What do you all think about vaccines? I have shunned all vaccines for years even before I was made aware I had MS. Then I thought I heard if you had ms you should not get vaccines.
I was reading the mssociety web page yesterday and it says regular flu shots are not only ok but encouraged. Who knew?
I never thought I needed one because I never really get sick. Knowing what I know now I think the ms has my immune system so jacked up nothing stands a chance.
Second question. Any other ms’er grow up relatively sickness free?
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MSnWV
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I did get a minor case of shingles a few years back. I have heard terrible things about them. I must have got lucky. Very little pain. Just had to take some antibiotics.
I am generally in favor of them with your doctor's clear advice and your own thorough investigation. My PCP recommended yearly flu, the pneumonia, and shingles vaccines. I will not take live vaccines, as these can be risky. After seeing patients, friends, and family with shingles, one of whom was suicidal because of the pain, I gladly got one. My neurologist also encouraged me to protect myself again these diseases, so I also had her blessing.
Most kids get it when they are younger and it’s not a big deal. My spleen was enlarged and I had to not move much for 6 weeks. I had a secondary infection as well.
I think you had to take into consideration which MS treatment your under. My neuro made me take a bunch of vaccine six weeks prior to starting Ocrevus which depletes part of your immune system. Then now I think I cannot take what they call "live vaccines".
As one who had measles (rubella and rubeola) and chicken pox before vaccines for these diseases were available, and who endured polio quarantines as a school age child, I believe in prudent vaccinations. When polio vaccine first became available, my parents were anti vaccine and refused to allow me to obtain it at school but when I turned 18, I obtained it through my college health facility. Now, decades later, I keep up with my DPT reimmunizations and the annual flu. I haven't been ill, not even a cold, for many many years, but I remember days when I was seriously ill, when my parents worried that my sister would die, and when schoolmates died of or were crippled by diseases that vaccines help prevent and have no desire to see outbreaks or pandemics like the one we now experience from the new Corona virus.
I know someone with significant hearing loss from when she had measles as a kid. It drives me crazy when people act like measles is no big deal. It is only no big deal because we vaccinated until it seemed it didn't exist.
Fortunately I was born when all vaccines were available except chicken pox. Chicken pox is the only thing I did get as a kid other than an occasional stomach bug. I have rarely been ill as an adult. When I was younger I would only get the flu shot randomly but now get it yearly. I am going to look into the shingles vaccine because I actually had chicken pox a second time as an adult and am afraid I have more of the virus lurking in my body waiting to become shingles than I want to risk. It used to only be given if you were 65 or older but now you can get it younger so think I qualify.
Although I was rarely sick as a child or adult I do remember getting a pretty bad bug about a year or so before I started having MS symptoms. I have read one theory for the cause of MS is your immune system getting confused when fighting a bad viral infection and then starts to fight the myelin and doesn't stop. I will never know for sure if there is a link in my case but makes sense.
I hope everyone stays well and manages to avoid this COVID virus!!!
I have never forgotten the measles: two weeks in a darkened room, the eye pain and the fever and the quarantine sign on the door. It was a serious disease. The irony of having a vaccinated population is that the anti vaccine movement has no memory of how dangerous and devastating those diseases could be.
I had shingles and never want to go through that again! So I did the 2 part shingles shots last year. Each shot made me feel feverish overnight but it sure was better than the weeks of agony of shingles. After I had the 1st shot and felt sick that night, I made sure I had the 2nd on a Friday evening so I had Saturday to feel better.
I got all my vaccinations as a kid. I had my children vaccinated. I am not a anti vaccine person. Just when I got old enough to decide myself I was never sick so I figured (hoped) I didn’t need them anymore.
You probably know all vaccines have mercury. When my husband and I asked about the flu shot last year, one M.D. laughed, another said they got the strain wrong that year, another one told us not to do it and a Chinese doctor got really scared at the mentioning of it. We used to get flu shots till last year. No more.
"A vaccine containing 0.01% thimerosal as a preservative contains 50 micrograms of thimerosal per 0.5 mL dose or approximately 25 micrograms of mercury per 0.5 mL dose. For comparison, this is roughly the same amount of elemental mercury contained in a 3 ounce can of tuna fish."
Now that you know the facts - is everyone who eats tinned tuna going to stop eating it because it contains a tiny bit of mercury...........
And the document on the link below explains why mercury was used in many vaccines, as well as why its use has been significantly reduced
I got my pneumonia shot about 33 days ago until I started with a new doctor last September I wasn't aware i needed a pneumonia vaccine for years. I am not a scientist at all. I feel a sense of relief because I guess it will help protect me from developing it if i get covid-19. Our department of health says assume we have been exposed to covid-19 and that we could be asymptomatic.
