Raw Water - Please Don't!!!

[GoingNorth]

I've never had an anaphylactic reaction to a vaccine. Back when they went from the needle TB test, to the patch test, where they put the tuberculin on a sort of big bandaid and put that between your shoulder blades, I had a BAD reaction to the adhesive that required medical treatment for a couple of weeks. It was pretty funny, the only part of skin that wasn't blistered was a tiny round bit where the guaze where the tuberculin was.

***For those of you who haven't updated your whooping cough vaccine, get the TDAP asap. It turns out that the original vaccine isn't permanent. While whooping cough can make an adult miserably sick, if that adult transmits the illness to a small child or especially an infant, it can kill them.

 

[Jabberwockey]

Back when they went from the needle TB test, to the patch test,

Huh? When did they come out with the patch test? I get a TB test annually at work and we've always done the needle test.

 

[Nomad]

Doesn't matter much what you call it to me. I have personally met and corresponded with folks with no history of auto immune illness, who took the flu shot and got ITP. Several sued the manufacturer of the and were compensated with little to no fanfare. I actually saw a room of such people. I am in a support group a n line and most have a history like myself. A nice handful are there after receiving the flu shot. They started bruising. All over. Went to the doctor. Got a CBC. Discovered their platelets were very low. Couldn't recuperate. Diagnosed with ITP. Don't care what you call it. I understand it is an unlikely result, effect, etc. whatever. If they never got the flu shot, no one thinks it would if happened to these folks. It doesn't matter the terminology. It is very real.PS I'm sitting in the oncologist office right now waiting for my blood test This is where I have to go for this. I get my medications from a specialty pharmacy. It is crazy. These folks who got this after the flu shot were freakin mad. They were ready for a fight, but the flu shot manufacturers tend to roll over quickly.

 

[AnnieO]

I found out many years ago that they use neomycin on vials to keep them sterile. I, of course, am mildly allergic... So I always take a Benadryl before I get vaccinated.

I got my MMR updated about 6 weeks before I got pregnant with Rose... And TDAP in the hospital, the day they released us after her birth. I also got the flu shot that year and the next. She and Bill get it every year... I do not, because while it doesn't give me the flu (as if it could LOL), I do get feverish and achy for about 5 days. I can't have that. For some reason I don't get the flu... Not even when caring for those who have it. Every cold I get goes to bronchitis though!

 

[GoingNorth]

Huh? When did they come out with the patch test? I get a TB test annually at work and we've always done the needle test.

It was something they tried in the late 60s. I think the idea was to get away from the needle test, which is difficult for some to do as the tuberculin has to be injected between the skin layers, can be painful, and causes most children to freak out. I think the patch test was only in use for a short time, then they went to the prong test. Last time I was tested, it was the prong test, but that was close to 40 years ago.

I had a weakly positive reaction then, so had to have a chest x-ray. They found a small, calcified nodule in the lower lobe of my left lung. Apparently I was exposed to TB as a child, but my body fought it off, walled off the infected area of lung, and over the years it calcified. I now ask for a chest-x-ray if they need a TB test because of the false-positive.

 

[Jabberwockey]

I now ask for a chest-x-ray if they need a TB test because of the false-positive.

Not exactly false but yeah, I know a lot of people who have been exposed during their time in doctor so they have to get the x-rays every time. Still have to start with the PPD test though. Its policy.

 

[GoingNorth]

When I was born, there were quite a few foreign born children that I ran around once I could toddle. I figure the exposure happened either well playing with these kids/hanging out at their apartments/being exposed to their family members, or in school.

 

[GoingNorth]

Yup. My first job in computers was in a hospital, that's where I had the reaction to the tine test, had to have a chest x-ray as well, and found out about the nodule.

 

[susiestar]

Jabber, your reaction to the flu shot was about 20-25 years ago, wasn't it? That was at the time they were doing live but weakened virus vaccines. It may be why you had such a reaction to the flu shot. You did get the flu from it. Now they do not use a live but weakened strain in any vaccine. They found that it actually made for a far more dangerous vaccine for the community as a whole.

I got to learn a whole lot about this back then. My mother has lupus and some other autoimmune problems. The only polio vaccine available outside the health department special order was a live virus. There were actually cases of elderly people or those with autoimmune problems who got polio (in the 1990's!) after changing a diaper or even just being in the household of a child who got the live but weakened virus. I was one of those odd first time moms who read everything and refused to polio shot at the hospital and the well check. Wiz was the first grandbaby and it would have devastated my mother to go without him for 1 week, much less the 6 they recommended!

The 90s were a time when they experimented with live but weakened strains of diseases in vaccines. I do know they had live but weakened flu vaccines available because it was something that we talked about because of my mother. So Jabber might have gotten sick because of a live but weakened flu strain in a flu shot that was given back then. Those are not given now, to my knowledge. It is something that he may want to consider as he thinks about flu shots. Or not.

 

[susiestar]

My daughter thought Raw Water was a fine idea. Maybe it would get rid of some of these idiots who need their own Darwin Awards to guide them away from products like these. Of course they would probably leave huge medical bills unpaid from the effects of whatever was in the Raw Water.

 

[Jabberwockey]

Jabber, your reaction to the flu shot was about 20-25 years ago, wasn't it? That was at the time they were doing live but weakened virus vaccines. It may be why you had such a reaction to the flu shot.

