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Surfing Blogs By Women With Migraines — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

Do you get migraines?

I had my first migraine when I was pregnant with my daughter, and since then I have had them off and on. I can go weeks (sometimes months) without having one, but when I do get a migraine, it feels like I will never get rid of it. When I take medicine for a migraine, it sometimes helps, but never gets rid of the migraine completely. And, it seems like once I get a migraine, I go through a period of time where I finally get rid of it, but a day or two later I get another. This cycle can go on for weeks, before finally stopping.

I’ve recently been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, and told that there may be a connection between Fibromyalgia and migraines. My doctor suggested that a begin to take a medication to prevent the onset of a migraine. I was surprised to find out that the medication he recommended was an anti-convulsive (used for seizure disorders). These medications have many troubling (possible) side-effects, so I’m not sure if I’m actually going to try it.

To help me in my decision, I thought I would check out some blogs by other women, who suffer with migraines.

Somebody Heal Me

On anti-convulsive medication to treat migraines…

A review of controlled studies published in the June 2008 edition of the journal Cephalalagia supports the notion that anti-convulsants Depakote and Topamax are much more effective than placebo in preventing migraine attacks. The study also indicates that other anti-convulsants sometimes used for migraine prevention are no more effective than placebo.

Topamax and others get FDA warning.

The FDA is preparing to put warning labels on epilepsy drugs, including Topiramate (marketed as Topamax), Valproate (marketed as Depakote, Depakote ER, Depakene, Depacon), Pregabalin (marketed as Lyrica), and Zonisamide (marketed as Zonegran) that will notify users about the increased risk for suicidal behavior. Sales of the affected drugs, widely used for nonepilepsy problems such as migraines, topped $8 billion last year.

From the migraine girl — a great post addressing Migraines and Vacations (a blog carnival)…

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t enjoy taking vacations, but in our Migraine & headache community, it’s easy to come across many folks who see the health threats that accompany any trip out of town. Luckily for all of you reading this, we have a really helpful batch of blogs to sift through, all of which will increase your chance of having a happy, healthy vacation despite your headache disease. Some people have a very personal take on the situation, describing specific issues they’ve had preparing for and embarking upon vacations. Others give us generalized lists of things to pack and/or what to be aware of as you travel to maintain a pain-free brain. Whether or not you have a trip coming up, I believe these writers’ tips and insights will benefit you.

I found this video on migraines at My Life With Migraine…

Deborah at Weathering Migraine Storms

I have Migraine Disease - It has ripped years from my life, life with my husband and me together, from my kids lives. It’s been very disabling for me. But that’s not ALL there is to me. I am a Mom, and a wacky, fun kind of Mom. I like to play with my kids, have fun with them - sometimes at their expense. What good Mother doesn’t. I’m trying hard to live with a horrid, painful disease; and have fun while doing so. And I’m learning, probably too much about it. But along the way, I’m meeting very interesting friends. I hope you do, too. I wish you pain-free days! And happy ones as well.Debbie at Down the Rabbit HoleI have had chronic daily migraines for the past 7 years. They are a part of my life, but I don’t want a migraine to define me. That’s why my blog is about more than migraines. My hobbies are gardening, rubberstamping, scrapbooking and knitting, not necessarily in that order.

Also See:

Migraine Mom

The Left Handed Rabbit — Migraine Town

Migraine Chick

rhymes with migraines — grieving my past life

Andreas Buzzing About - Horrid Day for a Migraine

I’m still not sure what I’m going to do about taking the medication used to prevent a migraine. Any advise would be welcome.

Do you suffer with migraines? Have you considered taking medication to prevent the onset of a migraine? Have you heard of a connection between Fibromyalgia and migraines?

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1 Million Homes In Foreclosure — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog)

If you are a homeowner with a mortgage, these numbers may be very scary to you…Nearly 1 in 10 Homeowners Face Loan Problems, and More Than A Million Homes Are In Foreclosure.From The Associated Press…

The foreclosure hammer is hitting ever harder. People lost their homes at the highest rate on record in the first three months of the year, and late payments soared to a new high, too — an alarming sign that the housing crisis and its damage to the national economy may only get worse.

Dumping more empty homes on an already glutted market also is likely to put a further drag on home prices — extending a vicious cycle.

Slumping home values are being blamed in large part for the rising tide of foreclosures. Troubled borrowers are left owing more to the bank than their homes are worth. They can’t sell without taking a huge financial hit, so they just walk away.

