Childhood diseases..what did you have???

Yeah, the scar is from the smallpox vax. You don't see it anymore (if you're "of a certain age") since it's been pretty much eradicated. They gave it to me 3 times, thinking it didn't take, then realized I had a natural immunity. The only other thing I got was chicken pox and chronic dang strep until my tonsils got taken out. Finally.

I checked with mom, the scar is Small Pox - mine is the size of a half dollar. Guess I would have had a really severe case? I had Chicken Pox at 6, Whooping Cough at 37-38 (close enough), pneumonia, and some other random chronic issues like asthma, allergies, bursitis and so on...

Getting older is SO much fun! Not.

Rachel1 - Shingles can be really painful from what I've been told. For some people, the pain never goes away.

I had shingles. They were pretty bad, but not as bad as people said they would be. I took the antivirals as soon as it started.

Got the shingles also, along with an intern who had never seen them. They hurt really bad, even air hitting them and any type of clothing was torture. The intern didn't even approve a day off work!! However her supervising Doc said "don't share the same airspace with anyone who is pregnant". Diseases like that are really dangerous and can be passed around I guess.

Oops already posted this info.............I guess it doesn't hurt though to re-empthasize the importance of quarantine. When in doubt, keep it to yourself if you can.......

I'm glad that you said something-- I never knew that shingles were dangerous for pregnant people! Thanks, for the head's up! (I've not had them yet, but you never know. I've had chiggars to the point I thought I was going to die or go mad, but they're not 'catching', I hope.)

Take care, Theresa!

Rachel, this is such a great article! Thanks for letting us all learn from one another!

My shots were in the stomach, around the naval, subcutanious. If I was allergic to the duck egg serum I would have had to take the rabbit serum which went straight into the naval.

It still took 8 people to hold me down to get a shot in my stomach the first time.

My brother says they are very painful shots - even the one in the butt (his series was a little different than yours).

LOL - he was an adventurous child. One time he convinced my other brother (who is the youngest) to chase a skunk and poke it in the butt with a broom handle. Well, he didn't quite think it through - he was right next to the one with the broom. They both got sprayed by the skunk. My mom made them sleep outside until they stopped smelling - lucky it was right in the middle of the summertime.

LOL my brothers were always doing stuff like that - but it pales in comparison to things my uncles did to each other when they were growing up. My mom would find salamanders in their pockets (usually dried up and dead after being trapped in there for so long). Quite literally, they are lucky they made it out of childhood alive. They are also lucky they were little in the 50s - my grandparents would've been arrested for abuse or neglect if it were today.

That's pretty much how I learned I am allergic to bees, wasps and hornets also. Running through the clover barefoot is bound to get you stung by a bee or two. I also grabbed a rail that had a wasp nest on the back side of it. That time I was stung so many times I was hospitalized for a few days - they literally attacked me and wouldn't stop stinging and biting me.

I'm not too much of a country person to live in. But, I love to visit the country.

My brother's was the same way - shots were precautionary. Each time, they gave him a shot in his butt and then several in the abdomen.

Yeah, it was a whole mishandled situation because "I wasn't supposed to get it". I have a tiny heart murmur from it and it actually stunted my growth, since I got it right at growing stage. My legs haven't grown a day since 1995, so I remain five foot one.

I'm kind of surprised that your hubby, as a Nam Vet era person, wouldn't remember goiter pills. It could have something to do with my rural upbringing - drinking well water and not drinking city treated water - which made the pills necessary. I don't know. There wasn't fluoride in the well water or toothpaste back then, either, so getting 4+ cavities per dental visit wasn't that terribly unusual. I had classmates with leg braces due to childhood polio as well. I remember as a kid seeing older people with such awful iodine deficiency that it caused goiters so large that they looked like bull frogs. The chocolate pills were awfully yummy, though. I think if you'd ever been given them, you would have remembered. They were quite the treat to look forward to. And then Morton Salt started iodizing and ruined all the fun! We weren't being tested on by the government. They knew what caused goiter. It was simply a program to treat goiter proactively.

ASM,

Then why even come into a seed like this and post.

You know, guilt by association?

LOLOL!

Duh!

