Warning About Whooping Cough

[JudyJB]

I am recovering from whooping cough and want to warn all of you that this is going around, and even adults can get it if you have not kept up to date with your Tdap vaccination. You should get this every 10 years. I started out with a really bad cough a little over three weeks ago. I ignored it because I figured it would go away in a few days. However, the cough was the worst I have ever had in my life. I would cough for several seconds and then not be able to catch my breath, so I would gasp for air with a loud whooping sound. It was scary because i often thought I would never be able to get air again. My chest and abdomen both hurt from coughing, and sleeping was difficult because every time I laid down or rolled over I started coughing again. It would take me several minutes to catch my breath after a coughing bout. Here is what it sounds like:

The first urgent care facility diagnosed me with bronchitis and sent me home. Went to a second one last week because I developed thrush from the prednisone they gave me. Second urgent care gave me a whooping cough/pertussis antibiotic and some lozenges for the thrush, and i am feeling very tired, but less coughing and what coughing I am doing is a more normal cough.

My son teaches high school, and he said they are getting daily notices about students getting whooping cough. And it spreads very easily.

I have a very weak immune system after being treated for chronic Lymphomatic leukemia about 7 years ago. I am in remission, but had no idea until recently how weak my immune system is. I am going to wear masks a LOT more often from now on!!

 

[Chef Duane]

I though whooping cough was one of those diseases that had been eradicated by the vaxx's we got as kids. I can't remember anyone who has ever gotten it. But measles was declared 'eliminated' by the CDC in 2000 and is making a comeback especially here in Texas. If it ain't one thing it's another.

 

[John From Detroit]

Many do not get vaccinations,, Or vaccinate their children. Even after one of theirs dies from a preventable disease. When the mother of my grandchildren was a child she got all her shots. Thus I have grandchildren.

 

[old RV guy]

I though whooping cough was one of those diseases that had been eradicated by the vaxx's we got as kids. I can't remember anyone who has ever gotten it. But measles was declared 'eliminated' by the CDC in 2000 and is making a comeback especially here in Texas. If it ain't one thing it's another.

They're only eradicated as long as the percentage of the population required to achieve and maintain herd immunity follow the rules. When that percentage falls below the threshold viruses propagate exponentially. In vaccinated populations the spread is linear only ie., the number of unvaccinated children who unfortunately have clowns for parents is above the threshold below which exponential spread is possible.

 

[UTTransplant]

I though whooping cough was one of those diseases that had been eradicated by the vaxx's we got as kids. I can't remember anyone who has ever gotten it. But measles was declared 'eliminated' by the CDC in 2000 and is making a comeback especially here in Texas. If it ain't one thing it's another.

Measles was eradicated in the US meaning the only (extremely rare) cases were those that came from overseas where vaccinations are not always available. That has turned around due to the anti-vax sentiments. And I must be significantly older than you because MMR vaccinations came well after I had both “red measles” (the second M) and rubella. When I was pregnant, my titers were checked and it confirmed those. I never had a significant case of the mumps, but my mom thought I had it. But I know people my age who became blind after having measles, a boy who a teenager with me in agony with mumps, and a man my age who was mentally challenged due to his mother catching rubella while pregnant. I also know people who had polio. Note the ones I know were the lucky ones who survived.

 

[Kirk]

Hope that you are well soon!

 

[Chef Duane]

Measles was eradicated in the US meaning the only (extremely rare) cases were those that came from overseas where vaccinations are not always available. That has turned around due to the anti-vax sentiments. And I must be significantly older than you because MMR vaccinations came well after I had both “red measles” (the second M) and rubella. When I was pregnant, my titers were checked and it confirmed those. I never had a significant case of the mumps, but my mom thought I had it. But I know people my age who became blind after having measles, a boy who a teenager with me in agony with mumps, and a man my age who was mentally challenged due to his mother catching rubella while pregnant. I also know people who had polio. Note the ones I know were the lucky ones who survived.

My mother had polio when my older brother was born. (It's the reason we all thought he was kinda' weird.)
It wasn't a severe case and she died just a few years ago at 94. She always told me I would go blind from other things and not measles. I got every vaxx that existed back in the early-mid 60's and assume the measles vaxx was included. Don't recall ever having them.

 

[Sunnyfalls]

Much about having a long and happy life is acquiring the knowledge and thinking skills so as to be capable of making good personal life choices. If one lacks the knowledge and thinking skills to make good choices, one's life often goes very badly.

Gayle & Bob
"Los Gatos Casita"

 

[old RV guy]

My mother had polio when my older brother was born. (It's the reason we all thought he was kinda' weird.)
It wasn't a severe case and she died just a few years ago at 94. She always told me I would go blind from other things and not measles. I got every vaxx that existed back in the early-mid 60's and assume the measles vaxx was included. Don't recall ever having them.

Most public school systems required them back then.

 

[Chef Duane]

Most public school systems required them back then.

Didn't go to public schools. We all went to Parochial school but I assume they followed the same guidelines.

