I have s.m.u.t.

[Star*]

Thank you ladies for your well wishes and your cards and Tia - the flowers and bear are so lovely it was the bright spot of the week! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING. I'm sure the wishes helped cause here I am typing.

I have what I am calling S.M.U.T. since I was diganosed with all three on the same day and have tracked down how I got all three - this is what I have named my afflicition.
S. - Strep (believe it or not I was cajoled into taking a drink from a public water fountain)
M. - Mono (used Dudes throat spray from when he had Mono) - actually the doctor said it was more like an incubator /breeder for disease - nice to know
U. - Ugly -(because this entire thing has left me just feeling crummy and mean)
T. - Tetanus - It is still very prevalent and I want you all to listen very seriously to what I was told by my doctor about this due to the times we are living in.


I know how I got the Strep - Water fountains should be outlawed. I haven't for nearly 15 years taken a drink from one. But I was shopping, ran out of water and figured if I sprayed the dang thing with my pocket lysol I'd be safe. Nope - Strep.

Mono - Here's a BIG tip. When Dude got that really bad Mono in November with the vomiting and sore throat (he lost nearly 25 lbs in 2 weeks) and was so sick? I got him cloraseptic throat spray. He used it twice. TWICE. Well....here's a tip from my doctor. THROW IT OUT AFTER USE. GERMS get on the applicator tip and when you put that tip on? Instant incubator. I had no idea. At some point he either touched it to his mouth, or coughted or something.....needless to say - I thought it was okay. From now on - toss it. There is no way to sterilize it. Whoda thunk?

Tetanus can be fatal. Okay we've all probably heard about lock jaw. Step on a rusty nail the first thing everyone says is "when did you have your last tetanus shot?" the standard by gone question has been 'Was it in the last 10 (TEN) years?'
Imagine my shock when they asked me if I had been given a tetanus shot in the last THREE years? My blood test had come back positive for mild tetanus. I had punctured the heel of my hand on a tiny, tiny nail in a second hand store.....AND IMMEDIATELY washed it, wiped it out with alcohol, put neosporin on it and covered it with a bandaid and put gloves back on my hands. ----IMMEDIATELY...(that's also when I took a drink out of that fountain) nice....

The doctor went on to tell me while I was getting an IMMEDIATE Tetanus WITH Whooping Cough booster (which floored me) that in recent years - with the influx of immigrants from all over the world - Whooping Cough (Pertussis) has been on the rise in outbreak numbers. Has anyone noticed the recent commercials by the CDC with the coughing baby and the mom? yeah - Well.....that's why. Immigrants did not have the Whooping cough or tetanus vaccines we all did or that most of us gave our children as babies....some never gave their kids innoculations at all.

So....there are a whole new crop of diseases that at one time were nearly wiped out in the US...and are now coming back in full force. SO if you haven't had a tetanus with Whooping cough booster in the last THREE to FIVE years? GET ONE ASAP. My doctor got one the same day I did as a matter of fact.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of sickness and plague....(oh gosh I should hush my mouth that could be next) but I'm very serious about the Tetanus shot. GO NOW. Especially if you live in an area that has a heavy influx of immigrants.

I'm still very, very puny, I get tired so easy it's not funny. My mind says GO GO GO and my body literally just goes - PFLLLLLLLT. SIT.....LAY.....ZZZZZZZZZ. It's annoying. I have things I want to do and well.....I have a whole new respect for that spoon analogy Witz posted. Stick a fork in me sister - I'm done.


Thank you again for the well wishes.
Wishing Soon I will be SMUT free......
Starbie the Sickly Barbie
She comes with a containment suit, lysol wipes, lysol spray, lysol hand sanitizer, lysol gel, clorox, clorox wipes, do not enter signs, skull and cross bone signs, antibiotics....OH YEAH.....about that....(smirk) ----put yer drinks down.....

