The debate.

Wednesday, October 21

I've never been the type of person who did not vaccinate their child. But with the swine flu epidemic I find myself debating. Not only for my daughters but myself. Molly my youngest is too small to even be considered for a shot but Lily, my kindergarten daughter, is getting a nasal swab from her school. I (being pregnant) hadn't planned on getting one. I mean, how extensive a study could they have done with pregnant women when it takes 9 months to make a baby? But I hear stories like this and it makes me second guess.

"In the four months she (Aubrey Opdyke) was hospitalized, she spent five weeks in a coma, suffered six collapsed lungs and a near-fatal seizure. High-pressure ventilation blew her up like a molten balloon until “she looked like she weighed 400 pounds,” her husband, Bryan, said, and she has stretch marks from her neck to her ankles. Her muscles and lungs are still so weak that she uses a walker.

And, most important, she lost her baby. Parker Christine Opdyke, almost 27 weeks in the womb, was delivered by emergency Caesarean section on July 18, when her fetal heart rate plummeted during Ms. Opdyke’s third lung collapse. Her airways were too blocked to let a breathing tube in, possibly a side effect of the drugs saving her mother. She lived seven minutes."

Read the whole story here. It made me cry.

It's quite a scary decision either way. I really don't know what I will do.

7 comments:

Allison said...

i was just talking to my mother about this last night. she works in a hospital where a 25 year old otherwise healthy pregnant woman recently died from the swine flu. her baby did survive. my mother advises to get the vaccine. but that's just one anecdote of many.

Lilia said...

Hi - my sister and grandmother work in healthcare and they are all being forced to get the vaccine. I have heard that the nasal vaccine can be more dangerous.

I did however read that gargling with salt water daily - even twice a day and swabbing the inside or your nose with a salt water solution can help prevent the virus from growing. Apparently it grows in the back of your throat and nose. Being diligent with this as well as hand washing and obviously not touching your face (eyes, mouth, nose) with dirty hands. I don't know how true this all is, but like you, I try to not take vaccines or medication (especially ones newly formulated) if unnecessary for fear of long and even short term effects. Maybe you can ask your doctor if these simple and far less invasive precautions are a safe route for you?

Hope you figure something out and your family is safe and happy.

Lilia said...

Here is where I read it in case you are interested.

http://www.bartonpublishing.com/blog/swine-flu-prevention/

Unknown said...

I have been told by several doctors that the H1N1 Vaccine is the same as the other flu vaccines in how it is made, it is just for a different strain of the virus. It goes through the same process as all flu vaccines and so the only fundamental difference is the specific strain that it is preventing. The seasonal vaccine has the vaccine for three different strains of the virus and if they had gotten the H1N1 done quick enough, it would have been included with that other one. Does that make sense or help at all?

The Powells said...

Just a wondering blogger ... I would never consider getting the vaccine. It's virtually untested, and from the studies and stories I have read, it's having devastating effects on most of the people who take it. NOT SOME "one in a million" reactions that they claim. Just my thoughts...

Rosalind said...

Hmmm I am 5 months pregnant and haven't had it. I know the swine flu is very real but feel like it has been blown way out of proportion! Hard to know what to do when you are in the big 'at risk' group. I must as my GP next time I go.

Unknown said...

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