What do you do when you are looking at your precious, healthy, happy, perfect, 6 month old baby boy innocently jumping in his jumperoo, and hear a nurse on the other end of the phone tell you that, if he gets the bug he's been exposed to, he will likely die? I'm serious...what are you supposed to do? How are you supposed to react? Because this is what happened to me seven days ago. I heard her words and looked to him, cooing and chewing on as many fingers as he could get in his mouth. He looked up at me, smiling and drooling and oblivious to the conversation being had about him...So what did I do? I flipped the F out!! F-L-I-P-P-E-D THE F OUT!!
Needless to say we had a bit of a scare in our house last week. One of the children at Jameson's "school", his nanny's oldest son actually, contracted haemophilus influenza. This is what the Hib vaccine is for. Her child was fully vaccinated, but it turns out this was some incredibly rare strain that isn't covered under the vaccine. It is incredibly rare to get H. influenza in the first place, but to get this crazy rare strain is nearly unheard of. Jameson was exposed to it 12 days ago. No one knows exactly how long the incubation period is because it is so rare, but now that he is 12 days out, the doctors are pretty confident that he will not get it. We are still giving him vitamin D, and elderberry syrup to help his little system fight it off, but I'm feeling more confident each day that he'll be OK.
Jameson was the biggest red flag out of all of the other children at his "school" because he is under a year old and is not vaccinated. The vaccination debate is quite a controversial one and not what I really want to discuss here. But I will say, because I always feel like I need to justify this decision, is that it was not a decision we took lightly. As a parent, you have to do your research, consult with doctors that you trust, and, most importantly I think, go with your gut. So we have decided to delay, space out, and separate childhood vaccinations as much as possible. That just works for us...whatever anyone else wants to do with their own children is just fine with me. From what I understand though, even if JJ followed the CDC vaccination schedule, he wouldn't have been fully vaccinated.
So it was the public health nurse for the state that informed the nurse at my doctor's office that the majority of children under a year old who are not fully vaccinated die from this infection. After flipping out (did I mention that I flipped out?), we did a little research and found out that the real statistics show that approximately 50% of the children who contracted the infection got meningitis. Of those that got meningitis, between 2 and 5% of the cases were fatal. Those are still not feel good statistics, but a whole lot better than the majority of kids who get it die.
So I called up the good old public health nurse at the state to give her a piece of my mind and clarify a few of her (mis)statements and do you know what she said to me? She said, "well, the most important thing to discuss is getting your baby up to date on his vaccinations." Really? That's the most important thing? You said my kid was probably going to die and the most important thing to talk about is a plan to get him up to date on his shots? Fuel for the fire my friends...fuel for the fire!
So we had a not-so-friendly little chat about priorities in medical emergencies, unnecessarily scaring parents in an already scary situation, and the fact that karma is going to kick her in the ass for telling someone that their kid is going to die (ok, we didn't actually talk about that last one, but I had many, many thoughts about it!).
Thankfully, I hope, we are through this scare. We still have a long flu season ahead of us, but normal colds and flus I can pretty much handle...sort of...almost. What I don't understand is why this woman felt it was OK to give me the wrong information. Was it a scare tactic to get me to follow the CDC vaccination guidelines? Whatever the reason, she and I are not friends. And um, hello, the kid who got it was vaccinated!
I just can't understand trying to make someone more worried than they already are and than they need to be, especially about their children. From the very first moment of your child's very first breath, your heart lives on the outside of your body. The world becomes a much bigger and much more threatening place than you had ever realized before. And it's wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time. Every bump and bruise, every sniffle and stomach bug, every hurt feeling...hurts us parents more than it hurts our children. So why anyone would try to make that hurt bigger, I just can't imagine.
I'll spare you all the rest of my thoughts, I'm sure by now you know I have many of them! I'll file the helpless feeling from that phone call along with the same helplessness that I felt during Brody's seizure two years ago and I'll deal with the pile of PTSD from having children somewhere down the line, when everyone sleeps through the night and I have two minutes to myself to process this life I'm living. Until then, I'll hug these babies tight, tickle their bellies, and hold their hands as long as they let me.
Feeling too serious? Well, here are a few pictures of JJ in his jumper while we were quarantined.
Jameson seems to love the jumperoo nearly as much as Brody did! Notice the fingers in his mouth? Nosh, nosh, nosh!
Brody can't miss a photo op with his brother!
And Sampson the wonder dog in a rare moment of being outside when he stops eating whatever he can get in his mouth and looks up. I mean seriously...why does he eat everything? I think he has pica!
Back in the jumperoo, blowing zurberts now! One of his favorite pastimes.
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