So I probably have whooping cough

[attackfish]

I just did field experience in an elementary school that had it going around (thank you anti-vaxxers) and I had never completed my vaccination schedule for it since I reacted so badly to the first shot, and I have all the right symptoms.  I feel miserable and gross, and have an appointment with my NP this afternoon for final diagnosis.  I'm coughing until I can't breathe, and I think everybody should pamper me and write me fic, you know, to keep my spirits up.

Also, I'm probably never going to get to see my baby niece again.  Damn it.  Good thing is, I've been staying away from her because I was worried I'd pick something up during field experiece. Turns out I did.

EDIT: Diagnosis confirmed.  I have whooping cough.  Big whoop.

Comments

[penguin-attie.livejournal.com]

Eeesh, sending all the nice thoughts and cups of tea your way. I caught it when I was 6 months old, and my mother keeps recounting how terrifying it was every time the subject comes up. And despite the experience she still went on to be quite negligent on the vaccination schedule, as I found out this year when I went to update my shots and had to get ALL the vaccines - the only one I had (tetanos/diphteria/polio) has to be refreshed every ten years. Incidentally, they now include whooping cough as well in those tetanos booster combo shots, since apparently somewhere between the last shot and now they realized you lose immunity if you don't encounter it regularly. It felt like quite the bargain jabs-to-amount-of-diseases-prevented ratio!

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Wait, you caught a life threatening vaccine preventable disease and your mother was still lackidaisical about them? Wow. I've had all my vaccines except flu (egg allergy, not allowed) and whooping cough, but my immunologist says with my disease, any immunity I have to anything is questionable. I am forced to rely on hers immu ity, which with the anti-vaxxers around...

[penguin-attie.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And she is old enough to have seen the devastating effects of most of these formerly common childhood illnesses when they were still rampant. But she also went to a Waldorf school and subscribed to Anthroposophy for a long time, so the naturalistic fallacy comes up a lot. I think there must be some hidden anti-vax sentiment still lurking, because as long as you're talking hypothetically she's all for vaccines but then when I was talking with her about how many shots I was going to have to get, she accused me of being "Impfgeil" - which is really hard to translate but maybe "are you thrill-seeking?!" could sort of get the sentiment across.

I... still can't wrap my head around that one.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* people have the weirdest logical blind spots.