Warning! H1N1 vaccine

[smartyjones]

i am not vaccinating either of my sons. i'm not a general flu vaccinator - they had the regular flu shot one time years ago which i now regret. i've never gotten one.

 

a close friend of my boys - age 5 - just got out of the hospital of an 8 day stay. Yes, 8 days! he was admitted for pneumonia and a collapsed lung. he initially tested neg for H1N1 but on another state test, he was +. he's recovered and doing well now.

 

he did not show serious symptoms except the night before they took him in, they thought he could be having labored breathing. otherwise, he seemed to have normal cold/flu symptoms - fever,tiredness. His mother is on a quest now for parents to be very tuned into what may be troublesome breathing when all else doesn't seem too serious.

[kim]

We made it through what ever illness the boys had a couple of weeks ago without ever starting the z pak. I had no idea until we got to the Dr. that oldest son was having a problem taking a deep breath, until the PA said that his lower lungs didn't sound right and he said it was hard for him to take a deep breath. His cough didn't sound any alarm bells with me, so it surprised me a little. I have a z pak for both boys now. If there is anything scary that happens with breathing and flu symptoms, I won't hesitate to start either of them on it. My youngest has had pneumonia twice, so I understand the anxiety everyone is feeling.

[thereishope]

What is leading to pneumonia? Is it thick congestion, the hacking cough? When my 8 yr old kept coughing, it was scary. I kept having him lean forward, take a adeep breath, and I tried to listen to his breathing through his back. Not that I would have detected anything, but I felt like maybe I was doing something.

 

i am not vaccinating either of my sons. i'm not a general flu vaccinator - they had the regular flu shot one time years ago which i now regret. i've never gotten one.

 

a close friend of my boys - age 5 - just got out of the hospital of an 8 day stay. Yes, 8 days! he was admitted for pneumonia and a collapsed lung. he initially tested neg for H1N1 but on another state test, he was +. he's recovered and doing well now.

 

he did not show serious symptoms except the night before they took him in, they thought he could be having labored breathing. otherwise, he seemed to have normal cold/flu symptoms - fever,tiredness. His mother is on a quest now for parents to be very tuned into what may be troublesome breathing when all else doesn't seem too serious.

[matis_mom]

I agree. I had chicken pox as a child. no big deal. why is eveyone running like mad to get a flu shot? having the flu is fun.......people bring you tea and toast....

 

 

Faith

 

 

Unless you are one of the ones that it affects badly of course...

 

I guess I just have in the back of my head that what if one of my kids gets the flu and for some reason they are one of the bad case scenerios..... it sucks being the mommy sometimes. I really do worry about my little one with asthma.. how do I not get him the vaccine but how do I inject with something that nobody really knows much about. It just sucks.

 

I always (well, most of the time) think it is better to be sorry for what you DID do than for what you DIDN'T, but vaccines are my exception, especially when they are new. And yes, you do always have that feeling of what if they do get something horrible because they were not vaccinated. But we've all heard too many stories of children being adversely affected by vaccines, and not nearly as many of children dying from the flu...

 

And that comes from a mom whose son started with this whole PANDAS thing after a really bad flu that the whole family had back in February of this year.

 

We will just be really careful about washing hands and staying away from people who are sick

 

Isabel

[mom md]

My son 's temp went to 104.8 and he said it hurt to take a breath and his back hurt. This all happened 16-18 hours after he got sick. It hit like a freight train. He had a upper respiratory infection with a cough and runny nose for a few days, got better for 48 hours, then spiraled down. I heard crackles with my stethescope but the pediatrician did not. I asked for a a chest x-ray and she did a CBC first. His white count was 36,00. Very scary.

[EAMom]

I did give my PANDAS child the regular flu shot and no issues so far. I am not planning on giving the H1N1 but I have to get it or I can't work. My other son had the dreaded H1N1 progressing to bacterial pneumonia and was severely sick and in the hospital for three days. I have to say as you sit in the hospital watching your child in critical condition with the flu, the vaccine seems like a good decision. My other two children had coughs and runny noses during this time but never got sick. My hope is that they were exposed and have some immunity. I agree, you can be damned if you do and damned if you don't! A very difficult decision. Dr. Latimer did say we were fine to get the regular one though.

 

Ughh....although I would think that at least the PANDAS kids that are on already on good antibiotics (at good doses) wouldn't have much of a problem with bacterial pnuemonia secondary to H1N1.

 

(I'm so glad we got H1N1 over with in June...even though did cause an exacerbation, at least it's done.)

[thereishope]

The high fever scared me. My son had 104.8 as well w/ both Motrin and Tylenol in him.