In fact, Americans’ equity in their homes — usually their single biggest asset — now has dropped to the lowest level on record in figures going back to the end of World War II.

CNN’s Cafferty File asked the question - What does it mean when more than a million homes are now in foreclosure? So far there are over 200 responses to the question. Here are just a few…

Rick writes:
It means maybe, maybe, Washington will begin to realize just how much the American people are hurting. From the mortgage crisis to gas prices, our leaders still have their blinders on. At some point, they’ll have to stop paying lip service to these problems and actually start addressing them. We can only hope.

Linda writes:
People can’t afford gas to get to work or look for work, high unemployment rates, high cost of health care to name a few. How can one make a mortgage payment when they can’t even afford a few gallons of gas?

Rick from West Hollywood, Calif. writes:
1 million homes in foreclosure and a recession “longer and deeper” than anyone realizes mean one thing: George Bush and the GOP’s chickens are coming home to roost. And we are the newspaper lining the chicken coop floor.

Also See:

Video of Ed McMahon - talking about his possible foreclosure.

More Million Dollar Foreclosures

The Housing Crisis Is NOT Over

For Those Of You Counting

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What Is Your Favorite Sunscreen? - by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

It’s summer, and that means it’s time to stock up on sunscreen. What’s important to you when it comes to sunscreen? Is it the SPF? Natural ingredients? Smell? Price? Are you hoping to prevent skin cancer or premature aging? Are you worried the chemicals in sunscreen could be just as bad for you as the sun? What sunscreen is your favorite? I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours.

Okay, me first. Here is the evolution of my use of sunscreen (formally known as suntan lotion)…

When I was younger, SPF didn’t mean anything to me, and my favorite sunscreen was Copportone, because I loved how it smelled. I actually would have preferred the scent of Hawaiian Tropic or BAIN de SOLEIL, but they were a little out of my price range back then. As far as SPF goes…2 was plenty, anything higher than 4 and I thought I would never tan. I eventually wised up, and moved up to an SPF of 8, and even though I still loved the way Copportone smelled, I started using Banana Boat and No-Ad products because they were cheaper. Once I had my kids, I spent the extra money to get them Copportone Water Babies with a high SPF, but I stuck with just getting whatever was cheap for myself. Now that my kids are older, we use the same sunscreen, so I always buy an SPF of 15 or greater. But, I’m not buying the Copportone or the cheap stuff anymore. For me, it’s back to being all about how it smells…And I love, love, love, the way Australian Gold smells, I started buying it a few years ago, and now it is all I buy. It’s not the cheapest sunscreen, but it certainly isn’t the most expensive either.

Not everyone is as concerned with the smell of their sunscreen as I am. Take Michelle at Chic Armoire for example, she says…

For the past 2 summers, I’ve used the Neutrogena Dry-Touch in an SPF range of 15 to 30. The formula goes on dry without an sunscreen smell (I hate the smell of Coppertone and similar sunscreens). It’s paba free, waterproof, and sweat proof. Note that the FDA is considering that the word waterproof not be used in the future. Water resistant maybe the replacement term. It also has Helioplex which is a broad spectrum for UVA and UVB.

Savvy Skin suggests…

There are probably 100 different sunscreens available at drugstores, but of those 100, there’s only a few I would bother buying. I firmly believe Zinc Oxide is the best sunscreen ingredient, and there are almost no drugstore sunscreens that contain decent levels of Zinc Oxide.

Blue Lizard is the only drugstore brand I currently buy. They have a few different products, and the Zinc Oxide ranges from 6%-10%, which isn’t spectacular, but it’s the highest concentration of Zinc Oxide I’ve seen in a drugstore brand.

In searching for posts on sunscreen, I kept coming across this video. I know I’ve seen it before, I just don’t know where. It’s more about inspiration and advice than sunscreen, but I thought I would include it anyway.

So, what is your favorite sunscreen? Why?

Is it because of the smell? The SPF? The price?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan at catherine-morgan.com, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog

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Dream On - An Inspirational Video

This is a great inspirational video that I posted here several months ago. I thought it would be nice to post it again.

Also See:

Inspirational Quotes Set To The Music of John Lennon’s Imagine

Who Will “Stand By You”?

