So here’s my story of how I went from being an anti-vaccine, fearful mother who selectively vaccinated on an alternative schedule -> to a pro-vaccine advocate.
It’s not very dramatic, but these stories never are.
We start in 2008, where I am a new cancer survivor, age 23.
My chemotherapy regimen had me comatose & wheelchair bound. I don’t know why. Once I became a nurse I realize that it was an extreme reaction to the chemotherapy.
But, I survived.
A year later I was cleared to try to become pregnant. I was told I wouldn’t be able to.
Several months later, with a lot of help from God and science, on the day I graduated nursing school, I was expecting my daughter.
I enjoyed my time. I was still recovering my strength and my hair, and processing what I had been through.
Then my back started to hurt.
“Go to a chiropractor,” they said.
“He’ll help you,” they said.
So I did.
He took a health history, tweaked my back, and handed me a pamphlet to read at home.
It was anti-vaccine propaganda.
I read it and was horrified.
When I returned to him for a follow up session (cash only!) I had questions for him.
He told me my body was toxic from the chemotherapy. He told me vaccines were additional toxins. “Why would a healthy infant need these toxins?” he reasoned with me.
I was sold.
I was a perfect target:
- a traumatized, recent cancer survivor desperate to be healthy
- newly pregnant with a long-wanted child
That’s all it took and I went off the deep end.
I read books and visited anti-vaccine websites. I argued on social media and was further influenced.
My daughter was born (naturally! No epidural! No drugs!) and I didn’t vaccinate her for a few months.
My pediatrician was gentle. But he convinced me to vaccinate her, slowly.
So, I went monthly and my baby got many shots, over several years.
When she was 2, I enrolled in the doctorate nursing program at Hunter College.
I learned how research is performed & how research is analyzed.
After several years, I could shred any poor article.
Then I became pregnant with my son.
He was born (naturally! No epidural! I dislike needles in the spine) and I vaccinated him.
“Can’t we do them all at once?” I impatiently asked my pediatrician. “It’s perfectly safe,” I reassured him.
Then in 2018 the measles struck.
As a nurse, I started getting questions from women about vaccines, the measles, infectious disease.
I was shocked at the lies they were subject to.
And this time I was fed up.
And so I entered that space of scared mothers who were fed lies, because that was me once.
He was on the phone, wailing: Blima every bone hurts, I can’t bear it.
I smacked myself mentally. He got an injection yesterday to increase white blood cell production. On occasion, it causes deep bone pain (it works in the bone marrow).
But most of my patients do fine.
Now he was in severe pain, which is complex because he’s on methadone and oxycodone to manage both his addiction and his cancer pain.
The trick for this kind of pain is Claritin - only partially supported by the evidence, but low risk, many patients swear it works.
“Josh,” I said urgently. “Can you get to a pharmacy?”
“No,” he moaned. “I can’t get out of bed.”
I went to the pharmacy next door and swiped my Patreon card for the $14 Claritin. I asked if they’d deliver it, but their driver had left for the day.
@Ami_Magazine allowing scams to be advertised.... not cool.
In case you needed more proof that it’s a trashy rag.
The fact that is was developed by Binyamin Rothstein should be enough.
Who is he? A physician whose license was revoked several times in several states for malpractice, most notably for treating patients with intravenous hydrogen peroxide.
1. They don’t care about healthcare. Their healthcare columns are limited to Reader’s Digest-like sensationalized thrillers and diet advice.
During the measles outbreak, they skimmed over the issues of unvaccinated swaths of frum Jews,
2/n
focusing their efforts on the resulting anti-semitism that occurred.
Clever. 🙄
When I begged @themishpacha if I could write an important column on the dangers of the measles virus and rectifying misinformation about the vaccine, I was told: