Today, I want to talk about Vaccines and their role in keeping CHD children alive and healthy.
CHD children are a conundrum when it comes to vaccines, while we are at a higher risk of certain infections and a higher risk of complications of still more illnesses, we are also at a higher risk of complications from the vaccines themselves. So rather than just following along with the recommendations meant for healthy individuals, parents and pediatricians need to be careful about which shots to give, when, and how spread out or close together in time they are.
Remember that CHD children are exceedingly prone to developmental delays, not just in terms of cognitive and motor skills, but also in terms of physical growth and development. That includes the development of the immune system and metabolism. The things we use to deal with diseases, vaccines, and chemicals that enter our systems. This is why someone with congenital heart disease may need to wait on some vaccines or spread out vaccines that would ordinarily be given at once or close together.
There are also certain things which may make some vaccines totally inappropriate. I for one, suffered a few seizures following my 1st heart surgery. This makes the Pertussis vaccine, which protects against whooping cough, which is known to cause seizures in some cases, totally unavailable to me, the rest were delayed to keep pace with my development, not the "normal" curve that I wasn't on.
At the same time, CHD also makes some vaccines that children normally don't need, a must. The recommendation for people with chronic heart/pulmonary disease is that they receive a dose of the PNR Vaccine, which protects against the most common strains of bacterial pneumonia, every 5 years as children, followed by one booster after age 18 to be followed by the newer Prevnar13 vaccine a year later. This final two shot sequence is repeated one last time after age 65. I actually just got my adult PNR.
It is also of particular importance to keep up on one's flu vaccinations, as a severe case can turn into viral pneumonia.
I am not sure if my vaccine Schedule was thrown off but I do know while a baby also had a seizure which almost killed me. Anyhow this is the reason that it is important for those who can be vaccinated to be vaccinated.
ReplyDeleteA child like yourself- depended on herd immunity to protect you against a lot of horrible diseases.