It’s Never Too Late To Follow Your Dreams

How to Learn From Life’s Greatest Lessons

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Women and Hair Loss: It’s more common than you think. — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

When it comes to my hair…I don’t play very nice. For at least the last ten years I have put my hair through more than most heads of hair will go through in a lifetime (I bleach it, color it, over process it). I’m sure if my hair could talk, it would have plenty of nasty things to say to me.

You would think, that since the women in my family tend to eventually have problems with female pattern hair loss, that I would take better care of my hair. But, I don’t. And apparently, thinning hair and hair loss isn’t that uncommon among women, it’s just that nobody seems to want to talk about it. There have been some breakthroughs when it come to genetic testing and hair loss in women, I’m just not sure I would want to know.

Personally, I find there are times in life when ignorance is bliss. And this just may be one of those times. Do I really want to spend the time between now and my hair falling out, worrying about my hair falling out? Honestly, I’ve got enough things to worry about right now, without worrying about my hair falling out too. [Note to anyone going to the BlogHer Conference in July: If you notice my hair falling out, please don’t tell me.]

But, there are many good reasons to know if you are predisposed to the problem of hair loss. Elaine from Genetics and Health talks about the new genetic testing…

Until now, Female Hair Loss has been difficult to predict and diagnose. That changes with today’s announcement that HairDX, LLC pioneers of consumer-friendly genetic tests for hair loss, has introduced a screening test using genetic markers strongly associated with Female Hair Loss (Female Androgenetic Alopecia).

The easy to understand test, which costs US$149, provides an accurate and understandable genetic analysis of a woman’s likelihood of developing this common type of hair loss.

Here are some links to women brave enough to talk about this problem.

This is from The Course Hair Diary…

Several recent studies of men have found that smoking also seems to increase hair loss. I don’t know of any similar studies in women, but one thing is clear: Smoking is harmful for a multitude of reasons, whether or not increased hair loss is among them!

The best plan of action for anyone experiencing hair loss is to determine the underlying cause and eliminate it. And the best place to start is a routine physical exam with blood work. By simply drawing your blood, your physician can determine your ferritin (iron) levels, thyroid levels, and estrogen status - and that will already get you far in recognizing or ruling out many of these causes.

Alisa at Simple. Healthy. Period.

Recently I was speaking with my hairdresser and the topic of hair and the impact of life-events on its luster, texture, thickness, and color came up. He confided in me that the impact of hormonal fluctuations is so great that he often knows when/if his clients are pregnant long before they’re prepared to share the news and sometimes even before they themselves know. But it’s not just the strong hormonal changes that come with pregnancy that have an impact on your hair; have you ever noticed that a prolonged period of stress results in hair loss for you? If you’re struggling with other hormonal imbalances you may have also noticed the unpleasant common symptom of dandruff or an itchy scalp. So, what is the connection?

Kimberly from Petroville is talking about her recent hair loss…

At my annual well woman exam two weeks ago, I told the doctor my concerns over the massive amounts of hair loss I have been experiencing since April. I walked her through my hair color time line which left off with my last color job right at the precise time that my hair began to disassociate itself with my scalp.

Frances Ellen wrote Senior Cotton Candy…

My intent for this blog is to provide a senior citizen voice. In that regard, I am eminently qualified since I have recently joined the 55+ gang. With that in mind, here are a few things you should know about me.

I live and work in corporate America, I like to cook, and reading is my obsession. There’s much more, but for now I’d like to talk about my “cotton candy hair.”

I don’t mean to imply my hair is pastel pink or blue. What I’m saying is, my hair has lost all semblance of what is commonly known as “body.” When I watch shampoo commercials on TV and the model’s lustrous hair is bouncing and flowing from side to side in slow motion, I sigh deeply, and force myself to face reality. The fact is there is no shampoo on the face of this planet that is going to change the fact that I have cotton candy hair.

Fabulously40 wrote Great Hair After 40

After loosing a great deal of my hair I found out that generic hair loss is much worse for women who are deficient in iron and those who have low levels of the B vitamins.

What’s worse is that nine out of ten women between the ages of 16 to 50 are iron deficient.

Surprisingly these figures are much worse nowadays than for our mothers. The reason? So many of us are on some kind of a health kick, and tend not to eat meat or other iron-rich foods like fresh green leafy vegetables.

We can hardly complain about dull, thinning hair if we’re just not giving it the food it needs to be healthy, glossy and thick. So - here’s a quick checklist to add to your shopping cart next time you hit the supermarket.

