My friend emailed me this morning to tell me I am going to die. Not really. But she did say that the 71A had a measles exposure, obviously during times I rode the darn thing. This story provides a bit more information--the culprit was a person from India, measles can lead to pneumonia, I should be afraid of every single person who doesn't look like me (pregnant, caucasian, etc.).
In all seriousness, a case of the measles would be a big deal for me right now, because my immune system is so low with my pregnancy. But I think my mom got me the MMR vaccination when I was little. If it was something they were vaccinating for, I'm sure I had it.
This news has come during a time when I am just starting to seriously consider and research vaccines. There is so much to think about when you are in charge of a new life, and I want to make the right decisions. I will say that the presence of a "foreign other" potentially infecting me and Baby Love on the bus has added new weight to the choice. I am vaccinated and unafraid, but what if Baby Love had not yet been vaccinated? Or what if that was one of the ones I chose to skip, since folks in the US don't get measles?
It's such a cyclical argument. I don't know what to do, except call up the midwives and keep reading my books.
After years of nomadic temporary employment, advanced degrees, and chocolate ice cream, a rugger with a love of knitting and a cyclist with no domestic skills signed a Ketubah and bought a house in Pittsburgh.
5 comments:
Please please vaccinate.
I know business week isn't the best looking resource but this is a great article: http://www.businessweek.com/careers/workingparents/blog/archives/2006/08/parents_please-.html
Please vaccinate Baby Love Lev. The positivies far out weigh the negatives. Just look in the mirror for a positive you're fine after riding on a bus with an infected person. If people decide not to vaccinate sometime in the future of your great, great, grandchildren there will be an epidemic of these diseases. And that generation will suffer just like the ones who did before we had vaccinations.
Please don't buy into the anti-vax woo-woo. If you want scientific studies, I can provide them.
Vaccinate Baby Lev!
Don't feel bad. We're all exposed to a host of third world diseases. Look at me, I'm living with a guy who's girlfriend's apartment was infested with bed bugs from the asshat upstairs neighbor. Her boyfriend, my roommate, then managed to contract latent TB from of the grad students in the math department. Then he broke his clavicle. Granted, anyone in any type of world can break a clavicle, but still. At least there's the potential for having been vaccinated as a child for MMR. Hurray!
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