Got it for the first time in 87 or 88, my last winter in the military, and wasn't given the choice. Don't remember when the second one was past the fact that I had been working in D.O.C. for a couple of years at that point so it puts it in the mid 90's. They said back then that they weren't using a live virus. People can say all they want that millions get the shot every year and don't get sick from it. Back then, millions got the shot and didn't get sick from it. I do so I wont.

 

[newstart]

Has anyone heard of a Berkeley water filter? It is suppose to be very good.
I've often wondered if you would have unusually good water if you took it from an unusually fresh stream with very minimum politants and then ran it through this filter prior to drinking. Just some random thought. Probably silly.
I drink a lot of Mountain Valley springs bottled water from a glass jar when I can get it on sale. I also like Evian. I constantly check out sales. The Berkey water filter seems good and eventually I might get it ...likely filtering tap water though.

Nomad I have heard of the Berkey water filter and the people that have one love it. I have a home filter on my entire home and then a reverse asmosisis on our tap water. I have to drink fresh clean water. Plastic bottels are toxic and very bad for the enviroment. I teach water sports in the summer time and ask all my students to please get refillable bottles for their water. I have a glass bottle that I refill and take with me, it has a plastic cover on it so it does not break.

 

[Jabberwockey]

I've considered bringing a filtering pitcher of some kind to work. The water here is crap and in spite of the fact that they have a water softener, lime is abundant. My concern on that would be having it walk away on me.

 

[susiestar]

Most of the filters work well as long as they are changed when they are supposed to be.

Jabber, if the pitcher would walk away, could you keep a water bottle in your desk or locker? Brita makes water bottles that have filters. They work very well and are affordable. You can get replacement filters easily. I think the filters are good for 200 gallons of water, which is a huge amount from a water bottle filter.

As for the flu shots, Jabber, of course you shouldn't get them if you feel they make you get the flu. I wasn't trying to talk you into getting them. I do know that here some of the doctors were really angry with the vaccine providers because they ordered dead virus vaccines and got live virus ones instead, and they were told it was not a live virus. It was a big flap in our community back then. There were even signs outside of some of the doctor's offices that they had dead virus flu shots.

I am sorry that the flu shot seems to be linked to getting sick for you, Jabber. That isn't any fun, especially when you work in a field where the flu must go through everyone like wildfire.

 

[Jabberwockey]

I wasn't trying to talk you into getting them.

Didn't think you were. Most of what I said was a dig at Lil because she is of the opinion that they cant make you sick. The problem with locking things up in my locker is fairly simple. Pretty much any supervisor can check out my keys and they do it on a regular basis to allow custody staff to search my area after hours. Even if I brought in a personal lock, in order to get permission to do so I'd have to give either the combination or a copy of the key to the Chief of Custody so that drawer or locker could be searched. It was a sad day for me (MANY years ago) when the realization hit that I worked amongst a bunch of thieves and they weren't all convicted felons.

 

[BusynMember]

This reasoning is why some people won't vacinate their children. It's not the same thing Jabber. You are an adult and can choose. But it's the same argument

 

[Jabberwockey]

I'm not anti vaccine, just anti flu vaccine. And I have no problem with making children get them either. One of these days work may be more of a dick than usual and force me to get the flu shot. At that point I will get the shot under protest and demanding, not that they would actually give it to me, to get administrative leave for when it makes me sick.

 

[GoingNorth]

I didn't get the MMR jab as a child as I managed to get all three diseases at a very young age.

I had no trouble getting INTO Germany with a medical letter stating that I had had my titers tested and my antibody levels were such that vaccination was not required.

BUT...when the time came to return stateside, I was forced to get the MMR despite titers again showing immunity. US Gov/military insisted upon my being completely vaccinated.

THAT vaccine, given to me, an individual with naturally acquired immunity, made me sicker than a dog for two weeks, including the flaring up of an autoimmune disorder not related in any way to the diseases I was vaccinated for.

Another vaccine that made my life miserable for a couple of weeks were the hepatitis vaccines I had to get for working in a hospital despite not doing patient care.

Your reaction, Jabber, may well not be due to the vaccine itself, but due to the adjuvants used to preserve/potentiate the vaccine's strength.

I haven't had a reaction to adjuvents yet, but nearly lost a dog many years ago to an adjuvant reaction to the 3 yr rabies vaccine.

 

[Jabberwockey]

Your reaction, Jabber, may well not be due to the vaccine itself, but due to the adjuvants used to preserve/potentiate the vaccine's strength.

No idea. Just know its the only vaccine I've ever had a reaction to. Well, other than the penicillin shot they gave everyone when we first arrived for boot camp and that reaction was pretty much universal. Walked around for the next two days feeling like I had a golf ball lodged in my butt cheek!

 

[Lil]

I didn't get the MMR jab as a child as I managed to get all three diseases at a very young age.

You know, I was just saying to Jabber yesterday, I know I got the MMR - and I also know I had both types of measles and mumps! I remember mumps. I don't remember the measles, other than my mom telling me that I had only a very light case of the "hard" measles and that it was from the vaccine. Of course, I'm sure they've improved the vaccines since then. But I distinctly remember having the mumps...only on one side.