Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A shot in the dark

Bloggy Friends, you’ve always helped me out (except for Victoria Beckham’s phone number, but that was a tough one, I grant you), so can I ask you to come to my aid again? Two things.

First, I want to set up that clever system whereby whenever one of you writes one of your fabulously witty and interesting posts, I am notified. I think there are various sites on which I can do this, so just tell me the best one (for ‘best’, read ‘simplest’).

Second, and this is a bit more of a challenge, help me out with cross-Atlantic immunization issues (and I’m not just talking about the spelling). The story so far: 4-yo had all her infant jabs. She is due her pre-school boosters. Immunization schedules are different in the US and UK. The whole DTP bundle is given five times in the US to a child by the time it reaches school age, to the UK’s four. Is this cost-cutting by the NHS, or cynical cashing in by US drug companies? Or neither? I have no way of knowing. Are they different products or different doses, and will it matter? Trawling the internet hasn’t yielded an answer.

Immunizations are compulsory here, so in order to attend preschool, 4-yo had to have a letter from her doctor saying that there were medical reasons for her not to be immunized. (Odd, isn’t it, that in a nation that holds so dear the principle of personal freedom, people are quite happy to be compelled to have their children immunized – can you imagine the outcry there would be in Britain?) I told 4-yo’s doctor that she could have her pre-school booster when we were on holiday in Scotland, sticking to the UK schedule. Keep things simple. I have now had to tell him that the GP in Scotland said it was too complicated to give her the shot because she was no longer registered with him, he didn’t have her records, and it meant he would have to register her as a temporary resident, which took two weeks. At this point, I warmed greatly to my doctor here, when he said “but that’s the kind of thing we say in this country”. I love it when I come across an American who can laugh at America. Anyway, he now wants a bit more information on what exactly 4-yo was injected with, as an infant, and so I am charged with phoning my very nice and long-suffering health visitor and getting the information from her (without either of us saying “wouldn’t it just have been easier if Dr X had agreed to do the job when you were over?”).

Option A: postpone the whole issue, assume 4-yo isn’t going to be exposed to polio, diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus (especially given that every other child has been immunized), get my nice doctor here to write the medical exemption note for preschool, and have another try at sorting it all out when we are next in Britain.

Option B: get her to have the American booster, and trust to luck that it won’t do her any harm, but actually after the conversation with the doctor, I’m already committed to

Option C: get information from the health visitor in Scotland (which may well not help anyway).

Option D: an immunologist, who enjoys blogging in his/her spare time, happens to read this post, and is able to tell me authoritatively what to do. That would be nice. De-lurk, kind passing immunologist.

They’re shots in America, jabs in England, jags in Scotland. Shots, jabs, jags, whatever. They’re a pain in the behind.

12 comments:

  1. Can't help you with the jabs issue.

    The blog list though - if you mean like the one I have that shows the latest post from anyone on your list then go to "customise" then "add gadget" and then "Blog List". You then have to add the links to the blogs you want to follow. And hey presto - there you go!

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  2. ha mud beat me to it - i was going to say exactly the same! Great to have you back yay!

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  3. Wish I could help, but as you know, I am NOT a passing immunologist. More's the pity. I could make a fortune, I reckon, answering the questions of mums like us who want to do the right thing but have no idea what that is...

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  4. bloglines.com

    that's how i do it.

    you sign in, create a list of blogs, and when one is in bold face, it means it's been updated.

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  5. For a blog list-I use Google.You go to Google and register and then there's a blue square thing with lines on it in the address bar and you click that and it takes you to a google reader page and you clivk and it's added. I have a Mac, so don't know if the blue thing is on all computers. Some blogs have a place to sign up for a RSS reader. Hope this helps.

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  6. The thing with A is that if you're not going to England again next year, you'll run into the same issue before she starts K, and big schools are likely to be less leniant about it.
    I wouldn't trust that she won't get anything because everyone else is immunized - she will run into more humans than just kids so that kind of risk could come from anywhere.
    Seems to me that you have 2 options - find out how much of the vaccine she has already had, and then communicate with your American doctor about whether or not she needs any more. Or, you could just go for the American booster after you have verified that possibly getting more than the required amount won't harm her. The second one is probably going to be simpler.
    My sister works in child healthcare. I could ask her if she knows the amount of vaccine a 4 year old child would have been given in the UK?

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  7. I also use Bloglines and like it a lot. You can google it pretty easily and then add blogs you read to your list. (Oh wait. Laurie gave you the address. Never mind).

    As for the immunizations, I think I'd just bite the bullet and have her get them here. But then I'm paranoid!

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  8. Good luck wading your way through the bureaucracy of the healthcare system!

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  9. I use bloglines too. Can't help with the jab issues though, hope you find someone who can.

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  10. Hello fellow Brit in the USA!
    I hear you over the immunisation minefield that is life in the USA! It has had me in a tizzy running between my pediatrician over here and my healthcare gurus in the UK! And more annoyingly, every time I make a stand with my prediatrician as to why one of the boys doesn't really need that needle, I seem to get talked into the shot. Hmph.
    Good luck and I enjoy your blog btw..

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  11. now i AM a passing immunologist. Actually i'm not, that was a tedious attempt at humour.

    Can't help on the jabs thing, i've got into a COMPLETE muddle giving jabs to four kids in two countries, especially as they seem to have introduced some new meningitis ones that i have given to my fourth one, and that my other ones didn't get.

    please, unless it's obligatory, don't let them do the TB jab. or if you have to, clamp your child on your lap and pin her arm down, DO NOT let a french doctor lie your child down to jab her, then f*&%k up the jab, put it in too deep and then YOU have to deal with the massive abcess that comes up on your child's lymph node. I'm STILL seething. and my child is STILL scarred from where the abcess ruptured.

    yes i'm very cross indeed.

    and i've been no help to you whatsoever.

    i guess if i were in the states, at least i could sue the doctor.

    hope your immunologist has checked in and enlightened you!

    Pigx

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  12. Bloglines is the best.

    You probably already sorted out what to do but I'd definitely lean towards a combination of cost-cutting by the NHS and over-doing it by the Americans. I see this all the time, like women needing to get a smear every year in the US versus every three in the UK. While the truth is probably in the middle, if you have access to good health insurance I'd always go for better safe than sorry, especially since the risks of immunizations are not scientifically proven very well but the risks of child-hood disease are well-established.

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