I decided to start a new thread to show evidence or stories of just how serious these illnesses can be
And to anyone who disputes the severity of just how serious these well documented illnesses and complications of them are, I would seriously suggest reviewing some of your science courses
From another board I was reading.....
Obviously you are not of the generation of those of us who suffered through these illnesses. We ALL had measles, mumps, chicken pox. Oh, and let's not forget polio. Even an ear infection could result in complications. With the mumps you think you are choking to death. Oh yeah, testicular mumps can cause sterilization. The chicken pox left scars. But with the measles the scariest part was the high fever. I remember that illness in a dreamlike state. I remember the doctor making the house calls, my parents bathing me in alcohol to try and get the fever down. My mom told me I was delirious. Now picture that times the eight kids that were in our family.
Of course, the problem with the high fever is that it can lead to convulsions and other serious complications. I had an older cousin who got the measles at age 16. Her complications led to such severe brain damage that she was left with the mind of a two year old. She spent the rest of her life in an institution.
Because I was curious, I pulled out my Kindergarten and first grade report cards. I was absent 22 days in Kindergarten and 30 days in first grade. I remember as these illnesses would go like wildfire through the classrooms there would be 8 - 10 kids gone at a time. Pretty hard for a teacher to teach when kids are out for long periods at a time.
You can bet that when these vaccines became available our parents got us vaccinated. The Polio vaccine didn't become available until 1963. They did mass community vaccines for that. I remember going to **** School in ***** and standing in long, long lines of people waiting to get it. It was an oral vaccine and I remember they put it in sugar cubes.
Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
Rotavirus vaccine was pulled in early '00s due to the possibility of bowel obstruction. It was not available when my son was eligible. 10 days inpatient, threats of an IO or central line & transfer to the regional pediatric center for my severely dehydrated then 14.5 month old son. Couldn't hold down ice chips or his own secretions. Good thing I was as tenacious then as I am now as this was pre-pedi ED specialties in local facilities. The ED doc was going to send him home despite after 2L fluids not a drop of urine. So I gave him an ice chip. The child was predictable now as he is now.
Ice chip
"Mommy Mommy Mommy"
Grind teeth
Turn boy around who proceeds to vomit on the ED physician who failed to recognize critical labs. "Admitting now?" She called my pedi's service. On call was prenotified by our PCP. On call came to ED in middle of night to loudly discuss how the labs were critical for young pedi patients and if she had discharged my kiddo without contacting a pedi my child would not have survived the night. It was 6 days before he could tolerate PO. It was touch and go if they were going to fly him to the pedi center 20'miles away
But a little N/V never killed anyone right ? (Sarcasm)
When I was a kid, pretty much everyone got chicken pox in childhood. So unlike today's young people, people my age can say we've known a lot of people who ended up with pretty bad scarring on their faces. Scarred, pitted skin, especially on the cheeks, used to be a common sight. Young people today have access to all kinds of products which help them avoid acne, crooked and yellow teeth, etc. It might come as a big shock to some of these young anti-vaxxers to see horribly pitted skin on their children's faces if they are unlucky enough to contract a severe case of chicken pox. It's not life or death, but it's a pretty big deal to the affected child, imo.
I had chicken pox as a child, have scars on my face and chest that still show. And I caught HiB from a little boy at the first school I worked at, got so sick I should have been hospitalized. I would gladly have been vaccinated for both, if either had been available at the time. These aren't harmless little diseases. If we can wipe them out, we should. And if they can't be eliminated, then we should at least give everyone, especially children, all the protection we can.
When my sister had chicken pox at age 4, she got them in her mouth, esophagus, and in her EYES. She didn't have lasting effects thank God, but I still remember her screaming "Mama, make them go away!! Mama, kill them!!"
Both of my parents had polio as children, each ended up with a life-long limp in a different leg. There was a running family joke about that. My mother developed post-polio syndrome in her late 40s and lived out the last few decades of her life in a lot of pain, eventually becoming completely wheelchair bound. I have noticed my dad's leg is starting to bother him more, as well.
I do think if polio came back, you would see a lot of anti-vaxxers running to vaccinate their kids against it. It's those "lesser diseases" that they scoff at as being mostly benign, anyway.
Great idea for a thread....My mother was a star athlete as a teenager and loved to dance. When she was 19, shortly before the polio vaccine became available, she was traveling from here in the U.S. to Canada with her family on vacation when she fell ill. It was polio. Her family had to return to the U.S. without her and she was stuck alone in a hospital for three months in Canada until she could be transported home. She spent over one year including time in a "polio sanitarium" 100 miles from home in an iron lung just like the photo in the post above, and was told she was going to die, before she eventually recovered. She eventually walked with a limp, and had lung scarring. She then suffered from post-polio syndrome, starting in her 50s, and her ability to walk gradually worsened...she had terrible pain every day that couldn't be remedied, shortness of breath and she ended up in a wheelchair by age 70. Not quite the dream she had of growing older with my dad and being able to dance and walk the beach with him...it became miserable for her. We lost her to an awful death, from what I believe were complications to being wheelchair bound. She would have traded anything and everything for that vaccine.....Apart from that, her grandparents, my great grandparents, died in the flu epidemic of 1918.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
I've been an RN for a long time.
I've taken care of a child who lived in an iron lung...that's right, just like in the photos.
I've taken care of too many children to count who suffered and some died from Haemophilus Influenza B epiglotitis before the vaccine was introduced in the late 80's.
Have you ever taken care of someone with Tetorifice? It is a cruel and ugly disease.
Have you ever seen an infant struggle and then die secondary to Pertussis or Varicella? I have. I could go on and on.