Eat lots of:

* Fresh vegetables - high colored and green leafy
* Non-citrus fruits- natural yogurt
* Cold pressed oils- such as olive oil, flax seed or sesame
* Soy protein- in the form of tofu, soy milk or soy yogurts
* Legumes- peas, beans and lentils
* Whole grains- especially brown rice, oats and buckwheat
* Seeds-sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and linseeds
* Almonds, figs and dates
* Fresh oily fish- like salmon, tuna, herring, pilchards and sardines

Drink:

* Lots of: pure still water to aid your digestive system and eliminate toxins - a sluggish digestion leads to limp, dull or oily hair

Cut down on:

* Dairy (cow’s milk) products
* Caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate, and soda drinks)
* Sugar and salt

If you can alter your diet to include more healthy hair foods - you will be rewarded not only with great looking hair, but loads of energy and glowing skin.

I like the idea that if I eat healthy my hair may stay healthy. And since eating healthy is something I am now trying to do more of, this is just another incentive. So, do you have a story about hair loss? Is it something you worry about? Would you want to know today, if you were going to lose your hair in the future? Let me know in comments.

—-

Also See:

Alopecia World –Alopecia World is a new social networking site for people living with hair loss, their loved ones and friends. Join today for support, to encourage others, make new friends, or perhaps meet the love of your life. It’s 100% free!

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Can Ibuprofen Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

I guess most of us either know or have known someone with Alzheimer’s, maybe that person was even a relative. Like many other diseases, Alzheimer’s is thought to run in families. That is why when I read that there was a new study linking the long-term use of ibuprofen to a decrease in risk for Alzheimer’s, I had to learn more.

Don’t go out and buy a bottle of Motrin just yet. Although this study seems promising, there is no recommendations that anyone should take ibuprofen for the purpose of preventing Alzheimer’s. Much more needs to be studied in order to determine whether the benefits of ibuprofen outweigh the risk of long-term use.

From WebMD…

The long-term use of ibuprofen and possibly other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory pain relievers may help protect against Alzheimer’s disease, but it is still not clear if the risks outweigh the potential benefits.

Use of ibuprofen pain relievers like Advil and Motrin for more than five years reduced Alzheimer’s risk by 44% in a study reported in the May issue of Neurology.

Long-term users of several other types of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) also had a lower than expected risk of Alzheimer’s.

Ibuprofen users seemed to derive the most protection after five years of use, but researcher Steven C. Vlad, MD, of Boston University School of Medicine, says it is far too soon to recommend the use of this or any other NSAID to lower Alzheimer’s risk.

“I would not advise patients to start taking an NSAID to prevent Alzheimer’s,” Vlad tells WebMD. “There are too many known risks associated with this class of medications, and we would need a lot more research to figure out the risk-benefit ratio.”

In researching this ibuprofen study, I came across another recent study. This study seems to link Diabetes to an increased risk for Alzheimer’s.

From A Weight Lifted: Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Linked

Did you know that people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes have a 30 to 65 percent greater risk for Alzheimer’s? Until now, researchers have been mystified as to the reason behind the link, but a recent study (published in the current online issue of Neurobiology of Aging by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies) has pinpointed the molecular connection.

Here are some more Alzheimer’s related blogs…

Rust-Tex: Help End Alzheimer’s Disease

This quilt is up for auction now through May 10 to raise money for the the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI), which is an Internet-driven, grassroots, totally volunteer effort to raise awareness and fund research through art. Ami Simms founded the AAQI in January 2006 because her mother has Alzheimer’s disease. All profit is donated to Alzheimer’s research.

My quilt uses rust dyed fabric, seed beads, plastic beads, metal leaves, cotton boucle. It is machine pieced, machine quilted, couched, and free motion machine embroidered. The cat is made of ultra suede and colored with water soluble colored pencils. The entire piece is 8.875″ x 8.875″.

Mine is not the only one up for auction. You can see them all here. Your generous bid is appreciated by the artists who made these beautiful quilts and by everyone struggling to end this disease.

From ask allison: the middle-aged woman’s go to girl: Alzheimer’s and Caregiving

One of my fellow mid-life lady bloggers, Karen over at Mid-life’s a Trip, has some excellent blog posts related to caregiving and Alzheimer’s. As caregiver to her mother who has Alzheimer’s, and dear friend to a 50 something woman with the disease, she holds the subject close to her heart.

