Vaccination Records

[geonuc]

I'm sure some of you remember the old vaccination record books everyone had back in the day. Maybe it was just a military family thing. But these little booklets were a record of what vaccination you got and when. Very handy for keeping track of whether you were up to date on vaccinations. especially for foreign travel.

OK, so now I'm looking into my situation (no spleen) and COVID-19. Just before I had the splenectomy, I had to get four vaccinations prior to surgery (and it was a bit of an emergency because I was scheduled for the surgery the next day). Two were for pneumococcus and hemophilous; I think another was for meningitis. I can't recall the fourth. Now, with modern medical technology, you'd think it would be easy to look up on my provider's patient portal. Not so much - I've changed doctors a few times since then and have obtained vaccinations from other sources, such as the pharmacy. So I have little idea whether I'm up to date on the four vaccinations and I'm really missing that little vaccination booklet we had in the military. I know, I should be keeping track myself - especially something so important - but I suck at that sort of thing. And my memory is terrible. I couldn't even tell you what year I had the surgery. Hell, just recently I was recalling the bad hand injury I had last year that prevented me from playing golf for so long and couldn't remember which hand it was. Still can't remember.

[SciFiFisher]

Well, this reminds me of the joke about the guy who had Alzheimer's or a terminal illness. The good news is he couldn't remember.

[SciFiFisher]

On a serious note if you need to know you can get blood tests for some of those and they can tell you if you still have anti-gens for the specific vaccine floating around or if you need a booster shot or two. The other thing to know is that if you are concerned about specific immunizations there is no contraindication to getting them again. The worst-case scenario is you wind up giving yourself an extra booster.

[geonuc]

On a serious note if you need to know you can get blood tests for some of those and they can tell you if you still have anti-gens for the specific vaccine floating around or if you need a booster shot or two. The other thing to know is that if you are concerned about specific immunizations there is no contraindication to getting them again. The worst-case scenario is you wind up giving yourself an extra booster.

I wondered about that. Getting the vaccines early, that is. Thanks.

[Rommie]

I may have had one such book as a kid but definitely never saw it myself if I did. I've just had to keep track in my head what I've had- it helps when the answer is just "everything, and I last had the tetanus one in 2011."

The only time I ever got a paper was in 2011 when I got yellow fever for traveling to Africa- they gave me a little yellow piece of paper, which I actually needed to show when entering Tanzania! Then I lost it in an airport at some point later on that trip. That vaccine is good for life though so I think I'd write to the clinic to see if I can get a replacement next time I go somewhere crazy.

[Swift]

On a serious note if you need to know you can get blood tests for some of those and they can tell you if you still have anti-gens for the specific vaccine floating around or if you need a booster shot or two. The other thing to know is that if you are concerned about specific immunizations there is no contraindication to getting them again. The worst-case scenario is you wind up giving yourself an extra booster.

I wondered about that. Getting the vaccines early, that is. Thanks.

I ran into this with a couple of vaccines. I think one was tetanus. Couldn't remember when I last got it but my doctor said just to go ahead and do it again.

Then during the measles scare last year, I wasn't sure if I ever had it or was vaccinated. I remember they said if you were born before something like 1955 you almost certainly had it and if you were born after something like 1962, you were almost certainly vaccinated. Well I was born in 1958. Again, my doctor just had me get the vaccine.

[Rommie]

My husband actually needed to get another MMR vaccine as part of his green card process (you need to do various medical tests for it, including blood work to show what vaccines you have had). The trick was apparently before the mid-80s the vaccine was less effective, so it didn't always last to adulthood, which I learned from mentioning it to my sister born in 84 who also needed a booster of that one when pregnant with my niece.

As an aside btw, I'm kind of curious what tack the anti-vaxx community is going to take on the coronavirus. I'm sure it will be breathtakingly stupid, but if it's a community that basically can't remember what mass deaths are like before vaccines I wonder what this will do to their numbers.

[SciFiFisher]

As an aside btw, I'm kind of curious what tack the anti-vaxx community is going to take on the coronavirus. I'm sure it will be breathtakingly stupid, but if it's a community that basically can't remember what mass deaths are like before vaccines I wonder what this will do to their numbers.

I suspect that if a lot of them start dying they will start to change their thinking. Unless of course the more rabid ones convince everyone this was just a big plot by the drug companies to convince us all to give them trillions of dollars.

[Swift]

As an aside btw, I'm kind of curious what tack the anti-vaxx community is going to take on the coronavirus. I'm sure it will be breathtakingly stupid, but if it's a community that basically can't remember what mass deaths are like before vaccines I wonder what this will do to their numbers.

I suspect that if a lot of them start dying they will start to change their thinking. Unless of course the more rabid ones convince everyone this was just a big plot by the drug companies to convince us all to give them trillions of dollars.

My bold and my guess as to how this goes down. I suspect they'll add that the drug companies created the virus to sell us the vaccine.

[SciFiFisher]

As an aside btw, I'm kind of curious what tack the anti-vaxx community is going to take on the coronavirus. I'm sure it will be breathtakingly stupid, but if it's a community that basically can't remember what mass deaths are like before vaccines I wonder what this will do to their numbers.

I suspect that if a lot of them start dying they will start to change their thinking. Unless of course the more rabid ones convince everyone this was just a big plot by the drug companies to convince us all to give them trillions of dollars.

My bold and my guess as to how this goes down. I suspect they'll add that the drug companies created the virus to sell us the vaccine.

I would not bet against that hypothesis.

[Loresinger]

when I was hiring an aid for Paul who didn't have his records they did blood tests to check specific levels. If they didn't meet a certain guideline the aid had to be immunized

[SciFiFisher]

when I was hiring an aid for Paul who didn't have his records they did blood tests to check specific levels. If they didn't meet a certain guideline the aid had to be immunized

Frankly, I wonder if it wouldn't just be better to give them the series of shots a second time. Of course, it is sort of a shotgun approach.