanks for being willing to share with us what she says, when you get to talk to her. DH and I are just beginning, really, to investigate and decide all of this, and he is pretty willing to consider no vax, for all except tetanus. I'm eager to hear what you find out!

[ammiga]

I would want to know about the efficacy of the DT. You seem so worried about there being no guarantee that ds won't be exposed to tetanus, and the vax seems to bring you peace. I think one of the best places to start would be finding out if that peace is justified.

Dh gardens and works outside all the time, dd gets lots of splinters, yet they don't have tetanus. Most of the adults I know are not UTD, but they don't get tetanus. What percent of people are not UTD, yet aren't contracting tetanus? How do the percent of people who are UTD and still get tetanus compare to those who aren't? What individual circumstances might influence the stats?

[TonyaW]

I did speak with Dr Tenpenny. I also signed a consent form not to disclose the info to some degree which is understandable.

What I feel I can say, is that she reiterated some of the info which was in her book or DVD which is available to the public. So the following info is what you can find in her resources.

Wounds at the most risk for tetanus are deep, dirty puncture wounds or crush wounds and rips/tears say from a dog bite which do not bleed. Those are the types of wounds she would recommend the TIG and DT.

She recommended Ledum and Vitamin C of course and antibiotics for certain wounds which you would need to see a doctor for anyway and to clean wounds well with copious amounts of water and hydrogen peroxide.

So, basically she thinks there is a 1 in a million chance of contracting tetanus. She talked about how she use to live on a horse farm as kid and was completely unvaccinated. She took care of the horse stalls including cleaning out the poop and had lots of pokes, scrapes and so forth. She said she has never been vaccinated for anything.

One of the things that I found interesting is that she said last year there were 100 something cases of tetanus in the US.