FYI - When the doctor told me about the tetanus she said she'd get me a prescription....Oky dokey. Good. So she is writing something and she likes to give you information so she says "You know...the cure for tetanus is the same cure for vaginitis." I kinda sat there for a minute and had this puzzled look on my face and I thought, and I thought and I looked at her and I said in a questioning voice "So you're telling me I have to put suppositories up my hoo-ha because I have tetanus?" She almost fell off her stool and after she stiffled a chuckle she said "Um no." then I said "Well isn't that the cure for ...you know? Cause I've never had that." and she laughed and Said "No I'll give you a prescription for pills." Man was I relieved. ....The pills you swallow. Good for me too cause one of them is big enough to choke a horse. But yeah.....who would have thought one thing fixes the other? Good thing too - cause men would just die.

Anyway - gals - you have a great day. I'll be on when I can stay on longer.

Hugs & Love - from far, far, and hermedically sealed away.....
Star

 

[klmno]

((HUHGS)) I can't imagine having all that at once- but am very glad you are still here and able to post! I hope you feel better soon- but don't feel ugly.

 

[1905]

Star, I'm glad to hear you're feeling a tiny drop better. Get plenty of rest and heal quickly.hugs.

 

[KTMom91]

Star, how very scary! Glad you're feeling a bit better.

 

[jal]

Star - You poor thing! That is just awful. I hope you begin to feel better real soon! & thanks for the heads up on the tetanus & whooping cough info...I've been seeing that commercial you mentioned...Get well soon!

 

[Mamaof5]

I'm really glad to see you are feeling well enough to post.

I'm super surprised you have a case tetanus...that's unusual. There are only (give or take a few cases here because of reporting of cases being inaccurate) about 10 to 15 cases of tetanus per annum in the Untied States and Canada. I find it odd your doctor blames immigrants??? It has nothing to do with vaccines\immigrants at all. Tetanus is a dirt borne pathogen, usually found where Esquitarian species are (particularly horses and rabbits) and cattle as well. It's from their feces mixing in with dirt and water. It's everywhere! We're immune not because of the vaccine (and your doctor should have given you the immunoglobulin of tetanus not the vaccine, it's been proven more effective in treatment of tetanus infection already present) but because we are exposed to it on a daily basis. It's not making a come back, it was always here.

Same for pertussis (aka whooping cough), the wild strains of pertussis have been proven to be the same strains that were thought to be wiped out. The link to tetanus with pertussis is from the DTAP (aka dtp) vaccine. Studies are still lacking on that link to date but it is a fairly new theory\hypothesis running the gauntlet of the scientific community.

Strep, also present in out mouths, noses, throats and rectums. It is an opportunistic bacteria that will take over if not kept in check by the immune system and I'm betting your ordeal started with the mono which left you immuno-compromised (temporarily) and allowed the strep to take over and then the tetanus to be opportunistic as well.

I'm most disturbed by the misinformation your doctor left you with but I am very very happy to see you doing so much better. Glad you are pulling through!!!

 

[Star*]

I got the tetanus from the nail...(lol) NOT the immigrants. I was at the thrift store and trying to get a very old print out of an 81 year old frame.

I think I wrote the info. wrong. But she did tell me that the whooping cough was on the rise and since our community has had a serious influx of immigrants they have also seen whooping cough headed to near epidemic proportions in the past few years. We don't just have hispanics here in Columbia. We're so close to a port city, Charleston and have many mosques that we have an ever increasing population of Afghanistanny, Iranian, Kenyan, West Indian, Arab, UAE, Urudu I mean it's a melting pot here so I don't think she was referring to just one group - she's really not like that. Currently California DOH is reporting an epidemic of Whooping Cough. I checked the CDC web site and they have not reported it, so I'm not sure who you believe. I just know that if I want a job here in South Carolina? If I spoke 15 languages - English, Spanish, Farsi, Arabic, Turkish...Punjab, Swahili? I'd have a job like (snaps fingers) ---as it is I can't even get an interview as a bookkeeper in a grocery store because I don't speak English.

