Whooping cough redux; your story?

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All, just got the following from a colleague (identifying details changed):

My granddaughter Sarah has had 8 visits to the doctor's office in the past couple of weeks. She was first diagnosed with and treated for croup, then chronic asthma, and then bronchospasms due to allergies. Last week I took her to the Children's Theater and at intermission I had to call 911 because she couldn't catch her breath and she was getting cyanotic. After oxygen and an albuterol treatment she improved, but just to her baseline. Seen the following day and she was finally tested for whooping cough. The test just came back positive.

It is scary because she feels so ill but never complains and we see no improvement. Now her mother and brother have been diagnosed with whooping cough and the the rest of the family is being treated. I was told today that I should also be treated since she spend a a lot of time with me and am awaiting my physician's call back. In the meantime Sarah is no better and is also having bad headaches, stomach aches, sweats, and general malaise. And we are told it can last up to three months.

And this is why people should have their kids immunized. Physicians who haven't seen a lot of whooping cough since the immunizations became available don't recognize a variant case like this; this kid has been so sick and misdiagnosed for weeks; now her whole family is in treatment. What about other children at her school? What about the kid she got it from?

If you want to start the antivax rant, there are other threads for that, and please take the trouble to go there. Anyone who has similar stories to share, though, this is the place for you.

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A meme was recently posted on social media by a family member who is anti vaccine. It read "Mayim Bialik holds a PhD in neuroscience and refuses to vaccinate. #SmartParentsDon'tVax" (Mayim Bialik is Amy Farrah Fowler on the Big Bang Theory).

The ignorance in this meme & the fact that people are readily sharing it on social media baffles me. First, she is educated in neuroscience, not a medical doctor! Just because she has a PhD, doesn't mean she knows anything about vaccines. Would you go to a psychologist for stitches? She is not even currently practicing neuroscience. She is an actress. And what kind of scientist doesn't follow evidence?! As in evidence that vaccines do not do DAMAGE!

I feel so strongly on the pro-vaccine debate. It angers me that ignorant parents are not just putting their own children at risk, but many, many other people as well.

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A gorgeous 3 day old infant in my life who was in NICU on a vent for a 8 weeks for HIB pneumonia that YUP....was contracted by a child who visited with parents--and said parents are "all natural" and "don't see the need to vaccinate" on the advice of their herbalist.

In other news, in my career I have seen no patients as irate as the 18 year olds that haven't had a bit of a vaccine--and have visions of going to the university of their choice, backpacking in some jungle somewhere, or travelling around Europe. Which they can not do until they are fully vaccinated. If you want to alienate your kids even more, let em "make their own decision" at 18. They LOVE that. Not.

I will continue to say that what baffles me most of all is that these decisions are being made by parents who are fully vaccinated adults. Is there no end to political foolishness at the expense of kids?????

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I agree. A co worker of mine is skipping some vaccines for her infant until she "researches" them some more. Why, you ask? Because her kid isn't in day care so some aren't necessary. OK. Her choice. The scary thing is she is currently a student in a midwife program. I urge everyone to vaccinate their child and keep up on their own vaccines as well.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

I've written before about neighbors son misdiagnosed by Pediatrician ---

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/what-would-rns-295604.html#post2773123

I alerted friend and insisted on another Ped visit. She watched my toddlers in afternoon until DH home, my son's ok since fully immunized as I saw some friends die in childhood in early 60's as vaccines just being developed.

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Specializes in Gerontology.

people who don't vaccinate have their heads in the sand. Are we going to see a up surge in Polio next?

My sister is an RT and never gets a flu shot. Makes me very angry.

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In my peds clinical I had a patient whose mother was one of your anti vacc types.

Mother ended up bringing home pertussis, giving it to her kid. And the kid almost died.

They struggled to get a central line and it was a huge mess.

Amazes me how these idiots are allowed to have children

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I had whooping cough in 7th grade. Doctors thought I was faking it (how I'm supposed to fake blue fingernails from low oxygen I have no idea...) kept sending me back to school. 115 kids in my grade, 22 were left healthy by the time I was done with them. I had been vaccinated as a baby but not since then... Now my local hospital requires all employees to be vaccinated

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How about this one: high school senior (to be) is enrolled in pre-university healthcare program. Prestigious, a real coup. What's the problem? She must have a current flu shot in order to be eligible for the clinical component. And Mummy and Daddy don't think it's necessary. Or that any are necessary. She DID have the minimum-mandatory ones for school, managed to get out of others.

She either has to wear a mask from September through June, five hours a day (!!!) or convince Mummy and Daddy they're idiots. Good luck with that.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
(Mayim Bialik is Amy Farrah Fowler on the Big Bang Theory)..

No, Mayim Bialik is Blossom. BLOSSOM.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I agree. A co worker of mine is skipping some vaccines for her infant until she "researches" them some more. Why, you ask? Because her kid isn't in day care so some aren't necessary. OK. Her choice. The scary thing is she is currently a student in a midwife program. I urge everyone to vaccinate their child and keep up on their own vaccines as well.
\

Not all vaccines on the schedule are necessary for all children. I see no reason for an infant who is at home with mom to get HBV.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I had whooping cough in 7th grade. Doctors thought I was faking it (how I'm supposed to fake blue fingernails from low oxygen I have no idea...) kept sending me back to school. 115 kids in my grade, 22 were left healthy by the time I was done with them. I had been vaccinated as a baby but not since then... Now my local hospital requires all employees to be vaccinated

And that is the main concern with the Tdap/Dtap - the fact that it wears of in 5-10 years. The main demographic that is passing around pertussis is teenagers and adults.

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