I'm trying to figure out how it could be used against me in the future. Care to elaborate?

Yeah, no kidding Mild.

What is she posting some sort of 'veiled threat' lol

Seriously.

The narcissism amongst the Conservative Right is baffling.

I was wondering the same thing actually. What is the big deal?

Nicole

Her post screams of 'bunker mentality'

Live in secret! Spew publicly! Spread the fear and ignorance! Then run back and hide in the bunker like chicken----!

I still can't think of a reason why my collecting of antibodies could be used against me. I was always under the impression that antibody collections were a good thing. My parents already know about it, I'm pretty sure my employer doesn't care about my week off school in first and fifth grade, and my husband already has access to my vaccination records.

I was a military spouse my medical records show I had all the usual childhood diseases, that I was pregnant with my daughter. That I had a sever allergic reaction to the vaccines I had to have when traveling overseas.

Ohhh perhaps ASM is referring to the microchi....

Oops. nevermind. I've said too much already.

;)

forgot , I had whooping cough in my late 50s. There was a resurgence in our town.

Thanks, y'all... I sincerely hope that whooping cough and chicken pox stays back in the box where we've tried to put them. And I'm hoping that I have a natural immunity to smallpox, since the vaccines didn't take...

Are German measles the 3 day measles or the 2 week measles? I never did understand... But I tested positive for the Rubella anti-bodies when pregnant, so I know I had it. :-)

Are you ok, Rachel? (from the rheumatic fever...) Did you have any lasting effects? I hope you're ok! Rheumatic fever was a nightmare for me...

Thanks for the clarification-- I had measles one time right after another, and Daddy brought me a red monkey home from one of his trips during one such bout. I named him, you guessed it, "Measles"... Not terrifically original, but appropo! :-)

There is a definite correlation between arthritis and rheumatic fever-- I think that they are both auto immune ailments, in that the body is attacking itself. But, I'm not a doctor and only have the vaguest of ideas how all that works. :-)

I'm sorry about your heart murmur, I've got one too! :-)

My friend who had rheumatic fever as a child was in bed for a year. She then took pennicillin every day until she was in her 20s.She ended up having a hard time when she was pregnant because of the M V Prolapse. She ended up each pregnancy on digoxin. Then when she was in her 50s she had to have a valve repair. She is fine now.

I think really a larger percent of the population has some sort of murmur or valve gushing, but I think it really depends on how much it is leaking . If it isn't that bad it probably won't do anything bad.

I never had a murmur or rheumatic fever but I do have sarcoidosis which is an auto immune disease.

Wintersnows, I hope you feel ok-- these auto immune things are a real puzzler!

I am fortunate-- even during my open heart surgery, no one was worried about my valve being replaced, but it has been a pain in the past-- just for precautions. 20,000 mg of penicillian before any dental work, etc. And it was a pain when I had my child, extra antibiotics, etc. But, even now, I'm ok. :-) I don't think mine is too bad, yet.

I was in bed for 3 months-- all one summer, and no one, (and I mean no one), had air conditioning. ARGHH! It was hot! I ran a fever over 103o for months...

lucky you! I had them so badly that my Grandpa sat up with me all one night... Mumps were awful!

That's what I heard...I am very grateful.

I'm very glad you escaped! :-)

Bless your heart! I'm glad you're still with us!

Thanks, dowser! The infection and the poison ivy are what I remember most. I was too young with the scarlett fever, and the others were just passing pains in comparison.

My sibs hated me for years, because we weren't allowed to have balloons ever again. I still think I ate it, rather than put it up my nose, but who knows what you do at 5? I remember I used to chew popped balloons, cuz we weren't allowed gum, they are similar texture, actually! But the memory of the embarassment, when the doctor pulled it out (and the horrible smell) is bright and clear, to this day.

I also showed each of my brood, what poison ivy looked like, when they were very young.

:-)

You are very smart! I've only had poison ivy once, a tiny little area, and it was because I scraped my skin, while lifting the cooler, which I had hastily set down in a bed of poison ivy... I've been very lucky on that one! Lucky, too, that I'm not highly allergic to it, yet! :-)

Too right, Rachel; thanks.