So I'm not so sure that she doesn't have a point about being exposed to a lot of different kinds of germs that I don't have a tolerance built up for yet because I was never exposed to. (shrugs) But I do see your point. Trying to learn different languages HAS given me some VERY interesting - albeit embarrasing stories to tell. - like when I thought i said "I love my husband" and what I was really telling this woman was "I want to make love to your man." ......exhales ....yeah.....not so good. Fortunately for me beheading is not legal here. He laughed - She was very understanding, but I never really tried to impress anyone with my Farsi again.

As far as getting tetanus - OMG to know me is to know that if ANYONE was going to get it? It would be me. Apparently my vaccination had lapsed and like I said - I had always been told 10 years - even the CDC web site says 10 years, doctor shook her head and insists NOPE "5" but a positive blood test of a very ugly looking something in my blood, and a prescription for Flagyl, plus a prescription for Augmentin, and a shot in the arm, and a very sore stiff neck and shoulders? And since when does antibiotics make anyone cranky? WOW am I a crab! Why I bet with this one pincer of mine I could take off a head and an arm. Grrrrr. I'm never this witchy - I have warned DF - I go back tomorrow to get a recheck, lucky for me too my insurance runs out.

If anyone knows of a cheap monthly insurance plan let me know. Mine would be $450 - because (oh I laugh) I'm still child bearing years. yeah pal - let me tell YOUZE guys something. You may as well put a suicide rider with benificiaries on that policy right now - cause if I get pregnant one of two things would happen - either it would be an immaculate conception or I'd commit suicide......from falling over and having a heart attack from hearing the news of the immaculate conception. I'm not married. Understand? And they came back with - "Well even gay couples have children." O.M.G. - and here I was worried about the 'rectums' that give you tetanus.

 

[hearts and roses]

Glad to see the SMUT hasn't slowed down your sense of humor! Feel better!

 

[JJJ]

I just know that if I want a job here in South Carolina? If I spoke 15 languages - English, Spanish, Farsi, Arabic, Turkish...Punjab, Swahili? I'd have a job like (snaps fingers) ---as it is I can't even get an interview as a bookkeeper in a grocery store because I don't speak English.

Wow, for someone who doesn't speak English you have an amazing grasp of the written language.

 

[Mamaof5]

I don't speak English as a first language either. I did misread that as the tetanus being the immigrant issue. I'll agree the doctor is right that many germs that are over there do get brought here for sure. There is a wild strain of polio and pertussis among us all that we are fairly immune to unless compromised by other illnesses.

I speak French as a fist language though you wouldn't think it until I tell you. I wasn't trying to devalue your experience I'm a pro-informed choice activist (no not an anti-vax activist, there's a big difference). I'm all for choices with the right information backing those choices but I think that comes with the territory we all find ourselves in together as a difficult child parenting community. I'm also for the choice of one does not always suit the other, freedom of choice is one of our most fundamental rights in my eyes. I'm just really glad you are feeling better.

Funny you mention ABX making you cranky!! I had pneumonia back in November as a complication of H1N1 and the Biaxin (a bacterial pneumonia specific ABX) made me beyond cranky, had me hallucinating and very out of it. Some ABX are so powerful (like Biaxin, Cipro and others) that they have some wicked side effects. askthepatient.com is a helpful, first person point of view database from other patients who experience side effects of pharmacological medications - I use it to gauge what may possibly be a side effect that may not be listed on the script and for personal experience from every day people like myself - of course I always take it with a grain of salt because not everyone reacts the same way to the same medication and always back it with the scientific studies available and talk to my doctors as well for their take on it.

I hope you find that low cost insurance very quickly. In Canada, we have universal health care - not perfect the system but it works well enough. Would be better with some tweaks here and there but we're still working on it.

