August is National Immunization Awareness Month in the United States. For years, I vaccinated my first child without much thought. Then Sassy Pants came along and vaccines sometimes consumed my thoughts.
When Sassy Pants was born, she had the tiniest pink birthmark on her right cheek near her ear. I kissed that sweet birthmark constantly. I had no idea that it was a danger to her. When she was about two weeks old, the birthmark started getting bigger and changing into a deep red color. Another birthmark began developing on her lower lip line. I took her to her one month check-up and our beloved nurse practitioner told me these birthmarks were called hemangiomas. She said they were common (one in every ten babies has one) and would probably get bigger at first, but they would eventually fade.
A month later, at her two month check-up, we saw our equally beloved pediatrician. The hemangiomas had grown a bit, as the nurse practitioner had warned, and the pediatrician was alarmed. Most hemangiomas are harmless, but Sassy Pants' birthmarks were on her tragus and in her ear canal, on her entire lower lip, lower gingiva, under her tongue, and on the inside of her cheeks and hard pallet. When tissue grows quickly in these areas, it can threaten the baby's ability to hear, eat, speak, and even breathe. We were immediately referred to a specialist and we began treatment with an oral corticosteroid to suppress the growth of the hemangiomas.
Oral corticosteroids also happen to suppress the immune system. Individuals taking corticosteroids for long periods of time are more susceptible to communicable diseases. They are also unable to receive some vaccines (at least they were when Sassy was a baby; I've been reading that this recommendation may actually be changing - yay!). Knowing that Sassy Pants was more susceptible to vaccine preventable diseases and was left vulnerable to some (rotavirus, measles, mumps, rubella) longer because we had to delay those immunizations was unnerving. But when I think back to the entire year Sassy Pants was on steroids, I am filled with gratitude.
I am thankful for friends who slipped off their shoes and washed their hands upon entering our home. I am thankful to family members who got their flu shots and whooping cough boosters and kindly declined to come around when they had an infection. I am thankful to our healthcare providers who moved us straight into a clean exam room so that we didn't have to wait in a room filled with sick children. But, above all, I am thankful for the billions of strangers who vaccinate their children and themselves to control the spread vaccine-preventable diseases.
While vaccines do work on an individual level by creating immunity, they also work on a community level. This is called community immunity or herd immunity. This infographic, courtesy of Refutations to Anti Vaccine Memes, demonstrates herd immunity.
In the lower picture, Sassy Pants would have been a blue person. All of those yellow people - vaccinated people - selflessly shielded my child from vaccine-preventable diseases, and I am forever grateful.
If there is one single thing that I believe with all my heart, it is that "WE BELONG TO EACH OTHER." "It is in the shelter of each other that the people live." "Love thy neighbor as thyself." There are a million ways to say it. And a million ways to show it. Vaccination happens to be one of those ways.
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| Finally received her first dose of MMR after delaying it while on steroids |
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| Rewarded with popcorn and a movie for lunch after getting their flu jabs |
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| Vaxxed like a boss! |
If you are looking for other ways to improve vaccination rates in your community, please visit Voices For Vaccines for ideas on how to connect with other parents, educators, politicians, and media outlets.
Pamela, this is beautifully written as is all of your blogs. Thank God Sassy Pants is healthy and happy and full of life.
ReplyDeleteI have always been pro vaccinations until last year. I met a little boy who was a happy and healthy two year old until his last vaccinations. He had a viral cold and was running a fever a couple of days before his vaccination. The Mother told the nurse that he had been sick and she was concerned about giving him the shots. The nurse assured her that since he wasn't running a fever that day that he would be fine.
Well that wasn't the case. He ended up sick and in the hospital. According to the Doctor's he was having a reaction to the vaccinations. He progressively got worse, until the Doctor's told them there was nothing more they could do for him. They sent him home to die.
The parents and grandparents of this sweet little boy have not given up though. He is still alive today through homeopathic treatments. They fly down to Texas every few months for treatment at a Clinic. Some of these treatments have been administered free of charge.
