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Friday, October 30, 2009

H1N1 vaccine...update...

First of all....thank you all for your comments on my last post. They DEFINITELY helped me make my decision about what I am going to do about the H1N1 vaccine.

Today, I realized I finally feel confident in not getting Jaxon & I the vaccine.

It's not easy making the decision. Of course - the media and most medical professionals are advising people to GET the vaccine, and there is a ton of anti-vaccine stuff on the internet - but of course there is so much junk on the internet it's hard to know what's true. I found myself VERY torn, confused, and paranoid about BOTH options.

I prayed about it and asked God to give us confidence about what we should do...and today I realized He did that!

We've decided NOT to get the vaccines. As scary as that is! Yikes.

My friend Ashton is 3 months pregnant and got very sick with the flu this past week. The doctors were treating it as if it was the Swine Flu. She said that from her visits to the hospital and talking to 4 different doctors she learned a lot about this flu....
  1. the symptom that you have to be most worried about is shortness of breath. The other symptoms should be given attention - but they won't kill you. If you have shortness of breath you need to get to the hospital ASAP. And you will have time to get it under control if you get to the hospital right away.
  2. 3 out of the 4 doctors she talked to were under the belief that the anti-viral medications they give H1N1 patients (Relenza and Tamiflu) are ineffective, and a Pharmaceutical ploy. Also, that there are side-effects with those.
  3. Those three doctors were also NOT in favor of the vaccine.
This made me feel more level-headed about the whole thing - YES, it's serious - but if you watch for the symptoms you will have time to get treated and you will be okay.

So....what I AM doing is this:
  • taking Probiotics (Jaxon is too - you can get it in a powder form and put it in yogurt or whatever you want)
  • Taking Vitamin D and mulitivitamins (for Jax we have liquid multivitamin with A,D and C in it)
  • I bought some Sambucol (black Elderberry extract) from the health food store to have on hand in case we start getting flu symptons. It's a super flu fighter and is supposed to reduce the length of a flu by 4 days, and it's safe for pregnant women and children (just make sure it's the Original kind with no Echinacea). Thanks to Andrea for this tip!!!!
  • staying home more
  • not hanging out with sick people :(

I'm relieved to have finally made a confident decision. And for those of you who have decided to get the vaccine - or plan to - I totally respect that. I know it is a really hard decision and there are pro's and con's to both.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:39 PM

    You must be relieved to have made a decision!

    Thanks for the info...I will be looking into the probiotics and vitamins for myself and my little girls.

    ~Erin
    www.tokensister.blogspot.com

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  2. Allison :)12:09 PM

    I'm having this issue too Laura... I'm absolutely 100% between getting it and not. Especially being so busy, I don't have time to "take all necessary precautions and stay healthy" haha.... good post :) *btw congrats :)

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  3. Thanks for passing on the information your friend found out while she was sick. It is somewhat reassuring to hear what doctors are saying/thinking.

    What a relief it must be to have made a decision! It sounds like you have it well thought out and have a good plan of action. I think I may have to see if I can find some of that tea around here too.

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  4. First, congratulations! I hadn't read your blog in awhile so that was surprising news! Second, thank you to everyone that commented. There was some good insight there and I think Craig and I will start taking some similar precautions.

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  5. Hey Laura! Congratulations!!! :) I am so happy to hear you are expecting another little one! I still manage to visit your blog every once and awhile...and I always seem to run across the ones on vaccines...lol. Very tough decision...I too am currently in the same stage of trying to decide :( Reading your post made me much more confident on the decision I was leaning more towards! I have a couple questions for you...do you think I could email you sometime?

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  6. first of all, good for you.

    while steve is a pharmacy assistant, i usually rely on homepathic and natural treatments, as i was brought up that way. it drives him crazy!

    one good "drug" you can take that is all natural and approved for pregant women is oscillococcinum. it's the best flu fighter i have ever had, and i believe it comes in a kids formulas too. it's little vials of sublingual beads that actually are pretty tasty also haha. they have it at any healthfood store and also at loblaws/zehrs/superstores.

    http://www.oscillo.com

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