I have had double pneumonia around of age of 24, 1996. All I remember is lying on the floor of my new apartment, I lived alone, just started a new job and was hoping to get over it quickly since I didn't want to loose my new job. I remember being told by the nurse that being in a hospital recovering would be more risky. That was 1996. It took 3 weeks to recover, that was a rough 3 weeks completely, hard being alone and to get myself up to eat and drink, function. One lung full of fluid and one 1/3 full. But young and ambitious I was! I went back to work as soon as I was recovered.
Up until 2019 I didn't know i was supposed to get a separate pneumonia vaccine!. I realize now it is in the mix of vaccines they have for school requirments. I have more faith in my new primary care physician and her advanced degreed nurse. I don't know if that pneumonia shot was a live vaccine or even if it can be given live.
I just know I never want to have pneumonia again and if the vaccine will prevent it so be it. The muscle it was injected into was sore for several days and I rain a 99.3 temp on and off for several days. But i haven't gotten that pneumonia again I'll have to see how often I'm supposed to get one,
My PCP, Nurse in one health care place and my MS neurologist in another facility all said it was ok to get the vaccine.
There are friends of mine who are adimently against many vaccines and friends who think it's absurd not to vaccine. All off them are healthy enough so far so good.
Tetnuis is another shot I have gotten, i had after accidentally slicing my ancle open with a rusty garden scythe in my late 20's. It is a great tool but I should have been wearing boots not sneakers while using it!
My opinion, talk to health care providers, call a nurse line.
I do my vaccines including the flu shot. My neuro recommends it. My son and husband have all theirs except they don’t do the flu shot. Just stubborn.
I did not let my son have the HPV (?) shots. It’s the one for certain cancers. Cervical cancer for girls. I’ve read too many negative things about it and don’t trust it. Our pediatrician says it’s safe but was ok if I said no.
I refused HPV vaccines for my 2 boys as well. Every year my PCP brought it up again until I was dx w MS. I told her there is too much conflicting research around the vaccine and I couldn’t risk it triggering an autoimmune response in them and if they disagree with me (which the boys & I discussed and they both say they understand) that they can get it when they turn 18. My PCP said fair enough and hasn’t mentioned it since.
I have not gotten the flu shot since dx per advice from the infusion center pharmacist and neither PCP nor Neuro have said otherwise. My husband and boys get them though. We all have the rest of the recommended ones.
That was my concern too. Between MS and hypothyroidism and his dad having Graves’ disease our son is already at a higher rush for autoimmune diseases. So I said no way!
Any link is familial and not related to vaccinations - it is known that the likelihood of getting an auto-immune condition is higher if other family members by blood have any auto-immune conditions. It is also known that if a person has one auto-immune condition they are also more likely to get another one - and some studies have shown that people diagnosed with MS have had psoriasis in their past, even if they no longer have it.
I had never gotten the flu shot because I was rarely sick and never had the flu. Then MS came and nobody recommended the flu shot and in 2008 I had a HORRIBLE case of it and ended up in the hospital for a week. I was never able to go back to work after because the flu left me with the dizziness all the time. I had to file for ssd;luckily I was approved on my first time.
Non live vaccines are recommended for MS patients. Last year, I had to get my tdap shot at the time I received my flu shot...one in each arm. The tdap was a painful one that made my arm hurt for weeks.
I get the flu shot every year. Last year I had the 2 part shingles shot. And I found out that people born around my time did not receive a very potent measles shot so I got a booster. I figure that my immune system is so messed up from MS that it needs all the help it can get!
I don't get the flu shot and no shingles or pneumonia for me although I don't get sick easily or often, whenever I got the flu shot I have gotten the flu 2ori3 times that year without it has usually been once every 4 or 5 years .
Way too many people around the world are getting their so-called "information" about vaccinations from thoroughly reputable sources such as Facebook (sarcasm totally intended!!!). Even the author who wrote that paper which claimed that there was a link between autism and vaccinations has totally withdrawn his claims yet they are still doing the rounds and children and others die because they don't get vaccinated - look at the recent problems with measles outbreaks. Many studies looking at thousands and thousands of people have not been able to prove that vaccinations cause or increase the risk of autoimmune conditions, and those that think they have proved a link are so small and few that their "evidence" isn't really evidence. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't have a good medical reason to avoid vaccination and you still don't vaccinate then you deserve to get sick. And please use good sources of info for your decisions and choices, not b....y Facebook........
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