Stories of Vaccine Preventable Diseases - Page 3

[pek64]

Originally Posted by Rrrrrachel 

Thanks sciencemum. I've had a wracking cough for several days after a bout with rsv. I'm sore and tired from all the coughing! I've thought several times when I've struggled to catch my breath how glad I am it's not pertussis, which would be ten times worse!!

Edited to remove my original comment, as it was inflammatory.

I am amazed at people of 'science' presenting conjecture as fact. It happens too often.

[Rrrrrachel]

It wasn't intended to be a presentation of fact, just an anecdote. I do think pertussis is generally much more serious than what I have right now. It's kind of amusing that several people now have told me I'm wrong, when I'm the one who's actually sick!

[pek64]

Unless you've had both, you don't have any basis for comparison. I had whooping cough. I've never been diagnosed as having rsv, so I have no basis, either.

[transformher]

I suppose no one ever counts on someone like me stumbling across this site. I was researching varicella and strep co-infections and here I am. I am an advocate of vaccination. My mother is a nurse practitioner and I was vaccinated for everything possible on time. I contracted meningococcal meningitis and went into septic shock before the vaccine was commercially available. I was on a ventilator, in renal, liver, pancreas, and bowel failure. I had a bilateral hemorrhage from my adrenal glands and spent 2.5 weeks in
a coma on full life support. I had a white blood cell count of 1.9 when I arrived. 4 days later it was 78. I had 23 units of blood products the first week. When I finally woke up, I had necrotic areas of skin at each major joint. I had 2 fingertips that were completely necrotic and hard. Both of my feet were purplish black and all of my toes were hard. They had completely lost blood flow because of the meds I needed to keep my blood pressure high enough to not go into cardiac arrest. I spent the next 2 months having debridments and skin grafts like a burn patient. I ended up having both of my long cheerleader legs amputated below the knee. Now, nearly 10 years later, I still wake up with a handful of pills each day. I take 21 over the course of the day ( and no... none of them are anything exciting...lol) ). My adrenal glands did not recover so I have Addison's disease. I have some slight kidney issues and I get infections easily. Before I got sick, I was a normal, active, healthy kid. No reason to ever suspect something like this would happen. The reason people like me spend our lives telling our stories is so that what happened to us does not happen to others. One very scary fact about meningococcal disease is that it can and often does kill a healthy child in less than 24 hours. My first symptom was at 1am. I was in the ER by 9am with a bp of 60/30 in full blown shock.

I dont tell people what happened to scare them into vaccinating. I tell them so that they can make the most educated choice possible.

[emmy526]

You don't know if the vaccine would have covered the type you had...it doesn't cover all of them.  My nephew contracted meningitis too, just like you...no vaccine for that strain was available,  and he was put into a medical coma, and he pulled thru it, minus amputations, but he still has problems to this day too.  He too, was a normal active teen, and contracted this at college..no other students got it like he did.   If meningitis is not caught within 24hrs, death is most likely going to happen. There is viral and bacterial meningitis.  

Originally Posted by transformher 

I suppose no one ever counts on someone like me stumbling across this site. I was researching varicella and strep co-infections and here I am. I am an advocate of vaccination. My mother is a nurse practitioner and I was vaccinated for everything possible on time. I contracted meningococcal meningitis and went into septic shock before the vaccine was commercially available. I was on a ventilator, in renal, liver, pancreas, and bowel failure. I had a bilateral hemorrhage from my adrenal glands and spent 2.5 weeks in
a coma on full life support. I had a white blood cell count of 1.9 when I arrived. 4 days later it was 78. I had 23 units of blood products the first week. When I finally woke up, I had necrotic areas of skin at each major joint. I had 2 fingertips that were completely necrotic and hard. Both of my feet were purplish black and all of my toes were hard. They had completely lost blood flow because of the meds I needed to keep my blood pressure high enough to not go into cardiac arrest. I spent the next 2 months having debridments and skin grafts like a burn patient. I ended up having both of my long cheerleader legs amputated below the knee. Now, nearly 10 years later, I still wake up with a handful of pills each day. I take 21 over the course of the day ( and no... none of them are anything exciting...lol) ). My adrenal glands did not recover so I have Addison's disease. I have some slight kidney issues and I get infections easily. Before I got sick, I was a normal, active, healthy kid. No reason to ever suspect something like this would happen. The reason people like me spend our lives telling our stories is so that what happened to us does not happen to others. One very scary fact about meningococcal disease is that it can and often does kill a healthy child in less than 24 hours. My first symptom was at 1am. I was in the ER by 9am with a bp of 60/30 in full blown shock.
I dont tell people what happened to scare them into vaccinating. I tell them so that they can make the most educated choice possible.