I have met this Doctor (and yes, he is a General Practitioner) retired, who with his wife, son, and daughter in law run this Clinic. He's a Christian first and Doctor second. He uses all natural medicines and treatments to keep this little guy alive.
He cannot walk, or talk he can't hold his head up. He can smile though and that smile is what keeps his parents fighting everyday to save his life. He is the size of a 2 year old still.
So although I do believe in vaccinating, I don't agree with making them from synthetic drugs.
Before when they were using the actual virus to vaccinate with, we didn't hear of many kids with Autism, or even worse (I'm not exactly sure what the diagnosis is with the child I'm referring to). I'm not saying Autism didn't exist, I know it did. My cousin who is 50+ years old has had Autism since birth. My question is... why do we need the synthetic drugs? If they were controlling it with using the actual virus, then why turn to synthetics? If they were running out of the virus to use to make the vaccines doesn't that mean they had the diseases under control?
A girl on fb the other day said with out the vaccinations it would be a "Zombie Apocalypse". I feel as though this is what's happening now with these kids that are being affected by the synthetic vaccinations. For lack of a better term, these kids are being turned into "Zombies" or worse.
I think people should be advocating to improve these vaccinations as well as pushing for the immunizations. Either way you look at it, you're taking your child life into your own hands.
We have way to many children becoming Autistic (whether it be a mild or severe form) these days for people to not be questioning vaccinations as the cause.
Oh, Diane. I don't know where to begin to address your post. Be patient with me as I try to address all of your concerns.
Delete1. Vaccine reactions are insanely rare, but not unheard of. I am not a doctor, and specifically not your friend's child's doctor, so I won't begin to dispute that he had a serious vaccine reaction. But serious reactions are almost unheard of. I am sorry for the pain that their situation has caused their family. And I'm glad that he is alive and receiving care.
2. The history of vaccines is very complicated, and the each disease that is vaccinated for has it's own history regarding the way it is manufactured. Vaccines are still made from the virus or bacteria that causes the disease, but the disease-causing component is killed. The body still recognizes the disease and creates an immune response, but it cannot cause the disease. Before these methods of making a vaccine were invented, many people died because the live components of the vaccines caused the disease they were meant to prevent. There are still vaccines with weakened live components of the disease. These are the kind that immunocomprimised people cannot receive because they are at risk of developing the disease. Ironically, MMR is a "live" vaccine and was the vaccine that a (former) doctor falsely claimed caused autism.
3. The vaccines=autism claim has been debunked dozens of times. The reason there are more people with autism is purely evolutionary. Autism is genetic. And it's not a death sentence. Many successful people have autism. It is sad to me that people would equate someone with autism with a zombie. I love many of people with autism. None of them are zombies.
5. I have often heard the argument that you are taking your child's life in your hands whether you vaccinate or not - that there is risk either way. But, like many things in life, you have to analyze risk vs benefit. Vaccination is perhaps the most studied medical advance in history. Studies reveal very little risk to severe vaccine reaction. The diseases the vaccines prevent pose a much greater risk. Also, vaccination is not a decision that only affects the child being vaccinated. It is a public health issue. If I lived in affluent suburban CA - where the vaccination rate teeters near 50% in schools - my daughter would not have had the protection of herd immunity. The decision of those parents to not protect their children from contagious disease would have also affected my child. It isn't the same as the decision to breastfeed or cosleep or cloth diaper. Those decisions only affect that child. It is more like drinking and driving - it endangers the kids in the car being driven under the influence, and it endangers the kids in the other cars on the highway.
I understand what you're saying Ela. I had all 5 of my children immunized when they were little. I whole heatedly believed in them until last year. Now I am a skeptic.
ReplyDeleteIt was a series of Specialist that were treating this child, that said it was caused from his vaccinations. Not just one.
They have no history of Autism that runs in their family. I'm not sure they are even calling what's wrong with him Autism. I believe that diagnosis is used to freely anyway.
Thank you Ela for your input and you have helped me understand it a little better. :)