Vaccines & Autism - It's Personal

I'm going to try to be breif here because I don't intend to start any wars or to cause polarization or offense to any readers. This blog is about being real, and talking about my experience with my autism and the things that relate to that. And no matter how many times they say vaccines have nothing to do with autism, I personally don't believe it.

But something is wrong here.

From my friend Missy Kay:

"They need to realize there are medically fragile and immune compromised children who can't handle the intense doses and sheer number of vaccines in the schedule! It's not one size fits all like they want it to be! My children developed encephalitis from the vaccines causing their immune systems to attack their brains as toddlers! It's not rare!"

This is a mom I know personally, and though her kids are precious and beautiful, they were harmed by their vaccines. This was a mom doing what she thought was the right thing, getting them their shots. Her kids will NEVER be the same. Thats a NEVER in capital letters. 

What does this have to do with autism, you may ask?

Well, it's not that vaccines "cause" autism, not exactly, in my opinion.

But here is what I DO believe. I believe that some people are more sensitive to things. For me, I am affected by medicine more than others. My husband seems to be more affected than I am. How much more are kids vulnerable to this kind of sensitivity? How much more are infants? You can't even give an infant solid food yet, but you can introduce into their body a whole list full of chemically filled vaccines. How do we not think that this might not be the safest idea?

When giving a child medicine of any kind, they determine the dose by weight usually right? There should be another consideration - sensitivity. Unfortunately, this is hard to measure. I'm not even sure if there is currently a way to determine if a child or person is more sensitive to medication than others. I know I'm more sensitive, but I'm an adult. An infant, who's never encountered medication or anything like that (outside of what mom may have received when pregnant), can't really stand up and say "I'm a bit sensitive to that". Hours of crying - I'm talking hours of painful, terrifying screaming - have happened to babies following a shot. 

Infants are new to the world and everything they encounter is new. That includes vaccines. And with no way to tell which baby is going to be sensitive and which baby isn't, we are just left forcing a one size fits all method on all babies, regardless of weights or health.

The fact is, when you flat out say everyone needs to be vaccinated, every single person no matter what, you are causing others to be in great danger. My friend's children are paying the price for the vaccine pushing you support. They will pay for their entire lives. When you watch your child, or hear the story right from a family who's child got a shot, then got sick right after, you can't help but feel brokenhearted.

If parents want to vaccinate, that's fine, I have no problem with that at all. We vaccinate. I think if more people were willing to listen, they would find out that the people speaking out for vaccine freedom are NOT anti-vaccine, for the most part. I think people would find out that they support what vaccines do, but not how they are pushed on us. Multiple doses, mixed shots, these are things we didn't have just a few years ago. The number of shots kids have, both in one visit, and over their childhood, is technically new to medicine. There hasn't been any testing or research done on what this many things shot into a child actually does. We are the test subjects. Vaccines are tested individually, but not in combination, and not in the schedule they are given. Safe by itself is not the same as safe with 5 other vaccines.

Even worse, there is usually not a lot you can do if your child is harmed. Even with the 1.8 BILLION paid out in the vaccine injury compensation program, only 2 out of 3 vaccine injured children win their cases. And that is only a much smaller portion of vaccine injured kids who actually succeed at getting that far, most don't even make it past their own doctor's offices, which responses like "one has nothing to do with the other". 

Now, imagine your kid fell off a table and hit their head on the concrete. They acted normal for a while, but suddenly became nonverbal, lethargic and sick. You go to the doctor, tell them he fell off the table and hit his head, and they tell you that one has nothing to do with the other. Would you actually believe this to be the case? Unfortunately, this is exactly what is happening to many parents of vaccine injured children. 2200 cases of vaccine injury, totaling 1.8 BILLION dollars, and that's only 1 out of 3 kids who make it to court. Only some 30% of kids who actually make it to court actually win their case. 

Think about it. When you're fighting a multi bazillion dollar medical industry, who do you think is going to be able to afford the better lawyers, and to control the information and research presented. It is so specific that there is a list of reactions, and those reactions have to have happened in a specific timeline after the shot to be considered. As if every kid and every case is identical!

Knowing how a huge majority of people with autism are actually undiagnosed makes me think that we don't even have a proper handle on what the effect of vaccines (or other medicine) actually has on the system of a person with autism. The autism "epidemic" is mostly in kids or adults in early 20's, because that's how long it has been "common knowledge". We don't know anything about how things affect them life long - into their 30's and 40's. We don't know how it affects the brain, or the body, as life goes on, especially as people enter into senior citizen status and start getting recommended more shots again.

