About Vaccines

[matika]

I have an appointment tomorrow morning for Rachel with our family physician,, she has a rash on her back,, well it's not a rash, it's, almost like her skin is developing abnormally in clusters all over her back,, well a bit to the left shoulder side of the back,, anyways, she seems to hurt when I touch it so I thought I better check it out.. Is small, and hardly visible, but you can feel it when toughing it,,, while I am there,,, getting to the subject..

I want to talk to the doctor about catching up Rachel with her vaccines,, I stoped them after her 15 month old vacciness and she has not had the rest of them yet. I wanted to give her plenty of time, and back then, I honestly believed Vaccines had a great deal of play in her level of autism, as I saw difference greatly from before and shortly after the vaccines....

Now all but the flu (some of them) do not contain thimerasol, so I thought I want to schedule her vacciness, in intervals,, see if I can get them to give her single shots, not multiple vaccines in one shot like they do..

Have any of you had this done with their kids, and if so, how hard it is to talk the doctor into agreen to doing this, and how hard are this vaccines to get hold off,, I know I will get the.. you have to pay for them cause insurance don't cover them like that,, but anyways I be willing to pay for them,, wondering about how much more they will cost.. and wondering maybe if I take them to the developmental ped, she would agree on prescribing them so the insurance covers them.

I plan on making an appointment any way, I really want Joshua to be seen with the dev. ped.. I really need to talk to her about behabior issues, if I could talk to her about my sanity I would, or maybe not,, but anyways,, I decided if I have to many questions and concers, let the insurance cover for what they have coming.

any comment be appreciate it.

[JungleWoman]

Beky, sounds like eczema or psoriasis actually!

Aaron's skin doesnt look normal either--- it doesnt look like the eczema I have. But it is in fact eczema.

I dont know what Rachel's looks like, but I hope its something easy to treat and deal with!

[Tootsie]

matika, see if you can find a copy of the Physician's Desk Reference in your local library. It is the standard reference book that lists all the various types of medications manufactured today. The book is huge, a "mighty tome," and can be somewhat difficult to use until you figure out the color coding.

However, you will learn what vaccines are produced, who makes them, and then ask a pharmacist what they would charge you to order them, if you came in with a prescription for them from the doctor. Cheerio

[Isabelle]

if she has already "autistic behaviours" i would be awfully careful not to aggravate her condition with more vaccines. find out what exactly is that skin problem from a dermatologist, hopefully from one who won't say "prednisone" without tests.

[milivica]

If you decide to vaccinate, just know that last I heard, though it is no longer legal to use thimerisol in vaccines, it IS LEGAL to use up THE OLD VACCINES WITH THIMERISOL that the doctor has from before.

Ask to see the vial they use, or, if you are concerned you will offend or insult him, bring a friend to be the 'bad guy' and ask, you then can act like the 'good guy' and tell the doc, "Sorry, she just read the Jenny McCarthy article" or some lie.

[peglem]

You could also have titers checked. If they already have enough titers to be protected, there is no reason to get "boosters" of the stuff they had already. When I stopped vacinating, Allie's doctor got "straight" with me. He said she's probably protected from MMR with what she already had, pertusis is not so dangerous when you're no longer an infant. The only one he urged me to reconsider was the polio vaccine, because getting that is very dangerous, although rare. We checked-no thimerosol, so I did get her that one.

[RathyKay]

I have a realworld friend who spaces out the vaccines a month apart (assuming her kids are healthy at the time). If you're going to vaccinate, I think that sounds like a good plan. Her kids both reacted to one vaccine... off the top of my head I can't remember which one, but I'm almost thinking tetanus? One ended up with a very swollen arm near the injection site and I can't remember her other child's reaction. If they had had all the shots at once, she never would have figured out which one caused it.

As far as the multiple shots go, I did ask about separating the MMR shot. At the time (maybe 6 years ago?), our pediatrician said that only one of those was available as a single shot. It's been too long, I don't remember which... maybe rubella? But, to get the other two components, you were going to get the third in the big multi-shot.

You might want to also investigate your county health department. Ours was offering free vaccinations for kids... I can't remember if it was for under 2 or under 6? That might not help you, but the shots might be cheaper than at your peds. Another thing, when I was just going in for shots at the ped, I went through his nurse and didn't have to schedule an appt. I just called the nurse in advance to find out when she was available. I can't remember about a co-pay though...

Anyway, we've quit vaccinating and I don't intend going back. Actually, I'm still waffling on tetanus. Good luck in your decision.

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

How do you get titers checked?

[AKF]

I've been struggling with this lately. Keith will not have any more vaccines, but I'm not sure about the other two.

