Shoulda known…
Originally published at Memoirs of a Nobody. You can comment here or there.
My family has severe reactions to vaccines, so bad in fact, that most of the next generation (my cousin Caleb, and any of my generation’s children) don’t get vaccines (yes, I know that’s not the best idea really, but the benifits in no way outway the risks), the main reason being, none of us want to see another child go through what my cousin Laura Rose went through.
So it’s rather obvious, we get a little leary when told we need a new vaccine, most of my genration or older get them because we’ve had most of these before, or know our reactions. The only diffrence is when a vaccine’s formula is changed…such as the yearly flu vaccine that’s changed every year.
I normally avoid getting the vaccine just because it aggrivates me, I always have symptoms after. This year however, I’ve been so sick ANYWAY that I decided to get both the flu and the pnemonia vaccine (especially since I have emphasima and have had pnemonia before as a child…which now makes me wonder if that vaccine will even work on me, I should research that).
Anyway, I got the shots two days ago, on on either arm to check which one would react, if any. Nothing seemed wrong for that day, and I pretty much forgot about it…
Until the next morning, when awoke with searing pain up the arm that had the flu shot. I looked at it and found the area bright red and burning warm. No big, typical side effects, just annoying. And then yesterday…the pnemonia arm reacted, making it very, very had to do anything since the pain is leeching my muscles of their strength.
And now, I’m starting to remember why I hate these shots and the lovely genetics that make us react more to them then others. Makes me even more leery of my tetnis shot that’s due (how does one get a tetnis shot anyway? I’ve always got them when rushed to the ER for doing something stupid like stepping on a live cable wire).
On a related medical note, my doctor finally seemed to listen to me instead of just assuming I’m making shit up. I have to get a catscan later this week for the pain in my upper abdomin. He’s thinking it might be bowel related, which apparently can be the upper stomach area (just under my left breast/rib cage).
Though, I’m getting a bit pissed at doctors who examine the area. I know there are ribs in the same area, the pain is JUST below the ribs (like half an inch below), and the swelling spreads ABOVE the ribs, no, I don’t know why, if I did, I would know what was wrong. And no shit, it hurts when you examne the area, YOU’RE PRESSING ON MY DAMN RIB, it hurts, when you press on a bone. Yes it hurts on the other side, IT’S STILL MY DAMN RIB. Arg!
Hopefully the catscan will reveal something.
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For those that don’t know about Laura, she was born…hmm, almost 16 years ago? Maybe more, I can’t really remember how old I was when she joined us. She’s Uncle Michael’s oldest child (cousin Caleb’s older sister).
When she was born, she had cleft lip, so they did surgery on it, and around the same time, they gave her her childhood vaccines. She ended up having a reaction to the vaccines, probably due to an allergic reaction, which cause seizures. The seizures, combined with reactions to her surgery, left her brain damaged, leaving her trapped in the mentality of a child only a couple monthes old (I’m not sure if she’s grown any more, we don’t really discuss it as it’s a hard subject for my uncle…my aunt lost it completely).
After Caleb was born, and tested for allergies, we discovered that his allergies were so severe, if he had gotten his vaccine’s before being tested, he probably would have ended up just like his sister. We’ve also discovered that over half of my generation has late developing life threatening allergies (allergies that developed after puberty), which is rather to scary to think about, considering how many things we could have done without thinking and almost killed ourselves).
Yet another reason I don’t really want to have a genetic child, as it’s almost like playing russion roulette with weither they’ll get physical disablities, mental or both.