People today are ignorant and insulated from the cruel and dangerous realities of these diseases. Unfortunately it is mostly children who will pay the price for that willful ignorance and desire to disregard sound science.
I have little tolerance for this sort of foolishness from those who are supposedly educated health care professionals.
I've taken care of a child who lived in an iron lung...that's right, just like in the photos.
I've taken care of too many children to count who suffered and some died from Haemophilus Influenza B epiglotitis before the vaccine was introduced in the late 80's.
Have you ever taken care of someone with Tetorifice? It is a cruel and ugly disease.
Have you ever seen an infant struggle and then die secondary to Pertussis or Varicella? I have. I could go on and on.
People today are ignorant and insulated from the cruel and dangerous realities of these diseases. Unfortunately it is mostly children who will pay the price for that willful ignorance and desire to disregard sound science.
I have little tolerance for this sort of foolishness from those who are supposedly educated health care professionals.
Agree.
Unfortunately, I have seen tetorifice and the effects of Haemophilus influenza B when working with the pediatric population, and the squelae disorders, that render them needing complex care, in home health and in the critical care setting.
I remember having the chicken pox with my older sister and having scars on my back for many years; she not so much, she didn't itch as much as I did for some reason.
I also remember getting the Varicella Vaccine in the 1990s when it first came out, also the Hep B vaccine as well. I missed the HPV vaccine; and I regret not getting that one.
I just got my titers and I still have immunity; I also keep my DTaP up to date; I want my tiny patients to be protected.
That's so sad, I felt strange clicking "Like"...the "Like" is as in, I appreciate you sharing this story. But I'm truly sorry for what your mom suffered and what her family had to watch her go through.
Great idea for a thread....My mother was a star athlete as a teenager and loved to dance. When she was 19, shortly before the polio vaccine became available, she was traveling from here in the U.S. to Canada with her family on vacation when she fell ill. It was polio. Her family had to return to the U.S. without her and she was stuck alone in a hospital for three months in Canada until she could be transported home. She spent over one year including time in a "polio sanitarium" 100 miles from home in an iron lung just like the photo in the post above, and was told she was going to die, before she eventually recovered. She eventually walked with a limp, and had lung scarring. She then suffered from post-polio syndrome, starting in her 50s, and her ability to walk gradually worsened...she had terrible pain every day that couldn't be remedied, shortness of breath and she ended up in a wheelchair by age 70. Not quite the dream she had of growing older with my dad and being able to dance and walk the beach with him...it became miserable for her. We lost her to an awful death, from what I believe were complications to being wheelchair bound. She would have traded anything and everything for that vaccine.....Apart from that, her grandparents, my great grandparents, died in the flu epidemic of 1918.
I do think if polio came back, you would see a lot of anti-vaxxers running to vaccinate their kids against it. It's those "lesser diseases" that they scoff at as being mostly benign, anyway.
I have a friend who fell for the "vaccines cause autism" line. And I supposedly didn't believe it because I'm a nurse and am trained to trust doctors. Um, no...I was trained to question everything because if something happened to a pt, "just following orders" wouldn't be a viable defense. I was also trained to follow EBP and look critically at research. (Not that it takes a lot of training to see the holes in that Wakefield study!)
Anywho, some years back we had quite a few cases of measles reported in my area. One day this friend called to cancel our lunch date because her daughter had an appointment to go get an MMR.
A Few Years ago when I worked ambulatory, I was in charge of the evening flu clinic during the season
I met a family who had three girls, all between the ages of 11-15, if I am remembering correctly
Three years prior, a fourth daughter had died in the night from respriatory failure due to influenza. No one knew until they went to wake her for school the next morning- She was 12 y.o
Mom was not anti-vax, but had not gotten the girls their flu shot that year, because she fell for the "it's-not-that-serious-and-doesn't-work-anyhow" line
The psychological toll it took on the family was devstating. Mom was regularly going around waking up all of the girls every night to make sure they were all still breathing.
The girls reported teasing in school because "their mom was too stupid to keep their sister alive"
Does the flu shot always work? No.
If you catch a strain of the flu after the shot, will it lessen the severity and risk of complications? YES
This Mom was always first in line to get all of her girls the shot from then on
Maybe her daughter still would have gotten the flu- but maybe it would not have killed her if she had the shot
And I supposedly didn't believe it because I'm a nurse and am trained to trust doctors. Um, no...I was trained to question everything because if something happened to a pt, "just following orders" wouldn't be a viable defense. I was also trained to follow EBP and look critically at research. (Not that it takes a lot of training to see the holes in that Wakefield study!)
JustBeachyNurse, LPN
13,957 Posts
Rotavirus vaccine was pulled in early '00s due to the possibility of bowel obstruction. It was not available when my son was eligible. 10 days inpatient, threats of an IO or central line & transfer to the regional pediatric center for my severely dehydrated then 14.5 month old son. Couldn't hold down ice chips or his own secretions. Good thing I was as tenacious then as I am now as this was pre-pedi ED specialties in local facilities. The ED doc was going to send him home despite after 2L fluids not a drop of urine. So I gave him an ice chip. The child was predictable now as he is now.
Ice chip
"Mommy Mommy Mommy"
Grind teeth
Turn boy around who proceeds to vomit on the ED physician who failed to recognize critical labs. "Admitting now?" She called my pedi's service. On call was prenotified by our PCP. On call came to ED in middle of night to loudly discuss how the labs were critical for young pedi patients and if she had discharged my kiddo without contacting a pedi my child would not have survived the night. It was 6 days before he could tolerate PO. It was touch and go if they were going to fly him to the pedi center 20'miles away
But a little N/V never killed anyone right ? (Sarcasm)