Kevin is getting close to college age, and I'm wondering about the meningitis shot. That is such a scary disease. Same with tetnus. He does Boy Scouts and stuff, but then, if he gets hurt, he could just get a tetnus shot then.

Alicia will not be getting the Guardasil. I've hear stories about kids dying from that. I don't want her being a guinea pig.

Anyway, this doesn't help you any. Just wanted to let you know you aren't alone in the struggle!

[peglem]

They do a blood test to see if the antibodies are there to check titers.

Kathy, When one of my daughters got a dumb injury(she got this big stick stuck in her hand:rolleyes: ) I wanted to get her a tetanus shot. They did not have JUST tetanus. The best they could do (both urgent care and ER) was tetanus/diptheria. I asked why, when she didn't need a diptheria vaccine, I couldn't just get the tetanus- the nurse got real snippy about the whole thing. It still puzzles me and I can't understand why health care professionals don't wonder about it too. Most people have been well vaccinated against diptheria, but tetanus shots are supposed to be every 10 years or so- Why keep giving the diptheria as well? And, I'm guessing it must be cheaper to get the combined vaccine or why wouldn't they have the singles?

[RathyKay]

How do you get titers checked?
Ask your pediatrician to run them. It's a blood test. Our DAN! doc ran some of them. Tom is still actively fighting... rubeolla?

Matika, I forgot to add, when (if) you go in to get a shot, tell them you're only doing one shot and you will be back in a few weeks for another. Stick to your guns.

[Jamies Mommy]

I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that the single dose tetanus shot still contains thimersol.
Bekky do you think Rachel might have shingles. It kind sounds like it.

[matika]

Back from the doctors,, I droped her off to school after.

It don't look like shingles,, and where the rash frist started, they are drying up a bit, but yesterday after her bath, I noticed it's now on her chest, and when at the doctors, she had it on her arm now too. She would not even let the doctor touch her, it seems to me they hurt, and she is high pain tolerance, but then again it might be the doctor deal, she has always fought him.
We ended up with an ointment prescription, and he did mention about frequent bathing, she spends a great deal of time in the bath at nights, mostly because 1.. she loves it, 2.. gives mom a great deal of a break, so we will try the treatment he suggested, but if I don't see an improvement by monday or gets worse, I am calling again, ofcourse he will be off on vacation and will have to see an oncall doctor, which is ok, because there is this one Doctor she is only on call, does not take regular patients but she is the best, and she knows how to deal with Rachel real good, she can actually get her to collaborate, and she does very little to get her to do this, might be a likable personality she has lol.

I did finally got hold of the dev ped in Eugene and made an appointment for both my kids,, she hasn't seen them since 2005, so it will be a 2 hour appointment, she is very easy going, has a room full of toys for the kids to play in and she observes them as we talk, so I hope to get somewhere with 1.. talking about the vaccines issue with her, because I didn't get much with the doctor,, his reply was, well ask the nurses at the lab they are the ones they give the shots, and he will look into the thimerasol free shots, but history says, he won't, he is way too busy, but that is ok, I will talk to the dev. ped next month, unfortunally they put us off until Oct 23rd, that is the soonest she can see us.

I will also talk to her about Joshuas behabior, even if I did asked the doctor for some help, he will be looking into his record, and will decide where to refer me for this,, said there is a good phsycollogist that comes once a week in town, she specilizes in kids and suppose to be very good, but she is super over booked, but at least he will be looking into his case, I hope anyways,, but one can only cover the back and the front and I will talk to the dev ped next month,, unfortunally between appointments, time goes by, and there is no way to get it back, so back to homeschooling Joshua at home in the evenings after school, I will spend time with him to evaluate where he is at in math.

Thanks all for your help, It really helps hearing from others and where they are standing at with the vaccines deal... I had promised my self that I would not vaccinate my kids again, unfortunally due to pneumonia last spring with Rachel, we both got vaccinated, I think it was the right thing to do, I hope anyways,, but since I been thinking about the rest of her vaccines,, there is a lot of preasure from everyone really, they don't like to hear kids are not vaccinated, and judge the parent, but is my kid,, and if it was soooo safe to vaccinate, why does the lab always have you sign a disclaimer paper,, if it was so safe, why don't they just keep that to themselfs,, well you bet I will question about that next time, if there is a next time, and I shall talk to the dev ped to get that titers test ordered for Rachel, she had mentioned it to me before and said we can do that before deciding to or not to vaccinate again...

Well I just rumble,, now I am off into town to get a prescription for Rachel and my blood preasure medicine too.