Sorry that your little guy is having a hard time with this stuff!  Right now the h1n1 vaccine isn't even available in our area yet unless you're pregnant or otherwise at high risk.  I have been going back and forth about it too, for my daughter who's also been OT 3 years. She's 17. Since we can't get it yet it's sort of a non-issue at the moment, but I'm all for it when/if it becomes available.

I'm sort of shocked that his doc wouldn't give him Tamiflu-here they've been giving it to everyone that's dx'd w/flu, regardless of risk.  Maybe it's starting to run low or something?  I just know that all of the kids at school-primary through high school- have gotten it, providing they were in the 48 hour window.

I, too, have seen links between a variety of viruses and leukemia.  Other than making sure that kids get vaccines when they're available there's not much to be done about that so I try not to think about it.  My personal effort to maintain what little sanity I still have!

Hope your son gets getter soon, I know it's hard to see him feeling so miserable!  Glad the nebulizer gives him a little relief from the cough-maybe they can give him something for it?

Patty

mom to Sarah, dx age 12 1/04, OT 8/06.

Yeah I hope your son feels better soon also, it's always a worry when they get ill with any virus, but can I ask you how can the doc's be sure it's H1N1 and not another flu when they aren't tested for it? It's not my intention to sound callous and hope I'm not comming across that way but any flu is dangerous with underlying conditions. We've already had the swine flu outbreak come and go around here without major hospitalizations or much fuss, my eldest daughter, 19, caught a flu but without testing the doc's couldn't identify which strain it was, she was fine after about a week or so with only 1 day absent from work, personally I don't think the swine is any worse than the normal yearly flu outbreaks. I like yourself need to be sure I'm not damaging the immune system of my kids by over vaccinating, there is too much debate and when any logical doubt is involved I opt out, we have never had flu shots and do not intend on starting now either.

The link you posted creates many questions, our Alyvia had a few virus's the year she was Dxed but we also have a transformer above there climbing tree which is only metre's from there heads when up in the tree (which they are no longer allowed to climb) we also live in a farming community with pesticides/insecticides splashed around like water, we have a high cancer rate in our community as well. So it's impossible to pinpoint a cause with so many possibilities surrounding us, I don't even concern myself with the how's/why's this happened to Alyvia, if I did I'd do my head in, nobody has the answers and it's simply all speculation.

Jenn

The flu link is interesting. I believe the 'perfect storm' theory, where a rare combination of occurances stops the body from cleaning up stray cancerous cells, as it would normally.  Genetics, viruses and environmental chemicals might also participate. We may reduce cancer rates by eventually learning how to turbo-charge natural processes, repair genetics and outlaw certain chemicals.

You should read "Slow Death by Rubber Duck", it's a real eye-opener about the cancer dangers of some plastics.(sing)  5-4-1 and 2, these are plastics good for you.

Vaccines are statistically less risky than the illness. If we can just get the immunization rate for most illnesses (maybe not flu) up to 80%, then the immune-compromised are protected by herd immunity. People who don't get immunizations are free-riders on the shots other people get, until the rate falls below 80%, then wham! we see mumps sterilizing men, and whooping cough killing babies again.

The Atlantic magazine this month has an interesting article on flu vaccines, saying that shots for seniors may be wasted, since they do not get a strong immune response to the vaccine, but that seniors might be better protected by immunizing kids, who spread most illnesses around, and have a strong immune response to the vaccine. (Contrary to what people think, getting the vaccine is a good challenge for your immune system.)

If something like that "were" to happen in the future, I would not feel guilty because I believe I'm giving my child the best possible medical care that I know of at this present time.  If this is what we know now is safe and the best for our children, then by all means, that is what our children get.  It would be the same for say breastmilk - what if we found out far in the future that it actually causes our children to get certain diseases - would every mother that breastfed her child feel guilty - maybe a bit, but at the time, that was the best known medical advice to give.  We have to go with what we know now and go from there.  We have to put trust in the doctors and nurses and scientists.  We can't assume that certain things may happen.  We have to protect our child.  We trusted them with the protocols are children are on for their leukemia treatment - those may not be the best in the future, but for now its the best thing for them so we do it.

Your comment can go both ways though.  Many people can say to you "how could you not get your child vaccinated?" - kids in the pre-teen to teenager age group are dying here in Canada that have no previous medical condition.  They are getting the H1N1 flu and then dying upon 24 hours of diagnosis!!!!  The vaccine will prevent that.  As a parent, knowing this, how could you not get your child vaccinated?  That is where I stand!

Hero4 - I must interject, I am also from Toronto, and there has been one (1) boy, not "kids" as you mention, die from H1N1.  One boy.  In a city with a population of 4 million people.  Not to diminish the pain his family is feeling, but one out of 4 million hardly merits mass hysteria.

I think that it's human nature to be reactionary, and when the media makes it sound like people are dropping dead in the streets by the hundreds, it's hard not to be scared.

But I think it behooves us all to take a look at this with some common sense.  I am very much pro-vaccine - when was the last time you met someone with smallpox?  Thanks to mass vaccinations, we have all but eradicated smallpox, polio, etc.  But these are vaccines that have decades of historical data to back them up.  We know the rates of effectiveness, long-term side effects, etc.

We know none of this for H1N1.  This virus has been around for years in pigs, granted, but only for a couple of years in humans.  Which means we have only been trying to fight it for a couple of years.

Other vaccines require 10 years of testing before being made available to the general public.  This one was made from a variant of an existing vaccine, which is how it got around the 10 year requirement.  So do we even have enough data to know whether it will even work against H1N1?  I am not willing to inject something which is unknown and unproven into my children's bodies because CNN likes to play the boogeyman and scare up ratings.

Being from Toronto, I also remember the last "global pandemic" that threatened to wipe out whole towns.  Remember SARS?  Media outlets showed people walking on the streets with masks and called it Death Watch 2003.  The WHO predicted over 1 million deaths worldwide.  The total death toll for SARS was, in fact, 916 people. (http://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/2003_08_15/en/index.html)

And what about the bird flu from 2 or 3 years ago?  What about that pandemic?  My point is simply this: Use your head.  Dialogue & debate should be based on scientific data, not "my mother's cousin's neighbour saw somebody in the parking lot cough, now we're all gonna die".

Marlene

Hmmm.......do I detect a hint of aggression, I do believe I have explained the reasons as to why I exercise caution, and just for the record I am not anti-vaccination oriented if I were we would not be suffering the side effects. To choose and administer the most important vac's is a choice I practice therefore for us the flu vac is not a necessity.

I also don't believe I have disrespected your choice of doing so, your choice not mine. Like I have stated previously vac's are not a clear cut picture, there is much food for thought to consider and believe can be discussed amicably.

Jenn