So your kid fell off the table, the doctor wont believe you, and goes looking for the stomach flu instead of concussion (when it is clear to you it is concussion) and your child is either permanently changed for their whole life, or they die. Many parents of vaccine injured kids face this, and don't even make it to court about it. Then only 1/3 of kids who do make it actually get compensated. Blows my mind.

Shots harm.
YOUR CHILD MAY DIE. YOUR CHILD MAY NEVER BE THE SAME.

Is this an acceptable situation, all over a vaccine? 

 Do parents have the right to decide for their children what medical care they get (until they are old enough to make the decision themselves)? Do adults have the right to decide for themselves and keep their jobs (as in the case of teachers/nurses/child care providers/etc)? Do you, personally, think that the vaccine injured kids all over this country is worth you being protected from a disease you may never actually encounter, and would likely recover from with the medical care we think is so important? You look into the eyes of people like my friend Missy, and their children, and tell them that they are just a casualty in the war against disease. 

You'd really have to be one heartless person to do that. 

It's personal. I should have the freedom to ask my doctor to delay certain vaccines, or split them up (and I do, so far, thankfully). I should have the freedom to deny them all if I want to, simply based on the fact that I know, firsthand, personally, that kids are harmed by them. So should you. 

To be honest, you don't even have the freedom to get vaccines, if you don't have the freedom to say no. Freedom means you have the choice to do or not do. If you remove one or both sides, that's not freedom.

       

Agreed - Wish I Had A TShirt...

Edit: I'm due on June 24. The rest is accurate.

Being Pregnant, With Symptoms

My first pregnancy looked like it walked out of a book. I never had any Braxton Hicks, I never had acne, I wasn't sick, all I ended up with were stretch marks and a huge amount of exhaustion. I slept quite a lot, and was so tired. Otherwise, it was a pregnancy out of a dream, ending with a 7 1/2 hour labor that I consider to be an excellent experience, completely the opposite of the horror stories everyone likes to scare new moms with. I'm the kind of person pregnant moms should talk to because I had a positive experience!

This pregnancy is different. This pregnancy is annoying. I'm starting to think that if I had felt this way with my first pregnancy, I probably wouldn't have hesitated to never get pregnant again. The beginning was unbearable sickness all day long. I felt sick all the time. All I could eat was bland food, bread, cereal, cheese tortillas, that kind of thing. I wished I could puke because it might have actually made me feel better!

I am much more annoyed this time around too, though that might have to do with the fact that I have a 6 year old and two indoor cats, which I didn't have the first time around. I usually love my cats, and I have a favorite one, but even she is driving me up the wall. I'd like to just smack her. She's taken up yowling at night/early in the morning and its just annoying! She's so loud, and I wake up at the first little sound! It's like she's trying to get me to practice being woken up or something! It's ok cat, I've practiced before! For now, let me sleep!

I'm really intolerant of specific people when I'm pregnant. This is something I remember from the first time around too. It's just that every single thing they say drives me up the wall. So, back to avoiding certain people again. :P

I have my good old "numb" spot again. It's right at the ribcage above my stomach, kinda where your body bends there. It just feels as if that little section has fallen asleep or something. That can be rather annoying and uncomfortable. I guess I had forgotten about that from the first time around.

I have had ligament pain! Oh the ligament pain! When I move, when I sneeze, when I cough, when I turn, it can happen anytime, anywhere. I feel as if this means that I'm going to be having B-H this time around.

I have a few other unmentionable issues that I have never dealt with in my whole life. Hopefully they don't get worse than they are, because so far, its manageable, but weird.

I can smell more than I could before. I'm saying that because if I don't wash the sheets AND blankets on our bed once a week, all I can smell is BO. It's not even that its BAD, or anything, but its strong enough to annoy me and not let me relax. I can take about one night of it and the next day they are in the wash. Totally annoying.

The first pregnancy, I could not stand the smell of meat at all. This time, I would almost say I crave a good burger, but I'm not gorging on them or anything. Sure, the one time I could justify having a burger and I still don't really have a craving!

I've been eating a lot of veggie sandwiches and salads. MMMM. However, like most everything else, the prices on things like lettuce drives me nuts! Up, down, up, down, all over the place. It can easily triple in a week. Makes it hard to budget food. :P

I know I should be doing some kind of physical activity, but I just cant bring myself to actually do it. So far all the pregnancy workout videos I've gotten from netflix have just drove me nuts with how corny they are. Lame and corny. 

So anyway, that's my short list. I could go on, but I'm getting hungry and restless. This pregnancy sure is different, and I've really got my heart set on a girl this time around. Here's hoping!