A great informational resource as Karen points out is a recent article in the NY Times. This excellent guide provides information on causes, treatments, exams and tests, and more.

I found this video on Alzheimer’s and Caregivers at Alzheimer’s Notes…

Also See:

Mondays With Mother: An Alzheimer’s Story — In 2002 my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It is a hard road, and we live it one day at a time. This is a chronicle of her disease and my Monday visits with her.

BlogHer Contributing Editor Laurie wrote - Alzheimer’s and Another Love: How Spouses Cope

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Why Is Life Expectancy For Women Going Down In America? - by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

A new study has found that the life expectancy for women in the United States is on the decline. But don’t worry, this is not something that will affect ALL women in our country - just the poor women.

Even more troubling, is that the study doesn’t include any statistics after 1999. What that means is, the Bush years have not been figured into these statistics. I can only imagine how the last eight years of the Bush administration have impacted the reality of these numbers.

It seems like it wasn’t that long ago, that I heard how the US life expectancy had slipped in ranking from 11th to 42nd, behind most European countries.

John Edwards was absolutely right when he talked about two Americas. Try to picture America on one side, and a third-world country on the other. Now picture that third-world country within the United States. Thanks to a failing economy and a serious health care crisis, that is exactly what we face today. It’s really not surprising at all. Very sad, but not surprising.


From The New York Times…

Life expectancy has long been growing steadily for most Americans. But it has not for a significant minority, according to a new study, which finds a growing disparity in mortality depending on race, income and geography.

The study, published Monday in the online journal PLoS, analyzed life expectancy in all 3,141 counties in the United States from 1961 to 1999, the latest year for which complete data have been released by the National Center for Health Statistics. Although life span has generally increased since 1961, the authors reported, it began to level off or even decline in the 1980s for 4 percent of men and 19 percent of women.

“It’s very troubling that there are parts of the wealthiest country in the world, with the highest health spending in the world, where health is getting worse,” said Majid Ezzati, the lead author and an associate professor of international health at Harvard. It is a phenomenon, he added, “unheard of in any other developed country.”

Listen to an interview on NPR…

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In Health News: Autism Debate, Drive-Thru Mastectomies, and the HPV Vaccine (Gardasil) - by Catherine Morgan (cross posted at BlogHer)

When I heard this story, about a family with a child who appeared to developed Autism after her childhood immunizations, I wondered how this might affect other families dealing with this devastating disease. Also in the blogs, is a petition that women can sign, supporting an end to drive-thru mastectomies. And end they should, this practice is a disgrace, as well as a travesty against women. And, my pet-peeve issue (Gardasil) is also in the news.

Autism…

From Revolution Health - The Autism Debate Continues

This week news spread of results of a Georgia court case in November, which states that the parents of 9-year old Hannah Poling will receive compensation because multiple vaccines contributed to her symptoms of autism. Not all the details are known, as the court case has been “sealed,” but it appears that Hannah has an underlying mitochondrial disorder. After she received five shots in July 2000, at the age of 19 months, she developed a high fever and inconsolable crying within 48 hours. Within three months after receiving the vaccine, she went from being a normal, verbal toddler to one who showed signs of autism and, for a while, lost her ability to speak. She now requires one-on-one care at all times.

Also See:

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Ricin Scare In Las Vegas - Posted by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

Man in Critical Condition in Ricin Case

Did you hear the news about the Ricin scare in Las Vegas? What is up with that? Why did it take two weeks before anyone even noticed? Isn’t it kinda scary how easy it was for this guy to be hospitalized since February 14th, before anyone found out he had been exposed (and possibly could have exposed others) to Ricin?

What the Heck is Ricin?

A person who inhales even the tiniest bit of ricin (the aforementioned 500 microgram lethal dose translates to an amount roughly the size of the head of a pin) will suffer severe respiratory symptoms followed by pulmonary edema, low blood pressure and possibly death.

Ingesting the chemical produces a different set of dire symptoms, which include vomiting, bloody diarrhea, hallucinations, seizures and… you guessed it… death.

Interesting historical note: ricin was used in the nasty, Soviet-spy-style murder of Bulgarian journalist Georgi Markov in 1978. The attacker struck Markov with an umbrella that had been hacked to inject a pellet of ricin beneath his skin.

