Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
17 Nov
Well. After all of the fun and games of the past few days, I’m relieved to report that the NHS have had a dramatic change of heart, and decided that they WILL be offering Terry the swine flu vaccination after all – but only because they had a cancellation. He’s getting the injection tomorrow, which is good news, although I have to say, some of the comments on yesterday’s post, in which people reported almost dying from the vaccination itself have freaked me out good, so it looks like we’re in for another couple of days of The Panic while we wait to see what happens.
I’m still angry, though. I’m angry that we had to fight so hard to get this, and I’m now wondering about all of the OTHER people with serious health conditions (cancer patients on chemo, other transplant/dialysis patients etc) in our area who probably WON’T be getting it – or at least not for a while. The only reason Terry is getting the vaccine is because we were prepared to make a fuss about it (And to answer some of the comments from yesterday, yes, my next step would have been to take it to the media, and invite them to clean up the mess they’ve apparently helped to create.). Many other people won’t do that, though, because they won’t know about the “pregnant women only” policy currently in effect, and that seems very unfair to me.
All of this aside, though, I’m glad Terry will get the vaccination, although terrified by some of the stories I’ve been hearing about possible horrendous side-effects. Needless to say, I’ll be glad when all this is over and I can go back to worrying about normal, non life-threatening issues.
Isn’t it about time for my holiday yet?
As a caveat (and I only know this because two friends are undergoing chemo as I write) I would say that because of the serious immunosuppressant effects of chemo they might not be offered it because it would do more harm than good. I understand why pregnant women are high on the priority list (pregnancy suppresses your immune system, bewilderingly – bit of a design flaw there), but find it horrifying to think that people like Terry who do have an underlying condition that obviously requires them to stay in as good health as humanly possible might be turned away because of poor preparation and ill thought out policies.
I’m glad he’s getting the jab, and I’m very glad you made a fuss about it.
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That was just the first example off the top of my head – insert any other severe illness that seriously compromises the immune system there
I just don’t think those people should be denied the vaccination because of a “pregnant women only” policy, although I do agree that pregnant women should be given it too.
Suppressing the pregnant mother’s immune system stops the baby’s tissue being rejected. A lot of people don’t think about this but as a baby your mother’s immune system does not attack you while you are in the womb. But if you were to donate a kidney to your mother years or even weeks later the mother’s body would reject the tissue instantly.
The way that the pregnant body does not attack the baby in the womb is one of the main hopes to transplant patients in the future. If we can discover exactly how the body decided not to attack the baby then this could be replicated in transplant patients as a new and less dangerous option than current drugs..
Thanks, Terry – good to understand that better.
Alex´s last blog ..Social Media Day: Chameleon Net and #nfptweetup
Perhaps pregnancy suppresses the immune system to prevent rejection of the growing alien presence
Anyway, good news to hear that Terry’s getting his jab. I wonder if there really was a cancellation – perhaps they have a policy of telling some story about priorities when in fact they just don’t have enough to go round so are withholding the vaccine in the hope that most people will say, “oh well then,” and go away without complaining…
Huzzah! I’m glad he’s getting the vaccination, and hope that he suffers no ill-effects from it. Here’s hoping the NHS relax the rules for other patients in Terry’s position as well, it’s really out of order for them to behave in this way.
Glad he’ll get the shot, but still an outrageous situation over there!! As I said, I got it yesterday, in the evening I had some body aches and temperature rise, but today it’s fine. My arm still hurts, but I guess I can live with that
I heard scary stuff about the adjuvents though :/ Hope everything turns out right!! Best wishes!
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Thanks for pointing that out Nina – I had no idea what an adjuvant even was, and from what I can gather, some can make your immune system go into overdrive (though I don’t have time to find out the nature of this).
Which of course is a bit worrying for anyone on immunosuppressants. Hopefully they would have checked for issues in Terry’s case, but maybe the rest of us who take them for non-life-threatening conditions will have to check out exactly what the adjuvants do before getting any vaccine…
Oh thank goodness, so glad you got it sorted
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So chuffed that Terry is getting the vaccine.
Finally they have seem sense – when is yours?
x
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I think “never” is probably the answer to that! That’s OK, though – I’m only supposed to get it so that I can’t pass the flu on to Terry, but I’d assume that as long as he’s had the vaccine, he can’t catch it from me anyway(?) so as long as he’s getting it, I’m happy.
Bizarrely, though, they’ve asked me to go in with him and get the seasonal flu jab, which I asked about weeks ago. Better late than never, I guess!
Thats great news, I’m very pleased for you both!
Bx
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