 

[witzend]

There's a bunch of hippies that won't vaccinate for whooping cough too and it goes around the schools in the spring and summer. I'm feeling snotty and mean and a little like Cartman tonight so I'm not self-censoring and if I get deleted for calling non-vaccinators hippies, so be it .

 

[susiestar]

I am sorry you are so sick. I will NOT agree with Ugly - NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT You are Unwell, but you are still BEAUTIFUL to ME.

There are MANY diseases coming back because we are now exposed to so many different people from so many different areas. In time it will mean we are immune to many more things, but until then we have to be careful. Polio is on the rise again because so many people from other areas come here and haven't been vaccinated. They used to do the oral polio vaccine with a weakened live virus but too many relatives of babies got polio. They also learned that it did NOT give full immunity the way the injected dead virus version did. Even so, some docs recommend booster shots for polio, esp if you are traveling out of the country.

Tetanus is a big deal. I have not ever heard of flagyl being used for vaginitis. I know my bro took it for ulcers at one point. He also was given some to take with him when he went to India and Nepal for 6 weeks. DO NOT DRINK ANY ALCOHOL with flagyl. It will make you so sick you will pray for death. Idiot gfgbro took the flagyl while he was abroad because he thought he caught something. Being an alcoholic at the time, he ignored the alcohol warnings AND the local laws that put you in jail for LONG periods of time if you are caught with any. At the time he drank only water, coffee and beer/whiskey. Cannot drink the water and the coffee isn't boiled so it isn't safe. He found some local whiskey. Drank it after taking the flagyl. Spent three entire days on a bench outside a train station in some large city - he cannot remember where he was, not even if it was India or Nepal. He was out of his mind the entire time. God looks after fools because he was not beaten, robbed, killed or arrested. It is the only explanation for it.

I am glad your doctor was wise enough to sort all of the problems out. Take it easy. Take GOOD care of yourself. LISTEN to your body - NOT your mind. Sleep all you can. And take your medicine even if it is big enough to choke a horse. If you get to where you are vomiting again ask the doctor to rx phenergan rub on gel. It can work miracles!

Sending lots of hugs to you, DF and the furbabies.

 

[gcvmom]

Our area has seen a rise in whooping cough over the past two years. I recall a recent article in our local paper restating this fact as well. I plan to ask our doctor about it next time we're in for a visit.

 

[hearts and roses]

There's a bunch of hippies that won't vaccinate for whooping cough too and it goes around the schools in the spring and summer. I'm feeling snotty and mean and a little like Cartman tonight so I'm not self-censoring and if I get deleted for calling non-vaccinators hippies, so be it .

Hahaha Witz! After easy child's first DPT shot she had a bad reaction and it was the pertussis so I opted not to get the rest of that vaccinatation-only DT for both easy child and difficult child. Our pediatrician agreed. I used to think I was a hippie- not so
much anymore, lol!

 

[Mamaof5]

There's a bunch of hippies that won't vaccinate for whooping cough too and it goes around the schools in the spring and summer. I'm feeling snotty and mean and a little like Cartman tonight so I'm not self-censoring and if I get deleted for calling non-vaccinators hippies, so be it .

My uyoungest is not vaccinated due to cardiac issues (his cardiologist recc'ed I didn't vaccinate him, so did his neonatologist because he was premature as well). He had pertussis and was treated allopathically and came out just fine from it. He's 3 now, still un-vaxed as I have a medical exemption for him. All my kids are currently unvaxed (4 oldest have some of their vaxes though). Funny thing is, my youngest is my healthiest even though he's a cardiac patient and has all his titers (antibodies) for all the childhood diseases. I get his titers checked every year. My four oldest who were vax'ed for MMR all got mumps (oldest 4 times) and measles even though they were vaccinated for it. My youngest still has not had Chicken Pox even though there was an outbreak earlier this year too - a big one. 10 kids living in the complex with us all got chicken pox (my 4 older had it when he was still in utero) and he still didn't get it and he played with all those kids pre-cp bumps and post.

