Immunisation

I have to say just prior to me having it done my, I used to visit my granny quite a lot, well, every week, and she said that when she had her children i.e. my mum and my aunties and uncles they, immunisation wasn't available. And she said when her youngest daughter, my mum's youngest sibling was born, some vaccines began to be available. And she said the queue of women just queuing up to get their babies done, you know, she said they were going in the clinic and out with their babies because they had all witnessed at that time babies dying or being terribly ill and having long, life lasting effects of illnesses. And so it was an amazing opportunity for them. So she was sort of guiding me that way also because she had experienced both with immunisation and it not being available, and also seeing her children suffer as a result of the illnesses. 
 

I talked to dad and various doctor friends that he had and asked what they'd done with their children and grandchildren. I wanted to know very much people who had given their children the jab and who had been fine, particularly medical people who'd given their children the jab and it had been fine. So I suppose in a way I was geared towards finding people who'd had it and it had been all right, because I did want to be able to go and have it done. But I just needed some support for it.

But I was also aware that they had a government slant, that the government was very much pushing for it. And therefore I wanted to talk to them as a friend, on a friendly basis as to what they would do with their own children rather than just what the line was from the government. And fortunately there were a lot around that were saying, 'We'll absolutely immunise, and the MMR's fine and it to our knowledge is safe'.  
 

I went away and spoke to, I didn't really know what to do. So I spoke to a friend from university who's a GP, who's got two children. And she was really, really helpful. She first of all, she told me the fact that any severe reactions, such as anaphylactic shock, which is what I was very concerned about, would happen very quickly.

One of the things that had been mentioned to me when I went to the hospital was that I could get the immunisations in a hospital setting. But it would be done at twelve and I'd be sent home about eight. And because there was an eleven hours delay before the reaction happened last time, I thought, 'Well, I can stay at the hospital for eight hours, but that's not really going to help me, if she's going to have an reaction at two o'clock in the morning'. So the fact, it was very reassuring to know that any severe reaction would happen very quickly, so at least I would be in hospital, if that happened. The other thing she said was the fact that I should go back to my GP and ask for a second opinion, because obviously I wasn't satisfied with the information that I'd got so far. And that I should actually ask to speak to someone who's a specialist, a paediatric immunologist. So I went back to my GP and he was extremely helpful. And he did give me the number of a paediatric immunologist.