Feeling Poorly

[ailbhe]

My mother hates the word "poorly." I love it - it's a useful one to go along with ill and sick, with different nuances. But she hates it, because of a card her English cousin sent her little sister once.

The card said "I'm sorry to hear you've been poorly."

The little sister had died of meningitis a few days previously.

---

I'm sitting here looking at the children's Little Red Books, or Personal Child Health Records.

Linnea has had vaccinations for (or against) Diphtheria/Tetanus/Whooping Cough/Polio, but not Hib/Men C, aged 2 months, 3 months, 4 months and 3 and a half years, when she also had a Hib one. She had her first MMR just before she turned 2 years old. She's due the booster for that, I think.

Emer had Diphtheria/Tetanus/Whooping Cough/Polio, Hib/Men C and something called Prevener LT at the same time, at just over 2 months, 3 months, and 5 months. She had a Hib/MenC jab at 14 months, and the MMR and Prevener at 17 months. She's not due anything more until she's 3 years old.

They appear to be up to date with the NHS schedule, though googling for Prevener didn't give me much information. I keep meaning to phone the doctors and double-check what they have and haven't been immunised for because they have different schedules, things changed after Linnea was born. In fact, the schedule changed after Emer was born. And, of course, I was operating in a haze every time I went near a medical professional, which doesn't help.

They've both been exposed to but not contracted chicken pox and hand, foot and mouth disease. Rob and I both got the BCG and Rob got a polio vaccine and I caught rubella. I had measles and whooping cough as a toddler; I faintly remember the measles but I wasn't very ill with either one. I was shocked to learn that Roald Dahl's daughter had died of measles, when I read it in the dedication of one of his books.

I've had chickenpox three times. Rob isn't sure he ever has. I hope the kids inherit his immune system, and not mine.

Comments

[astrogeek.livejournal.com]

Prevenar is the pneumococcal vaccine I believe. It's the most common cause of meningitis in children under 2. I t was introduced a couple of years ago in the UK, but has been on the US infant vaccination schedule a bit longer.

[rmc28]

On the assumption Charles and Emer are probably on the same schedule, I went back through my LJ entries and found this link. From that, I think your Prevener is Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV).

[jenett]

I was exposed to chicken pox at least 4 times (and possibly more like 6) and never came down with it - when the vaccine finally came out, I was in college, and got it because the health risks for adults are a lot worse (especially if the adults, like me, already have lung issues.)

Mom tried to get me the smallpox vaccine, but they were on their way out at that point, and she didn't manage it.

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

It's prevnar, not prevener - that might help the googling.

[theroach.livejournal.com]

Chicken pox - that can be a nasty one. I had it when I was eighteen, and my doc at the time said I was lucky, that at that age the virus was already more likely to cause shingles instead of chicken pox. And I know some people who had shingles, and it was not exactly a fun experience for them.

IIRC, though, if you once got one of the two diseases from the virus, you'll always get that version. If that is abny consolation.

Luckily for me, I seem to get immune to these things you are supposed to get immune to when infected once - rubella, measles, chicken pox... The onyl thing I don't remember getting is mumps.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad I had chicken pox as a child, because it meant I didn't have to avoid my mum for 6 weeks while she had shingles. I was also one of the few people able to visit a friend of mine when he has shingles over Christmas.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Chicken pox is on the German schedule, too, but not on the uk one.

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1032.aspx?CategoryID=62&SubCategoryID=63

http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40024951

our ds will be getting his shot in germany during his next well child visit. dd is also getting her hep b shots in germany