So, back to the Las Vegas hotel incident. The man who had been staying in the room where the ricin was found was hospitalized with respiratory symptoms on February 14th, but made no mention (perhaps for obvious reasons) of having been exposed to the poison. It’s still unclear what or who was the intended target of the chemical. Authorities suspect that some sort of sinister action was planned, although there’s no evidence that it was terrorism-related. The man remains in critical condition.

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Environment: Wind Farming In Texas - Posted by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog)


Finding methods of alternative energy is one of the most important environmental tasks facing our country. So it is interesting (and a bit ironic) that wind farming is sprouting up on the oil fields of Texas.The Care2 News Network reported on this story from an article in The New York Times - Move Over, Oil There’s Money in The Texas Wind Here are some excerpts from the article…

Texas, once the oil capital of North America, is rapidly turning into the capital of wind power. After breakneck growth the last three years, Texas has reached the point that more than 3 percent of its electricity, enough to supply power to one million homes, comes from wind turbines.

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Super Delegates: The Good, The Bad, and The Confusing. — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Care2 Election Blog)

There has been a lot of confusion over delegates and super-delegates. And, because of the close race between Obama and Clinton, understanding the role of delegates and super-delegates is going to be more important than in past elections. However, understanding may be the easy part…Getting over the seemingly less than democratic process, may prove to be more difficult.

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Why are so many kids overweight? And, how can we help them? (cross-posted at BlogHer)

I just came across this new study about Why Poor Kids are Heavy, and I decided to do my post on it. It seems that so many more children are overweight today, than I remember were overweight when I was growing up. Childhood obesity has become an epidemic. Why is that? Could it be too much television? Video games? Fast food? Well, there are a lot of theories, and this new study only suggests that more studies need to be done. Typical.

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Get Your Child Vaccinated or Go To Jail — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

More problems associated with vaccines, this time the controversy is with the Chicken Pox vaccine. I haven’t been silent about my distrust with the pharmaceutical industry, and most recently with the collaboration between this industry and our government…specifically the rush to make the HPV vaccine mandatory for 9 to 12 year old girls. As much as I have a problem with *some* vaccines, I have a much larger problem with our government forcing parents to vaccinate for viruses such as Chicken Pox and HPV.

I am not someone who is against childhood vaccinations, as a nurse I fully understand the necessity for vaccinating children against polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. However, vaccinating against these diseases was begun for the sole purpose of saving the lives of children, that can not be said for most of the newer vaccines (Flu, HPV, Chicken Pox, Hepatitis, etc). The sole purpose for pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines today, is for one purpose and one purpose only…money (and a lot of it). I wont be able to go into each one in detail for this post (maybe in a future one), but here are a few statistics to just give you an idea of what I am talking about.

But now, let me talk specifically about the Chicken Pox vaccine and this latest controversy.

In Maryland parents are being threatened with fines and jail if they do not comply with vaccinating their children for chicken pox. Does anyone NOT see how insane that sounds? What the bleepidy-bleep is going on????

Speaking as one of the lucky ones, who lived through “The Great Chicken Pock Pandemic” of the 1970’s…oh wait, there was no pandemic and everyone I knew got the chicken pox and a couple days off from school, and actually lived to tell the tale. For those of us old enough to remember having the chicken pox…The memories are horrifying…the pustules, the itch, the dreaded calamine lotion. If you haven’t been through it yourself, you can not begin to imagine what we suffered with for those never ending couple of days. [My attempt as sarcasm…I know, don’t quit my day job.]

Seriously now. When my children were born (and at that time the vaccine was not yet mandatory), the pediatrician told me about it, and I decided that if my children weren’t exposed to the virus before they would be attending school, then I would consider it. [CHOICE…it’s a beautiful thing, but becoming more and more rare in our society.] My reservations had nothing to do with a possible adverse reaction to the vaccine…It was the fact that, getting chicken pox as a child is not serious, and getting the virus actually gives a life-long immunity (the vaccine does not). I also wondered why anyone would consider this vaccine, when there was already an anti-viral medication available, that reduced the severity of the symptoms and cut the duration of the illness?

My children both were exposed to the chicken pox before they were even in nursery school, it was no big deal, and now they are protected for life. The same can not be said for children vaccinated for chicken pox.

Most of my friends back then, thought I was crazy for not just getting the vaccine for my kids. But, even though at the time there was no (available) evidence that suggested the vaccine would not be life-long…I knew that they could not be sure until the first generation of children got older (they were the guinea pigs - just like todays generation will be the guinea pigs for the HPV vaccine). I also knew how dangerous it would be if these immunized children got older and developed this virus as adults, not to mention the girls who would be women someday and possibly lose a pregnancy because they didn’t have a life-long immunity to the chicken pox.

