I am in need of urgent info, and will spend most of today reading up.
Ds (3 1/2) is unvacc. He also has severe anaphylactic food allergies. This was not the reason he's unvacc'd, but sure was a lucky break considering his egg allergy in particular.
Yesterday he fell at a friend's pool and cut his head on a beach chair. It was not a rotting, wooden, nail-infested piece of furniture, it was just a regular beach lounger beside a pool at an appartment complex. The wound is about an inch long, quarter inch deep, and needed a couple of stitches. It bled profusely for the first half hour, and when it was cleaned out in ER.
Logic tells me the danger of tetanus is very small, but I need to read facts and statistics on that.
The ER doctor was incredibly pushy. I've never had this in ER with my kids before. She brought the vacc issue up over and over - and we were in there almost 5 hours. Dh was with me. He is not as convinced over unvacc'ing as me, but goes with it as I do all the research and over time he's seen enough vaccine damage in other kids to believe (now) that there is a link. However, I do feel that the decision in a case like this should be reached with mutual consent and agreement - if it's possible.
After a long while I reluctantly agreed to just the Tetanus, although it did not rest easy. However, when they came to bring the shot, they came back to say that it's not approved for under 7 year olds, so he had to have the full DTaP. After a long while, during which she wanted to describe kids dying of tetanus to me but I cut her off telling her that I knew what it involved - she left us to talk.
The pressure was immense, and she said we would have to sign something saying that we understood the dangers etc etc, although she never showed up with that document, but went to ask her boss, during which time the nurse came with the discharge notes. She had put on the discharge notes that we had to see our ped in 48 hrs for a 'wound check'. It was interesting that the nurse who gave us teh notes said she didn't understand why because it was usually a 5-7 day check to take out sutures. I have no doubt whatsoever that the ER doctor is going to be calling our ped to tell her to get us to vacc, and that if we don't show on Monday, they'll be calling us. I need to be cooperative as I sense a battle evolving here.
My ped is OK with our nonvacc choice, but I know would want us to vacc fully if I agreed. I know without a shadow of a doubt that she'll push the DTap on Monday.
From what I've read here in archives, it seems that the ER doctor was right that there's on Tetanus vacc for under 7s. I"m confused about the T with D. Is it available? How much less dangerous is it? I have 24 hours now to find out, and it's Sunday so I can't make any calls. Would I be able to find a different doctor who would administer jsut a DT, if that's a less risky shot, and how would I go about finding one?
I also need good links to the side effects and concerns on DTaP for dh. And stats and info on the likelihood of contracting T from a wound. I did all this reading when I made my non-vacc decision, but that was 5 years ago, and now I have these professionals on my back.
Anyone got info and advice? Links?? I have 24 hours.
Thanks!!
Ds (3 1/2) is unvacc. He also has severe anaphylactic food allergies. This was not the reason he's unvacc'd, but sure was a lucky break considering his egg allergy in particular.
Yesterday he fell at a friend's pool and cut his head on a beach chair. It was not a rotting, wooden, nail-infested piece of furniture, it was just a regular beach lounger beside a pool at an appartment complex. The wound is about an inch long, quarter inch deep, and needed a couple of stitches. It bled profusely for the first half hour, and when it was cleaned out in ER.
Logic tells me the danger of tetanus is very small, but I need to read facts and statistics on that.
The ER doctor was incredibly pushy. I've never had this in ER with my kids before. She brought the vacc issue up over and over - and we were in there almost 5 hours. Dh was with me. He is not as convinced over unvacc'ing as me, but goes with it as I do all the research and over time he's seen enough vaccine damage in other kids to believe (now) that there is a link. However, I do feel that the decision in a case like this should be reached with mutual consent and agreement - if it's possible.
After a long while I reluctantly agreed to just the Tetanus, although it did not rest easy. However, when they came to bring the shot, they came back to say that it's not approved for under 7 year olds, so he had to have the full DTaP. After a long while, during which she wanted to describe kids dying of tetanus to me but I cut her off telling her that I knew what it involved - she left us to talk.
The pressure was immense, and she said we would have to sign something saying that we understood the dangers etc etc, although she never showed up with that document, but went to ask her boss, during which time the nurse came with the discharge notes. She had put on the discharge notes that we had to see our ped in 48 hrs for a 'wound check'. It was interesting that the nurse who gave us teh notes said she didn't understand why because it was usually a 5-7 day check to take out sutures. I have no doubt whatsoever that the ER doctor is going to be calling our ped to tell her to get us to vacc, and that if we don't show on Monday, they'll be calling us. I need to be cooperative as I sense a battle evolving here.
My ped is OK with our nonvacc choice, but I know would want us to vacc fully if I agreed. I know without a shadow of a doubt that she'll push the DTap on Monday.
From what I've read here in archives, it seems that the ER doctor was right that there's on Tetanus vacc for under 7s. I"m confused about the T with D. Is it available? How much less dangerous is it? I have 24 hours now to find out, and it's Sunday so I can't make any calls. Would I be able to find a different doctor who would administer jsut a DT, if that's a less risky shot, and how would I go about finding one?
I also need good links to the side effects and concerns on DTaP for dh. And stats and info on the likelihood of contracting T from a wound. I did all this reading when I made my non-vacc decision, but that was 5 years ago, and now I have these professionals on my back.
Anyone got info and advice? Links?? I have 24 hours.
Thanks!!
.
: to blessed's post above.
