Misadventures of the 10lees

Hey - you got the chicken pox vaccine - didn't hurt you now did it??? :) It's YOUR MOTHER'S fault if you dON'T wash your hands - I was never too big on it. I do now though. ISN'T THAT AMAZING - I raised meself. I know my Mom said to do it sometimes - I just don't remember being told alot or all the time. :) Social norms have caused me to wash them more often - helping Mom w/meds and food and working at the espresso stand. Gotta wash me hands in all these instances - :) Middle of the nite pees - nope! But I won't see you then anyway. This is my rant. Hey call me sometime! Mom!

I wash my hands obsessively, but I am told that this is because I have OCD traits. Which actually makes a lot of sense to me and explains a lot. ;)

On the whole, I think vaccines are good (because what if you have chicken pox and expose someone whose immune system is compromised--my mom still has never had chicken pox, and I worry about her now that she's getting older but still works with toddlers), but I agree that antibacterial soap is bad. As someone who got all the good bacteria in her stomach killed off once and was left with only the bad bacteria, that is a situation you do not want. Ugh. It is the stuff my nightmares are made of. Plus, antibacterial soap makes our bodies less able to fight off germs. S-T-U-P-I-D.

Let me clear something up. Vaccines build antibodies. Vaccines are composed of weakened or inactivated versions of the disease and the body uses the genetic makeup of these weakened bits to build antibodies from. Also, multiple strains can be included in a single antigen. For example, this year's flu vaccine contained weakened versions of the 3 most prominent strains from last year. This means that your body is building 3 antibodies.

Try asking someone with pock marks leftover from their youth whether they would've rather gone through the disease naturally or had it prevented with vaccine.

So, I let my daughter run all over the hotel room today (we're on a business trip with Daddy, he's doing business, we're wrecking havok on the hotel). I even let her eat some bread that fell on the floor. I felt a tad guilty letting her explore all the germs in the room... then I read your post, and decided to get over it.

I'm just going to say that at this age, she fights diseases well (thanks to the antibodies I provide her), so I'm helping her stay better in the long run, right? Okay, probably not, but that's my current theory. Plus, if I had tried to stop her from tearing through the room, exploring every germ-filled nick and cranny, I would have driven myself mad. (I kept her out of the bathroom, and so overall decided it was a successful day.) So, in essence, I may be exposing her from germs, but I am protecting her from an insane mother. I think it's a good trade off.

I did not get the chicken pox vaccine mom, for one thing it wasn't invented when i was younger, for another I had the chicken pox in kindergartden - roland had it the same year.

Ok fine - vaccines are ok normally. Maybe I'm against them because I can't get the smallpox vaccine, but I'm all for MMR. I don't know many people covered in pox marks from chicken pox... And I think tetnus shots are silly when most of us aren't exposed to rusty things on a daily basis. But maybe I am unscared of tetnus because it was my nickname as a child...

And Laura, I agree, keeping her out of the bathroom is good, but you can't stress yourself out over a toddler - they'll get into everything anyway. I also think it silly to clorox everything to death. I mean, I'd clean something with clorox to kill really bad germs, but not everyday because my child sneezed on it (clorox commercials - you know who you are)...

dont you get tetnus shots b/c they last for 10 years? cuz like... i've cut myself on sharp, OLD knives before, and have not worried about getting tetnus b/c i know i'm up to date... its more of a peace of mind, right?

also, i ate mud pies as a child (on dares, of course!) and i think that i would be much worse off if i didnt. i have an auto-immune disorder, and most of my family suffers from one (less and more serious, depending on many things). so i'm pretty convinced that my auto-immune disorder is mild b/c my ability to fight germs is so high.

but theories are theories, right?

Well - you received all the vaccines at the time - but I rmember a time when I was reading Mother Earth magazine that I became very much against vaccines - but you guys were past that time in your lives. I think you have your vaccine book - or do I? You had a really smart dr. - if you had a cold or an ear infection or looked alittle peekid - he wouldn't give you a shot. I would bring you back for another time.
Maybe you should get the Shingles vaccine - hey maybe I SHOULD! ;)

From the CDC:
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends a single dose of the shingles (Herpes Zoster) vaccine for adults 60 years old or older.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/shingles/in-short-adult.htm

hey jeff - my mom isn't yet 60, and I guess this means I don't need it! :-) I think she probably meant we should get it because my g'ma (who lives at my mom's house due to her dwindling health) just had an episode with shingles and it isn't pretty. Nor does it seem to go away 100% after you've had it. Poor grandma...

dr g - I do get the tetnus vaccine, but it is because I have rust stuck under my skin from when I had an encounter with a rusty nail freshman year in college. I was forced to get the vaccine to continue at Bethel during my Freshman year... and last year I updated it.

We can all have theories about what makes us stronger - but there is some evidence to suggest that fighting off germs does make our body stronger in the long run.

I didn't know you had to be 60 to get that shingles shot - thanks Jeff. :)
I have always had the opinion that keeping the house - oh not too clean will strengthen us.
Your Dad used to say - what won't kill will fatten - :)
And remember those in our lives - Rick H. who's mom is a germaphobic and he is the sickest (healthwise) individual out there. But the mom has a really clean house.
I have another friend who is totally germaphobic - but she's also sick ALL THE TIME.
:) Love you, Mom

I used to not care, and I mostly still don't. My apartment is anything but clean, however I've been known to buy the occasional hand sanitizer. Mostly because the people I work with are quite nasty. Coughing all over the damn place and not covering their mouths. Now that shit is nasty. Plus after I got the whole tonsillitises thing and owe like a grand in medical bills I've learned to hate the germ spreaders I work with. If they weren't all nasty I wouldn't really care.