Childhood Disease Stories
Childhood Diseases
To follow up on the September 15 post "Power Your Memories, Tell the Stories", here are some stories that you have sent us about childhood diseases before vaccines were available. Thank you to everybody who shared their memories here.
Polio Stories
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| American Red Cross fundraising campaign featuring Howard Keel--submitted by Karen Harrison |
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| Edwin Mattoon, father-in-law of Barbara Boye Mattoon, 1948 with an iron lung. Probably a marketing photo. Picture courtesy of Barbara Boye Mattoon. |
Larry Turner: I don't have much to relate. But I do remember my mother sighing with great relief when school started because that was the end of the primary polio season. One year in the early 50s was particularly bad in Minnesota, and then I got vaccinated - eagerly - when I was 14.
Chicken Pox
Barbara Boye Mattoon: December 7, 1941, will live in history as "A Day of Infamy". On that day, Barbara Boye Mattoon's mother was listening to the radio in horror as the Japanese attacked the U. S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. Normally she would have been at church at that time, but that Sunday she was caring for her daughter who had chicken pox. At that time, and even in the 1960s when Barbara's children were born, we didn't think much about it; all kids got chicken pox. Mom spent a few days on her knees beside the bathtub filled with warm water and baking soda to relieve the itching and fever, and most kids got over it with no lasting effects. Mom missed a few days of work, and school age children missed a few days of school. There were always the few children who suffered complications, but we accepted that as a fact of life. The vaccine for chicken pox became available in 1996, and by 1999 was widely recommended. Only then did we appreciate the relief of not having our children suffer through this childhood disease.
Valorie Zimmerman: As a child, I caught chickenpox from my sister. She had a light case; I had a horrible one, although eventually all those "pock mark" scars did fade. I guess my Dad had chickenpox as a child as well, because he eventually had a terrible, painful outbreak of shingles, which until then I had never heard of, in the late 80s. So when I heard that a new vaccine for shingles was released in 2006, I asked my doctor about it right away. She said, unfortunately, you will need to wait two more years to get this shot, which is not recommended for anyone under age 55. I had no idea until she told me that, that there were restrictions on how and when one could get protection.
Less than two years later, I got shingles, right around my left eye. This frightened me, because research said that it could actually cause blindness and even get into the brain. My doctor said that there was no safe treatment for it at that point. Developing shingles once does not protect from another bout, so I eagerly got the shot as soon as I turned 55, and took the newer Shingrix vaccine shots when they became available too. Both those shots were painful and left me feeling ill for a few days, but that was SO much better than experiencing the awful pain of shingles again.
We should be done with the scourge of chickenpox entirely now, because children can all be vaccinated against it. It is my opinion that all adults should get the Shingrix shots if appropriate, and all children protected from chickenpox if their health allows. Like smallpox and polio we can wipe these diseases away, leaving only stories, memories, and pictures behind. I wish my poor father had that opportunity when he was young.
Whooping Cough
MaryLynn Strickland: I was 4 1/2 years old when my sister was born. It was a cold night in Laurel, Montana, when my mother went into labor. By the time my father got home and arrangements were made for me to stay with the neighbors, my sister Jan was born at home. That same evening the neighbor kids came down with whooping cough. Sure enough, the usual incubation time later I had whooping cough. So my parents had a new born baby and a whooping 4 year old. And, a few weeks later, the new born baby had whooping cough. My parents took turns walking the floor with her all night long. I don't know if that early exposure to whooping cough was a factor, but Jan's childhood illnesses were always more severe than mine. I had a cold with a sore throat; she had strep throat. The problem with her strep throat was that it was in the summer which was "polio season" and we had to take her 70 miles to Casper to get the diagnosis and antibiotics.
Measles, Mumps and Rubella
MaryLynn Strickland: June, 1949, my Aunt Bea and Uncle Earl and their two sons, cousins Larry and Ralph came from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to visit us in Kirby, Wyoming. After a few days my mother, sister and I went back to Coeur d'Alene with them. Picture three adults and four children from two to twelve years in age making the trip over the mountain passes in Montana in a 1930 Ford Model A. Did you catch the fact that this was June (hot weather)? The car kept stalling when climbing over the passes and we would have to sit on the side of the two lane road while it cooled. (The rest of this part of the story is interesting but we'll save it for another day.) The second day of the trip, I broke out with the 3-day measles. Nobody else got them and I don't think I had any complications later in life but it wasn't the best way to care for a sick person!
Vaccines and Disease Around the World
Valorie Zimmerman: When traveling to a speaking engagement in northern India some years ago, I called around to find somewhere to get the shots which the US government recommends before such a trip. Since they are not *required* it was hard to find, but the largest Costco pharmacy in the area offered them. The recommendations are a bit different now, but I believe I got Chikungunya, Cholera, and Hepatitis A and B shots. When I mentioned that to some Indian friends, one of the guys scoffed, "you didn't need any of those; you wasted your time and money!" But my other friend mentioned that he got cholera in Guwahati, which is where we were headed!
Reading the present-day list, I realize that I need to get some vaccines that my children got, which were not available when I was young, such as MMR (measles, mumps & rubella). Now that vaccination rates are falling, of course these childhood diseases, once nearly eradicated, are roaring back. Scary to think that I am not protected.
My niece nearly died from pertussis, also known as whooping cough. My sister and her family lived in Germany at the time; my brother-in-law was in the Army. I think she caught it before she was due to be protected by the vaccine. It too is becoming common again, babies once again hospitalized, suffering and sometimes dying of an easily preventable disease.
Where Are We Headed?
MaryLynn: We survived despite the misinformation, ignorance and old wives' tales that abounded. We were fortunate because there were many childhood friends and relatives who suffered complications or died. My bout with 3-day measles did not make me immune from the "hard" measles, a misconception I had most of my life.
With a recent outbreak of measles in the Seattle area, the news broadcast the dates and locations where infected people had been, because measles is incredibly infectious. I wonder how many people were exposed to rubella because of my trip through Montana. Were there any babies born with birth defects?
We have the power, we lucky ones, because we have stories to tell. It is important that each of us does so, whether just in our families, or in more public forums, like letters to the editor or social media. You may never know how many lives your story will save.
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| MaryLynn Strickland |
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