Paranoia, thy name is Q
So, we're having ourselves a delightful little measles outbreak round these parts.
Everyone wishing to smack the living daylights out of the tinfoil-hat-wearing idiots who think vaccines are a government conspiracy to make your child gay/autistic/ADD/Justin Bieber fans, form an orderly queue. Behind me.
Thing is, I can't be 100% sure I've got the required jabs. The wee vaccine record book my grandmother gave me before she died only lists one MMR shot in '75, but no physician's name. Given how notorious she was for forgetting/distorting facts after the event, I'm not even sure this record book is a reliable resource. I have no idea if Kansas required kids to have 2 MMRs to attend school back in the seventies, so I'm out of luck there too. And I think I needed a booster to work as a camp counsellor in Colorado in '94 - I have a vague memory of being amused that the initials of the camp matched the vaccine anagram, ie MMR - but I don't have the record of it.
So, yay. I guess I'm due a visit to the doctor, and at least a month or two of worrying.
And speaking of which, that little record book is opening brand new avenues of worry for me. It appears I only received two (or possibly three) of the required four doses of the polio vaccine; ditto for DTP. No record at all of a Hep B or meningitis jab.
I know it's complicated and everything, but sheesh. Yet another reason why people should be given tests before they're allowed to raise children.
Q