Even a fool may be wise after the event. -- Homer said it well -- and maybe someone wiser than me will read this and not make the same mistake I did!
I had a terrible experience this week:
I was making my lunch on Wednesday later in the afternoon around 3 pm, cutting leeks for a stir fry. It was a day of great accomplishment for me and I felt pretty good about it. But I was slicing fairly quickly and with some force, when I sliced right through the top 1/6th of my fingernail and well into the flesh! Immediately it began to bleed and immediately I pressed the two pieces of flesh together and prayed severely for a couple of seconds. I grabbed a paper towel and thought about what I should do ... no one was home (my husband was overseas for his work) and I needed two hands to put on a bandage. I suppose I COULD have managed on my own (and now I wish I had), but for some strange and stupid reason I wanted someone besides me, to help me.
I didn't know where the nearest medical clinic was so I got out the phone book and found a one not far from where I live. I had not noticed it during the last four years we'd lived in the area ... I got in my car and drove up to find someone to help me put a bandage on my finger.
I had to wait, but time passed quickly because I was reading about the quality of food served in university kitchens. (Most of it is, shamefully, of bad quality but Guelph University (my Alma Mater) has come out near the top with great healthy meals and they even have a vegan eatery!)
Back to my story: I was called into a little room, a doctor came in and looked at the wound and said because it was right through the nail, no stitches could be made. That was ok with me. And then she asked if my "tetanus shot was up to date". Regretfully but truthfully, I said "no".
(The last time I'd heard the word 'tetanus', my son had cut his baby fingernail clean off while working on a construction site this past summer and I took him to the hospital to get it bandaged. While he was there the nurse told him he should have a tetanus shot and he flatly refused - he hates needles - so the nurse called in the doctor who explained the whole story of how ugly it could get if he didn't have a tetanus shot. He refused again. The nurse came back and reiterated how important it was to get a tetanus shot and at that point, I was ready to take it for him! their stories were so scary. But he was 20 years old and needed to make up his own mind - I held my peace. He still refused, and he's fine, and now I really admire him for it.)
Back to my story: The doctor sent in the receptionist who I'd told that I was not allergic to anything (not wanting to get into the details of being sensitive to about 30 compounds I found out through my mercury-related dental visits). The receptionist (really a nurse in nurse's garb) pulled out this smaller-than-business-card size package and broke out a little needle (which I refused to look at, remembering the horrid huge needles shoved into our arms and legs in public school) and she did her thing. "Wow, that was painless," I thought. It wasn't as bad as I remembered.
I felt ok for the rest of the day.
The next day however, I began to feel a familiar feeling - the feeling I used to get when I was overworked and stressed and my period was about to come on. The feeling you have when you KNOW if you don't sleep right NOW, something will get you. I had planned to have tea with a friend that evening, so I did a little clean up, drove my daughter to school (it was pouring) and quickly laid down for a nap, 35 minutes before my friend was to arrive. Next thing I knew, the doorbell rang and my friend was here for tea.
When she arrived, I immediately began coughing and gagging and sniffling and feeling horrible. (Note that since I had started taking those good vitamin supplements over a year ago, I had not had to deal with any cold or flu symptoms at all, so this was very strange for me.) This was definitely a reaction to the tetanus shot. So while I was making tea, I took some extra supplements but I was feeling very cold. I also had a very hard time thinking, I was so distracted with the symptoms, or, was my brain also affected by the tetanus shot? It felt like it. That evening I had to do some more driving; picking up both kids from the Mumford Road bus terminal (because it was really really pouring), and after my friend left, I took some more vitamins and went to bed.
Although I was tired, I had a hard time sleeping and I sweated so much that I thoroughly wet my nightgown and bed sheets. The next day was a challenge as well, fighting cold symptoms and a bad headache, but doing my work as usual and taking extra vitamin C and anti-oxidants. The next night my daughter challenged me to go to bed early and I did - 9 pm. At 2 pm I woke up soaked again with sweat, so I got up, took some more antioxidants, changed my night clothes, changed my sheets, got a warm fuzzy blanket to cover me, took another sleeping pill and slept until 6:45 in the morning.
Went to the market with my daughter who did a little research on-line and found this site that states mercury is used in tetanus shots (http://www.vaccinetruth.org/page_8.htm). When she read me the info I was MAD at myself for taking that tetanus shot!!! I was furious because I had been doing my best to rid my body of as much mercury as possible.
