Colds, the Flu, and Vaccines... this is all over the place.

Well, this isn’t going to be my typically loaded blog post.

Not me. I don't look nearly this good when I'm sick... 

You see, about 3 days ago I started to come under the weather. That was Sunday afternoon… the Sunday before New Year’s. I was tired, had a headache, a mild cough, dizzy in the evening… that could NOT prepare me for the misery I would feel on Sunday night and Monday morning. The fever that hit around midnight… and lasted ALL the next day. The severe cough, the pouring yet clogged nose…  The aches and muscle pain and chills… It was AWFUL. It was bad enough that my Dr. told me to go to the L&D unit and see a Doctor there, and have the baby monitored. So, midday Monday, my other half got off work and off to L&D we went…

This was my second experience in that place. Let me tell you… if I could have this baby somewhere else… I would. Their L&D unit at this hospital is HORRIBLE. I got there around 12:30 or 1 PM. I was taken to a room, told to pee in a cup, gave my info… and NEVER saw another nurse unless I called them into the room. 3 hours later, when the chills were rampant and I was coughing clumps of gunk up, a nurse came in… and DISCHARGED me.

The shitty hospital I went to. 

No doctor seen. No medicines given. Nothing to help me, no blood test to rule out the flu, nothing. Just a dipstick to do the usual urine test when pregnant to check proteins, and ‘I hope you feel better.’ And that’s a quote, that’s all I was told. Hope you feel better.

For real?

The Waiting room of my OB-GYN's office. Awesome place!

I immediately went to my OB-GYN’s office, and they got me in as a walk in almost immediately. I saw a new doctor I had never met before, and he did a check of my lungs, listened to all my symptoms, had them draw blood like they SHOULD have done at the hospital, and gave me a script for a Z-pack and told me to take some Robutussin DM and Sudafed as needed for the rest of the issues. Happy mommy is a happy baby. He even gave me info on my upcoming Pertussis vaccine, so I could do some research, didn’t put me down for wanting to look up some info on it, and took a look at a rash that my 2 year old’s face rash that she’s been getting when coming into contact with some foods, and told us what it could be and how to find out.

So, long story short, I got home, curled up with my new meds, and now, 2 days later, I feel a lot better.

I cannot say the same thing for my toddler.

Not my child. Like her mother, she is not nearly as photogenic
when sick as the child in this picture.

She woke up with a fever the day after I went to the Dr… luckily, her pediatrician said that she shouldn’t need a prescription to kick it, that my immunocompromised pregnant body is more susceptible to being sick than hers, and that she should feel better in a few days. And so far, she’s hitting the worst of it today, and hopefully will come around tomorrow if we stick to her Children’s Dimetapp and Motrin dosages and time schedule.

I hate when my baby is sick, but it has to happen.  She’s a kid, and getting sick is part of building up her immune system.

Before anyone asks, no, we did not flu shot. I don’t believe in them, I never got them as a child, and I don’t plan to get flu shots for ANY of my kids. Why? I don’t think they’re 100% necessary and I don’t think that they’re as beneficial as some would have us think. Same with Chicken Pox vaccines. I vaccinate for the necessities, rubella, mumps, measles, pertussis, etc… but I will not vaccinate for other, smaller, not NEARLY as dangerous illnesses with vaccines that are nowhere near as effective as others.

Nope. Not happening.

If the flu vaccine is so great, why do you have to have it once a year and why does it only cover the 3 or 4 main strands of the flu? And why do SO many who get immunized from the flu still get the flu? I’ve gotten a LOT of pressure from family to get this shot this pregnancy, and I’ve gotten the usual pressure to get my daughter immunized. I refuse and I told them to drop it, as I have to do ALL WINTER, every year.

Honestly, I’m not going to do something to hurt my child. I just believe differently than some do. There’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t think I need to pump my child full of a chemical with mercury in it to ‘protect’ her, and not even guarantee her protection. And since the flu is nowhere near as big of a deal as measles or mumps or polio, the two vaccines aren’t anywhere near the same. With proper treatment and a doctor’s intervention, then the flu can be treated 9 times out of 10. Polio can’t, it can only be managed. Hence why I get her that vaccine.

This post has been all over the place… I apologize. One of the downsides of being sick, I can’t get my thoughts straight.

Happy New Years, everyone.