Dead Bugs To The Rescue!

My friend is quite conflicted, quite unsure about vaccines. Me, I have questions, to be certain. I question some of the additives/preservatives used, for example. Just because we don't have mercury in our shots, it doesn't mean that everything is all safety and perfection, you know? I have done my reading and so on, though, and in the end, I remain, on the whole, pro-vaccine.

Not just from a public health standpoint, either, though I do believe that is important. Though I am a bit wary of the MMR in particular, I still would not want my child to contract the many awful diseases we immunize for, either. I mean, it is easy enough for us, who have grown up in a world without polio and smallpox (Have you ever read about the horrors of smallpox? Truly disturbing.), to question the need and the benefit, but our rates of childhood death and the number of diseases contracted that leave lasting effects are nearly negligible these days.

Opapie, on the other hand, had polio as a child. I would never want my child to go through what he did, and he got off comparatively lightly, spending months in a sanitorium, then coming home with a slighty withered limb. You would not necessarily notice it now - his body adaptedt o it to such extent that he has just the barest hint of a limp, a sort of rolling gait. But I wonder about his old age, and if it will get worse as his physical being begins to degenerate somewhat as it does with time, and about his childhood, and what pain, what teasing, what frustration he went through.

Even down to the smaller illnesses, which can effect the very young badly. This week, our family was hit hard with a nasty stomach bug. First Pumpkinpie went down, vomiting in her sleep and continuing to purge anything she ate for a good 24 hours, then lying, wrung out, for another full day as she recovered. I've never seen her so sick for so long. Misterpie fell prey on the night of day 2, grey as a ghost and drained from emptying out his own system. I was nauseous for those two days, but not until day three did I start to lose it, mostly from my lower half, until the night of day three, when I vomited so hard my throat still burned from the acid the next night. Yes, we were a right mess. (I remain exhausted and can still feel every lymph node in my body aching from fighting this thing, it was such a vile one.)

And The Bun? He has had two out of three doses of a vaccine for rotavirus, one of the most common culprits for really evil gastrointestinal nasties like this. He hasn't shown one sign of illness, so I can only assume that was the particular germ to blame. Given that I (who am generally not one to panic about health issues) was at one point so worried about dehydration that I considered going to the hospital when I was losing more fluid than I could take in, I am more than glad that his wee body, sturdy though it is for 4 months, did not have to try to weather this out. No, he puked on me a couple of times, but no more than babies normally do, and the roses in his cheeks showed no sign of fading, his face retained its smiles. Huge relief, is what that is. I had pondered that vaccine, too, wondered if he really needed another medication, one for a vaccine most kids get at some point and get through okay. Now? SO glad we took it. I can't imagine what a virus this awful would have done with one his size and without the more developed immune system of an adult or at the least, a seasoned daycare kid.

So yes, I will be asking my doctor her opinion about the MMR at our next visit before the time comes for it, but on the whole, I am grateful for most vaccines. This week just brought it home to me nicely once again.

And now, I must go nap some more. Five days of eating little, expelling lots, and feeding a baby who eats about 36 oz. a day have left me simply a shell, and tomorrow I've got to get back to routine. Wish me luck.