 

 

My son 's temp went to 104.8 and he said it hurt to take a breath and his back hurt. This all happened 16-18 hours after he got sick. It hit like a freight train. He had a upper respiratory infection with a cough and runny nose for a few days, got better for 48 hours, then spiraled down. I heard crackles with my stethescope but the pediatrician did not. I asked for a a chest x-ray and she did a CBC first. His white count was 36,00. Very scary.

[kim]

What is leading to pneumonia? Is it thick congestion, the hacking cough? When my 8 yr old kept coughing, it was scary. I kept having him lean forward, take a adeep breath, and I tried to listen to his breathing through his back. Not that I would have detected anything, but I felt like maybe I was doing something.

 

 

I think the theory goes that the flu virus damages the lungs to the point that they are very vulnerable to bacterial infection. One severly ill young man has been diagnosed with staph pneumonia. I find that pretty significant. Through my vaccine journey, one theory with some science to back it up is that the introduction of the HIB vaccine caused a rise in the incidence of s pneumonia. As they started to vaccinate for s pneumonia there is some thought that this has contributed to the incidence of staph infections. This is part of the reason that I'm very concerned about the whole "vaccinate illness away," program. Nature is very very smart.

 

MomMD, was there anyway of knowing what type of pneumonia your son had?

[peglem]

This is part of the reason that I'm very concerned about the whole "vaccinate illness away," program. Nature is very very smart.

It seems like with more and more vaccines, we should be getting healthier and healthier...are we? I don't think so. I completely agree...nature is very, very smart. When you try to find information about the immune system, there is just so little known or even studied yet, but still they are manufacturing and marketing these vaccines as though they know exactly how they work- that's scary to me.A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

[kim]

I agree Peglem.

 

Something that I didn't mention tho, is the overuse of antibiotics has played into the whole mess pretty significantly too. I don't want anyone to get the idea that I'm putting down using antibiotics for children who clearly need them tho. I think back to how my boys lived on amox. when they were younger. I sure wish I would have known some of what I know now, then.

[kim]

Oh, something I have wanted to ask, has anyone heard the phrase "within acceptable limits" when getting strep culture results? That was the wording from my oldest son's last culture. I have never heard that before, it was alway positive or negative.

[peglem]

I agree Peglem.

 

Something that I didn't mention tho, is the overuse of antibiotics has played into the whole mess pretty significantly too. I don't want anyone to get the idea that I'm putting down using antibiotics for children who clearly need them tho. I think back to how my boys lived on amox. when they were younger. I sure wish I would have known some of what I know now, then.

But, wonder if my daughter would have even needed antibiotics if they hadn't screwed with her immune system (HepB vaccine) on the day she was born!

[ajcire]

Interesting.. I just got off the phone with my ped. office to ask if they had the H1N1 shot in. They don't... but have a list they put you on for when they get it. The nurse spit out the standard info but I could tell she was not in favor of it. I asked if the office was strictly recommending it because they have to... she was very careful with her words and just respit back the standard recommendation from the health department. She then said off the record she was not getting it for her kids.. I asked if she would if her child had asthma and she said one of them does have asthma and she is not getting the shot for her but she does struggle with that she is the one who will have made the decision if it ends up being a bad decision. So that didn't help. The pulmonologist is really pushing for it for my non pandas 2 year old asthma child..... I will say it one more time... It sucks having to be the mom and making these decisions.

[faith]

That's pretty telling, erica, if someone from the docs office is saying that. Its almost like she has "some inside knowledge", and I wouldn't be surprised if its from the doc she works for himself.

 

 

Kim, you mention your sons lived on amoxy when they were little, what for basically? and do you remember how their symptoms were back then? I know you have said you feel their symptoms were relatively mild, but in hindsight think they were what most of us on the ts board have reported over the years, but wondering if you have not "inadvertently" treated those symptoms without realizing it.?? probably not, but just curious what you think.

 

 

Faith

[kim]

Oh Faith, I remember well and the amox was for strep. It didn't work most of the time and I stupidly gave them round after round when the cultures kept coming back positive (no probiotics back then of course). There were also numerous ear infections for my oldest son. I put the breaks on him getting tubes at the last minute (can't remember why at the moment tho).

 

My Ped asked me if I thought the tics were related to the strep infections, way back then. That is one case where the internet hurt, because I thought strep related tics were all about abrupt, overnight onset. That may be the presentation for a % of children, but there has to be more to this story. Like others, my kids never had tics when they were rip roaring ill, it would come later or sometimes it was left over from a prior illness, so would blend together, if that makes sense. Ronnas was the first person to give me a clue that it didn't always happen with the overnight explosion, could just be a worsening of symptoms that had been seen before. Honestly, I don't think we were strep free here enough when they were younger to really sort it out. I will say, as they got older, there were definitely times when strep positive and no increase in symptoms, but by that time we were using Bonnie's vits and a bunch of other stuff, so it gets foggy.