INSIDE OUT

You know, I don't know what I think about this anymore. Since recently, J acquired fifth disease (AKA: Slap Cheek) and S acquired the chicken pox. Now, this week, I feared N had chicken pox (it's still up for debate as to whether it is chicken pox or mosquito bites) and S now has fifth disease! This, all in the past month. Now, here's what I know. J was contagious with fifth disease BEFORE his rash appeared (at which time I even thought might be hives at first). It is stated that for fifth disease, a person is contagious ONLY BEFORE you see the rash. As for chicken pox, you may be contagious one to two days before the rash appears and up to 14 days afterwards until all of the spots blister over. So here's my problem. I have obviously NOT vaccinated my children against chicken pox. S had chicken pox the day after we returned home from a 2-hour flight. Who did he come into contact with on the plane, or in the library, or in the grocery store, etc, etc, etc that may have not had chicken pox. Might they have been pregnant? Might they have been an older lady or gentlemen? Might we have, with the choice not to vaccinate, infected a pregnant woman and potentially harmed her and her fetus? Might we have infected an older lady or gentlemen without an immunity to chicken pox, who may now acquire shingles and be life threatening to them? I guess I'm just questioning the pros and cons. "Maybe", something in the chicken pox vaccine has a small risk of harming my children... of course it's all up for debate. What I definitely know is this: It WILL be harmful to a growing fetus if we had passed on chicken pox to a pregnant woman who has not had chicken pox. It DEFINITELY will be harmful, even fatal, to a lady or gentlemen, or young baby who acquires shingles as a result of my choice not to vaccinate. What are the pros and cons? Is it my responsibility to protect those in my society? I care so much about my "Earth" but forget the people in it!? Might it be a person's responsibility, who hasn't yet had chicken pox, to go and receive their own vaccination instead of laying blame on my choices? Did we make the right decision? Will we ever know if we did, in fact, cause harm to someone in our community? What will we do with our next baby regarding this vaccination? Regarding fifth disease, there is no current vaccinations available, although I'm sure they're working on one. J was babysat two days before his rash appeared. The person who took care of him (a very close friend) was pregnant. If she is not immune, her baby has a slight risk of anemia. If there was a vaccination for this disease, I would not have chosen to give this one either. With that choice, I may have potentially harmed a good friend, her baby, and in turn, her whole family. I would have made a choice that I would never be able to live with for the rest of my life. Did we do that with someone we don't know? Did we harm another family with our choice to not vaccinate? Was there someone on that plane who was pregnant? Was there someone who used the same grocery cart we did who is a senior and has not been exposed to chicken pox? To be honest, I hope I never find out. As I was writing this blog entry, I googled "Harm + Chicken Pox Vaccine". Here is what I found off of the Dr. Sears website: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T080900.asp

Edited to add that S did indeed have chicken pox and he actually DID have his chicken pox vaccine. *Sigh* See my other more recent blog on what I think about vaccines.