It’s 5:45 in the morning. The sun still isn’t up but I forced myself out of bed anyway. I’m not in a hurry, I just want some time on my own.
It’s only February in North Carolina. Today will be a beautiful day.
I stumble to the kitchen, fill my new clay mug with black coffee and warm it. I stop the microwave before it has a chance to beep preferring the quiet. There are many sounds that bother me.
Sipping on my coffee, I sit on the floor next to the furnace grill where the heat comes out. It is still cold outside this morning. Sitting in front of my laptop I stare at a blank screen. What should I write about?
My shoulder is sore from the Tdap vaccine I got yesterday. I happily got this vaccine because it represents getting ready to become a grandmother the first time.
The Tdap is recommended as a booster in adults every 10 years; more frequently if you’ve been injured, especially puncture wounds. It is also now recommended that all adults who haven’t had one recently to get one prior to meeting and being with newly born babies.
Why? Tdap stands for tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis. Tetanus is a disease that causes the body to seize up with muscle spasms that never stop the painful spasm, eventually affecting breathing and leading to death. You end up being frozen in place, unable to move, and unable to breathe. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tetanus
Diphtheria is a sore throat that can kill you. It’s more than that, though. The bug likes to grow in our respiratory system leaving swollen glands (the size that makes it difficult to move and you can see across the room), and open sores. The Tdap vaccine prevents this. https://www.cdc.gov/diphtheria/
Pertussis is the bug that causes Whooping Cough, the 100 day cough, and other lovely names. Pertussis can cause a person to break their own ribs from coughing. https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/about/complications.html
Pertussis is what I am protecting my unborn grand child from. Whooping cough in babies is terrifying. The poor things can barely stop coughing, can hardly breathe, nor eat, and require prompt hospitalization.
We used to think that pertussis didn’t require booster shots, then it started to appear again in adults. My daughter, the one about to have the baby, had it when she was about 15 although she had been vaccinated. As an adult it can be treated with antibiotics. The babies? They cannot handle a lot of the medications that adults can.
So I’ve gotten the vaccine for the safety of my upcoming grandchild.
Judge me. Learn from me. Choose your own way. For me, the vaccine makes sense. The last thing I want is for someone I love to suffer because I was afraid of a jab in the arm.
Thank you for reading,
Dr. Wendi
The Be Healthy Advantage 