Whooping cough

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Heck, I RARELY go to the doctors for anything. To be quite honest, when they stop calling what they do a "practice", and indicate to me that they are prepared to state that they KNOW what they are doing, well, maybe I'll have a lot more confidence in what they try to prescribe to ME.

BTW, take LOTS of vitamins and mineral supplements. I used to give my animals all kinds of dietary supplements and noticed that where other people were complaining about their animals getting sick or just gradually going downhill after years in captivity, ours just weren't going that route. So DUH! I decided to start taking vitamins and mineral supplements myself. And honestly, I RARELY ever get sick. And even when everyone else is getting knocked flat by the latest flu or cold going around, I might get a slight headache, mild sore throat, and in two days it's over with. That stuff DOES work. The food you eat is WAY deficient in things your body needs to keep your immune system in tip top shape. If you want it to help YOU, you have to help IT. So FEED your immune system what it needs to do it's job.

Of course, now that Murphy's Law has heard me say this, next week I'll be flat on my back with the flu from Hell...........

(to the bolded)

Vitamins are a great assistance, I agree! Here's hoping you won't be hit by Murphy's Law. for sharing this tidbit.

You know I love you both but if you are holding up vitamins as some sort of crucifix to ward off things like whooping cough or diphtheria or tetanus, I say good luck with that :eek3:

Originally Posted by Lucille

You know I love you both but if you are holding up vitamins as some sort of crucifix to ward off things like whooping cough or diphtheria or tetanus, I say good luck with that :eek3:

I'll take my chances with a hygienic process and vitamins, before I will let Doctors (who are responsible for their own percentages of accidents and deaths) shoot me up with chemicals. I am of a mind, that there's ALWAYS something in it for them, even if we are simply being used as guinea pigs (you will never know if any of us were simply getting placebos for a study to be published after all the participants were dead.

As a matter of fact, my understanding of history is that a vast majority of the illness/deaths were more the result of lack of hygiene processes than the body's inability to heal itself.

Cancer was the only (other than incidents when I was a child and unable to make my own decisions) factor that pressured me to allow unknown chemicals in my body...and I surely wish I had went with the surgery only and taken my chances.

Yep, Pertussis on the rise, and I'm sure all the biggies from the past will be back in short order. Thanks to idiot parents who see a scary YouTube video, or buy books from Hollywood has-beens who are trying to remain relevant years after their Playboy heyday, or just repeat things that make them sound more intelligent than they really are... these diseases are making a comeback. An ALARMING comeback.

Self-reliance and blah blah blah blah are all well and good, but to strut around proclaiming that you somehow know BETTER than doctors is a stretch. They are trying to feed their families and save lives, they are not part of some sinister syndicate of ill health. I know many doctors, and I take personal affront at this on their behalf. They are as frustrated as I am with the amount of white-collar idiots that have taken their children's medical health into their own hands in this reckless way. They do not WANT people dying of preventable diseases... it leads to lawsuits, which lead to higher malpractice suits, which raises their ALREADY astronomically high malpractice insurance rates. They have absolutely no vested interest in people remaining unhealthy. Perpetually unhealthy people actually COST doctors money and time in the long run.

It's the year 2012, and these diseases were relegated to the annals of history for a reason. Vaccines worked. They worked awesome. Now, thanks to a bunch of idiot parents that need to blame something for their kids' Autism, we are seeing a comeback. Sad, really.

Who knows, with any luck, maybe we can ALL start dying of heirloom deadly diseases again!

Went to walgreens Friday to have some passport pics done (going to Africa next year!), and saw that our local store is promoting the whooping cough and shingles (thought of you, Lucille!) vaccinations.

I'm not sure how I feel about pharmacists giving vaccinations. And heck, I'm married to one. Would I let him jab a needle in my arm? No way! I've watched him struggle to open the little packets of Tylenol with the tab you have to tear.

I am, though, considering picking up a few "booster" vaccinations from my PCP, on top of what I'll need for the trip.

Originally Posted by Mister Internet

They are trying to feed their families and save lives

Thank you

My Dad was a doctor. He grew up in terrible poverty but managed to make it into medical school by hard work. When he graduated, his Dad who by then had a small business, wanted to set my Dad up as a 'Park Avenue ' doctor so he could make a boatload of bucks.
My Dad instead chose to go into cancer research, he made a decent living but was not wealthy.
Yes, there are Park Avenue docs in it just for the money, but there are also a lot of doctors like my Dad, who wanted to do something meaningful with their lives.

Originally Posted by Shadera

pharmacists giving vaccinations. .

The only way to do it, is to do it, for anyone. (BTW that is funny about the Tylenol packets). My son has learned to give himself his own insulin injections. Heck, when I was in nursing school there was no special magic wand waved over us to give us the ability to give injections, we practiced by injecting oranges but that first shot we gave to a real person was scary for us.

Originally Posted by Wraith

A lot of adults out there are not aware of that fact that the vaccine they got as a kid wears off! I came down with it a while back and trust me if you think a severe case of bronchitis is horrible.. it has nothing on whooping cough. I honestly don't know how kids manage to survive it at all. You can literally break ribs from coughing so hard and long and yes you do eventually reach a stage where you make those scary "whoop" sounds.

There's apparently about a 10% failure rate in the vaccine even WITH a booster. I was immunized as a kid, had a booster about 4 years ago, and still managed to come down with whooping cough about 2 years ago. It was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. I got hairline cracks in 2 ribs and was less than functional for a couple of months. Terrible thing to contract, even as a healthy adult. UGH!

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about vaccines. I'm moderately allergic to horse serum (bad enough to make me really sick for anywhere from a few days to two weeks, but apparently not life threatening enough to make the Dr. recommend against it). I'm to the point where I avoid vaccines if at all possible (no flu shot for me). I get a tetanus shot every 10 yrs, but I won't get it more often regardless of what happens. It just makes me sooo sick. My mom grew up next door to a guy who worked on the development of that vaccine, and that was his recommendation. He said in reality it probably lasts more than 10 yrs, but 10 yrs is what it was approved for, and the more I expose myself to horse serum the worse the reaction may get.

Originally Posted by Shadera

I'm not sure how I feel about pharmacists giving vaccinations. And heck, I'm married to one. Would I let him jab a needle in my arm? No way! I've watched him struggle to open the little packets of Tylenol with the tab you have to tear.

These are intra-muscular injections, they couldn't be simpler... swab, stab, band-aid. Literally. There's no way to screw them up. Now, would I let a pharmacy tech try to find an IV line in my hand? No.