[Rrrrrachel]

Originally Posted by pek64 

Unless you've had both, you don't have any basis for comparison. I had whooping cough. I've never been diagnosed as having rsv, so I have no basis, either.

I know pneumonia is worse than a cold even though I've never had it.

[Rrrrrachel]

The point is not to vaccinate so that something bad guaranteed wont happen, it's to vaccinate to drastically lower your odds.

[emmy526]

with some vaccines, the odds of getting the disease are the same...like whooping cough for example...how many vaxed have now caught it?

Originally Posted by Rrrrrachel 

The point is not to vaccinate so that something bad guaranteed wont happen, it's to vaccinate to drastically lower your odds.

[emmy526]

once you have pneumonia, you will remember it for the rest of your life.... i had pneumocccal pneumonia, and it was the worst illness, outside of mono...it took me two months to recover after the initiall two week illness was over.

Originally Posted by Rrrrrachel 


I know pneumonia is worse than a cold even though I've never had it.

[Rrrrrachel]

No, the odds of getting whooping cough are not the same if you're vaccinated. Even with its lower efficacy your 9-23 times less likely to get whooping cough if you're vaccinated.

I'm grateful for the pneumonia vaccine, don't you worry.

[Taximom5]

Originally Posted by Rrrrrachel 

The point is not to vaccinate so that something bad guaranteed wont happen, it's to vaccinate to drastically lower your odds.

But for a significant subgroup, vaccinating drastically INCREASES the odds of developing a severe autoimmune disorder, and/or other severe reaction to the vaccines, including seizures and brain damage.

The odds increase with the number of vaccines.

[Rrrrrachel]

Define "significant."

You're right that vaccination is not without risk.

[emmy526]

I'm not worried at all..

Originally Posted by Rrrrrachel 

No, the odds of getting whooping cough are not the same if you're vaccinated. Even with its lower efficacy your 9-23 times less likely to get whooping cough if you're vaccinated.
I'm grateful for the pneumonia vaccine, don't you worry.

[pek64]

Originally Posted by emmy526 

You don't know if the vaccine would have covered the type you had...it doesn't cover all of them.  My nephew contracted meningitis too, just like you...no vaccine for that strain was available,  and he was put into a medical coma, and he pulled thru it, minus amputations, but he still has problems to this day too.  He too, was a normal active teen, and contracted this at college..no other students got it like he did.   If meningitis is not caught within 24hrs, death is most likely going to happen. There is viral and bacterial meningitis.  

Wouldn't the research money be better spent figuring out why one child gets so sick while others don't, and taking steps to help those at risk without harming otherwise healthy individuals?

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by pek64 

 

Wouldn't the research money be better spent figuring out why one child gets so sick while others don't, and taking steps to help those at risk without harming otherwise healthy individuals?

Maybe they should take an honest look at toxic load, nutritional status, stress etc.

[MichelleZB]

My mother had polio as a child. She lost the use of her legs, ans now suffers from post-polio syndrome, which causes fatigue and chronic nerve pain, and which is untreatable. I won't forget it.

[transformher]

Acually I do. I had Neisseria Meningitidis Serogroup C, intermediate penicillin sensitivity. I have all of the serotyping records from the hospital lab and the CDC. In addition serogroup C is one of the ones protected against in the vaccine. I have since been vaccinated and my titres have been drawn as they are after each series of vaccinations I have now since I travel quite a bit and need to make sure I have protective levels of antibodies. I have protective antibodies since being vaccinated. (No simply having the disease does not protect you. I had no antibodies to the serogroup I had when my immunologist drew a baseline 6 mos after i got sick)

[prosciencemum]

My physics teacher in high school had had polio has a child. His legs were deformed and shrunken. He walked only with the aid of two crutches. He has some impressive upper body strength and on the last day of term would do tricks for us on the lab benches sometimes. Still I imagine he would have preferred not having has polio as a child and instead having normal use of his legs. 

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by prosciencemum 

My physics teacher in high school had had polio has a child. His legs were deformed and shrunken. He walked only with the aid of two crutches. He has some impressive upper body strength and on the last day of term would do tricks for us on the lab benches sometimes. Still I imagine he would have preferred not having has polio as a child and instead having normal use of his legs. 

And I am sure someone here has a vaccine damaged child that they wish with all their heart wasn't.

[Rrrrrachel]

You should start a thread about that. This one is about experiences with vaccine preventable diseases.