 

[old RV guy]

Didn't go to public schools. We all went to Parochial school but I assume they followed the same guidelines.

Anyway back then if little Johnny's parents were clowns and opted not to get little Johnny vaccinated, little Johnny didn't get to come to school. Now little Johnny can come to school regardless.

 

[old RV guy]

My mother had polio when my older brother was born. (It's the reason we all thought he was kinda' weird.)
It wasn't a severe case and she died just a few years ago at 94. She always told me I would go blind from other things and not measles. I got every vaxx that existed back in the early-mid 60's and assume the measles vaxx was included. Don't recall ever having them.

I recall standing a line a city block long in Houston to get the polio vaccine.

 

[JudyJB]

My parents lost a two-year-old to polio about 6 months before I was born so my parents were very careful with us kids so we would avoid polio. My brother was born three years later, and while we were too old for most vaccines, we did get the polio vaccine earlier than most kids. In fact, we got the shots illegally because a good friend of my parents was a doctor and somehow managed to get 10 doses of the early vaccine. That gave his two kids each two shots, and the same for my brother and me, and the daughter of another close friend. We went to his house to get them. Then later we got the regular vaccine in elementary school.

The big difference today is that very few parents have seen kids with diseases like measles, mumps, polio, chicken pox, and whooping cough, so they don't think the diseases are very serious. They don't realize that measles can cause brain damage, mumps can cause sterility in boys, and children can die from chicken pox, etc. etc.

One good thing now is that some pediatricians are advising expecting parents to make sure all grandparents are up-to-date on vaccines or they cannot see the new baby until it is old enough to be vaccinated.

Oh, and I am very slowly getting better. Only an occasional normal cough and sore throat now, but I am completely wiped out doing just small tasks like plugging RV in and attaching the water hose to the post. Too tired to fill tanks, but will do that later.

 

[Chef Duane]

Anyway back then if little Johnny's parents were clowns and opted not to get little Johnny vaccinated, little Johnny didn't get to come to school. Now little Johnny can come to school regardless.

So judgemental.

 

[Chef Duane]

I recall standing a line a city block long in Houston to get the polio vaccine.

I don't recall how old I was when I got it but I do recall nurses coming to the school and administering vaxx's when I was 1st or 2nd grade I think. It probably was whatever was standard back then. Just before I went to boot camp in the Coast Guard they also gave us a round of vaxx's. One was a polio booster. Nasty wound but it healed.

 

[Sunnyfalls]

My parents lost a two-year-old to polio about 6 months before I was born so my parents were very careful with us kids so we would avoid polio. My brother was born three years later, and while we were too old for most vaccines, we did get the polio vaccine earlier than most kids. In fact, we got the shots illegally because a good friend of my parents was a doctor and somehow managed to get 10 doses of the early vaccine. That gave his two kids each two shots, and the same for my brother and me, and the daughter of another close friend. We went to his house to get them. Then later we got the regular vaccine in elementary school.

The big difference today is that very few parents have seen kids with diseases like measles, mumps, polio, chicken pox, and whooping cough, so they don't think the diseases are very serious. They don't realize that measles can cause brain damage, mumps can cause sterility in boys, and children can die from chicken pox, etc. etc.

One good thing now is that some pediatricians are advising expecting parents to make sure all grandparents are up-to-date on vaccines or they cannot see the new baby until it is old enough to be vaccinated.

Oh, and I am very slowly getting better. Only an occasional normal cough and sore throat now, but I am completely wiped out doing just small tasks like plugging RV in and attaching the water hose to the post. Too tired to fill tanks, but will do that later.

Yep, fully concur with your perspective...which is that ignorance is bliss...until it isn't... Get well soon and back to RVing...

Gayle & Bob
"Los Gatos Casita"

 

[UTTransplant]

I don't recall how old I was when I got it but I do recall nurses coming to the school and administering vaxx's when I was 1st or 2nd grade I think. It probably was whatever was standard back then. Just before I went to boot camp in the Coast Guard they also gave us a round of vaxx's. One was a polio booster. Nasty wound but it healed.

View attachment 1115456

That looks more like a smallpox vaccination.

 

[Chef Duane]

That looks more like a smallpox vaccination.

Maybe that was it.

 

[old RV guy]

Maybe that was it.

Yep, that's smallpox.

 

[JudyJB]

That is definitely smallpox. I got my first smallpox vaccination when I was about 7, but I got mine at the doctor's office. My doctor used to give the vaccination to boys on their arms, while girls got it high up on their hip so it would not show with sleeveless clothing!

Smallpox vaccine was not an injection. They had a needle that they poked into a vice of serum and then tapped the needle onto the skin several times. It was just a series of pinpricks, not deep at all, but it would get bigger during the next week and form a big crust which itched like crazy and fell off after a week or two. I remember staying home from school for a couple of days because mine got so red and inflamed.

Way back in the 50s, almost everyone had a big scar from a smallpox vaccination on their arms. Now almost no one gets the vaccine because the disease is supposedly gone worldwide.

And, since I am a full-timer, I am always RVing, but I am really taking it easy.