ARGHHH!!! It's like spending the summer getting all the weeds out of your garden and then calling in a specialist who proceeds to throw a handful of tiny weed seeds over it.
Here is an excerpt from the doctor's essay I mentioned:
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"Tetanus occurs when a wound is not properly cleaned and the germ is trapped in the wound and cut off from oxygen. Typically this would be a puncture wound where the skin would close up quickly leaving infection underneath as with a rusty nail. Wounds that bleed will never result in tetanus because the tetanus bacillus is anaerobic. ...
It is an article of faith, widely accepted by doctors and patients alike, that tetanus is almost invariably fatal, especially if the person is not vaccinated. This fear is so deeply entrenched that I have personally seen patients dutifully wait in a busy emergency department for hours to get a tetanus shot because they had sustained a superficial cut while washing dishes.
Before I knew better, and because the "standard of care" dictates that every cut gets a tetanus shot, I handed these shots out like candy, believing it was better to "over protect" than to risk the development of a "fatal" case of tetanus.
Discovering that most people recover from an acute bout of tetanus was unexpected, but it was disconcerting to find that many of the reported cases of tetanus were in "fully vaccinated" people. ...
Therefore, routinely vaccinating every 10 years, as the journal article suggests, simply to maintain "adequate antibody levels" is uncalled for and may not only provide the person with a false sense of security, it may actually cause harm. Tetanus vaccines haven't gotten the "bad press" many of the other vaccines have recently received. In the zeal to protect from this "deadly disease," it is imagined that the risk of infection far exceeds the potential risk of the vaccine. What harm could it do? I thought the vaccine only contained inactivated tetanus toxin and sterile water. I am convinced that is the perception of nearly all physicians. IT WAS DISTURBING TO LEARN OF THE OTHER INGREDIENTS THAT ARE IN THE TETANUS TOXOID VACCINE: FORMALDEHYDE; SODIUM PHOSPHATE MONOBASIC; SODIUM PHOSPHATE DIBASIC, (AN EYE AND SKIN IRRITANT THAT MAY BE HARMFUL IF INGESTED); GLYCINE, ALUMINUM, AND 25 ug. OF THIMEROSOL (MERCURY). There is obviously more to the tetanus vaccine than inactivated toxoid! In the Emergency Department, if the tetanus status of a patient is "unknown," an additional shot is routinely given, because it is thought to be harmless. However, this is simply bad medicine. If the person doesn't need the tetanus booster, the vaccine can cause a severe allergic reaction referred to as an Arthus type, Type III hypersensitivity reaction. This side effect is defined as "an acute inflammatory reaction caused by deposition of antigen -- antibody complexes into the tissues."
The "Arthus type" variation classically causes a reaction only at the injection site, but the result is an acute necrotizing vasculitis and localized necrosis (death) of the tissues. The reaction starts 2 -- 8 hours after a tetanus toxiod injection and occurs if the person has very high serum antitoxin antibodies due to overly frequent injections. In addition to the local reaction, severe systemic reactions can occur. A partial list of adverse events includes headache; nausea; vomiting; arthralgias; tachycardia; syncope (fainting); cranial nerve paralysis; and a variety of neurological complications including EEG disturbances, seizures and encephalopathy; anaphylaxis and Gullian-Barre' syndrome. RECOMMENDING "ROUTINE" TETANUS BOOSTERS BASED ON MATHEMATICAL MODELS OF ANTIBODY DEGRADATION CAN RESULT IN SEVERE COMPLICATIONS AND IS RISKY BUSINESS, INDEED."
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Now, I may not have had the reactions they're talking about but one thing I do know is that I was well able to ward off all cold and flu symptoms for over a year - up until I got the tetanus shot. I was not expecting a reaction but I got as sick as a dog and there seems to be no other explanation for the weakness in my body over those few days.
I admit, I was ignorant (it's not the first time) but I was also in a vulnerable position. I didn't know I was allowing mercury to be needled into my body and that's why I was so angry. I think I'll get a little medic alert bracelet that tells the medical profession I'm allergic to their drugs.
The lesson today is; do some research about vaccinations before you blindly go and get them for yourself or your children.
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