I have a medical exemption for myself, the rest are philosophical exemption. In Canada, vaccines are considered a medical procedure that cannot be forced on anyone so we have religious, conscientious and philosophical exemptions here. Only three provinces have School Acts that require proof of either vaccination or exemption. I am definitely no hippie *lol* - a bit "crunchie" but no hippie. I don't live off the grid, I don't wear all natural clothes, I don't do all organic foods or product (some but not all, holy budget buster if I did) and I do co-sleep (not as frequently now, they all chose their own beds at about the age of 2 or 3) occasionally now and again. I did breastfeed the youngest until 18 months and I am not anti-vax just pro-informed choice.

However, this is pretty off topic and hijacking poor Star's thread. I apologize Star, I've gone and started a bbit of a debate when I didn't really mean to.

 

[ML]

Oh Star, I'm so sorry your body has been under assault! It truly does rain when it pours. I'm just relieved to hear you are starting to come back. I haven't been online much the past couple weeks so I may have missed a few things. Love you girl! ML

 

[AnnieO]

I'm glad you're back, Starbie.

 

[Marguerite]

Oh Star, you poor thing! I was wondering what was wrong. I'm not on the board as much as usual, believe it or not I AM resting!

I haven't had a tetanus shot since September 1984. That was the shot that damaged my immune system which then began to attack my nervous system. Very rare. My specialist, who is THE loudmouth authority on "everybody should be immunised" in the media, told me I should never ever again have any immunisation. But he still nagged me to have my kids immunised. Which I did, although with fear and trepidation.

We immunised our kids for everything. But as others have pointed out, failure of enough people to immunise their kids (or to update) has led to an increased pool of people who carry various previously almost eradicated diseases. Last year husband & I both had whooping cough. I had it last between easy child's wedding and easy child 2/GG2's. I was unwell for both, husband & I were still coughing well after the last wedding. I broke a rib, just from coughing. But I failed to sero-convert, so by the time it was diagnosed in me, it was too late for antibiotics (not that there was much I could take, anyway).

When I had my tetanus shot, I was told them that we should have a booster every 5 years if we work in an industry that put us at risk. Otherwise, every ten years. Either ideas have changed (or are different in Australia) or information is variable. My specialist said I had too much tetanus booster, too often. That was one factor in my immune system going into overdrive.

Another important thing with a wound like that - tetanus 'breeds' in deep wounds which re-seal. It doesn't like oxygen. So if you get a wound which could be a problem, encourage it to bleed (but don't enlarge the wound or anything stupid, of course), and while it is open, flood it with something like hydrogen peroxide. In my case, it was a deep scalpel cut from a very dirty blade and it did re-seal itself, but not before I bled like a stuck pig. I didn't get tetanus, but I've never walked normally since. But I stress - this is rare.

Double-check the recommended frequency of tetanus shots.

Also with whooping cough (I'm with you Witz, emphatically), I was told there is an increased pool of non-immunised people in the community and it's not just influx of migrant. For us, the migrants mostly come from Asia or the Middle East. But genuine migrants get a lot of health checks et, and often (in our case) are better immunised than us native slackers.

Get well soon, Star. I hope the tetanus didn't get a chance to fully develop. That is really nasty - sedation in a dark, quiet room.

Hmm, maybe a padded cell would be appropriate after all?

[I know - corner]

Marg

 

[witzend]

You guys have to remember, I'm from Oregon where we actually have a BUNCH of hippies, and they tend to not vaccinate. I know that there are other reasons not to, but that's not the same.

I made husband get the tetanus last month when he was in the Dr's office, and if they're only good for 3 years, I definitely need an update!

 

[Estherfromjerusalem]

Starbie, I'm so pleased you're back on the board. Sorry to hear about all you've been going through. Get better quickly -- we miss you here, and we need you.

Love, Esther