The United States is the only country in the world that requires the chicken pox (varicella) vaccine. Other countries have assessed it and determined that chicken pox is too mild of a disease and the chicken pox shot to ineffective to justify the huge expenditure needed to mandate a shot. As with the hepatitis-b, several years after the shot became mandated the vaccine industry revealed that it too diminishes in effectiveness over time and boosters are now mandate in many states. The failure to contract wild chicken pox as a child makes a person far more susceptible to the disease shingles as an adult. Shingles is generally considered a far more serious disease than chicken pox. It is acknowledged by the vaccine industry that the widespread use of the chicken pox vaccine will lead to an epidemic of shingles. Merck, the developer of the chicken pox vaccine now has a vaccine for shingles as well. — READ FULL ARTICLE

I feel I made the right choice for my children back then. And it is very sad to me that parents today aren’t able to decide for themselves what is best for their own children. This was a vaccine designed to make money for the pharmaceutical industry, not to save lives…Even the Federal Immunization Advisory Committee admits the benefits to this vaccine are not to save lives, but to save money by reducing the amount of time parents had to take off from work…Honestly, that’s not a joke.

The American people have become pauns and guinea pigs to both our governments and corporate America (which basically are one in the same at this point).

So that’s my take. Here are what other bloggers are saying on this issue…

This is from Barbara Loe Fisher and expert in the field of vaccinations…

- There are many new vaccines being developed that will be added to the childhood schedule and what has happened in Maryland brings up the question that many parents are asking: How many more vaccines are children going to be forced to get to be able to get a public education?

- Although Maryland and other states may allow medical and religious exemptions, they are very difficult for parents to obtain. Doctors cannot easily write medical exemptions that are not second- guessed by public health officials, who require strict adherence to narrow contraindications blessed by the CDC. Often parents, who attempt to file religious exemptions, are thrown into rooms and grilled about the sincerity of the religious beliefs.

- Parents are wondering why every vaccine that industry produces is always automatically recommended for universal use by the CDC and then mandate.

- It is time for the people to take back the power - through their elected representatives - to decide which vaccines their children should have to take to go to school. In the past few decades, legislatures have given up their power to vote on which new vaccines will be mandated and have handed that power over to public health officials who have never met a vaccine they did not want to mandate

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Well, it’s a first. I actually agree with Michelle Malkin. She has a post today titled “Vaccine Bullies in the Public Schools“, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Parents are being treated like child abusers by the Maryland public education system, but who’s exploiting whom? If you’re wondering why the schools didn’t simply threaten to kick the kids out of school–as opposed to jailing and fining their parents–the answer is all in the money. The schools are funded based on average-daily-attendance. Every body in a classroom is cash in their pockets.

From Country Dawn…

Parents in Maryland were threatened with jail time on Saturday if they didn’t vaccinate their children. On the spot. That’s right, nurses with needles were lined up and waiting… and so were police officers.

Oh, and get this. I love this. Many of these kids waited in line on Saturday to get a chicken pox booster so their parents wouldn’t go to jail. Chicken pox–a vaccine that has such dubious effectiveness and value that the Federal Immunization Advisory Committee could only rationalize making it mandatory in the first place by arguing that it would prevent parents from losing about a week’s worth of time from work.

In other words, it was an economic argument, not a medical one. Now, the police state of Maryland is threatening to throw parents in jail for ten days because their children haven’t received a vaccine mandated solely on the grounds that it would keep parents from missing work in the first place…

This is from Yankee Cowgirl…

I heard an interview with Mr. Ivey yesterday where he was asked if he was going after parents that had exemptions. He said he was glad they had exemptions and he was sure they weren’t going after those students.

I don’t believe him. Out of the 1300 students they are going after, I’m expected to believe that none of those have exemptions? Come on!

And in a interesting twist…

See why the pro-life movement and Catholics are against the chicken pox vaccine.

Well that’s all I have. How do you feel about this issue? Do you feel the government has a right to force parents to vaccinate their children for non-life threatening diseases/viruses? Does it seem to you that the government is *in bed* with the pharmaceutical companies on this one? Is it time for parents to take a stand on this issue? What would you do if you were one of the parents facing jail time in Maryland?

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