Note: I wrote this a few months ago, but it's been sitting in my "drafts" folder, waiting for me to publish it... Since this issue of pertussis's cycling locally and what to do about it has recently come up on a one of my group's yahoo list, I thought to go ahead and post our own experience, just to share it, for what it's worth. It was a significant part/season of this last year of our lives' adventure together, and began a year ago next month.

I think that I hadn't yet published this in part because of my own felt guilt for the fact that my daughter contracted this illness, when I've struggled so much over whether or not my husband and I should or could have prevented it all by having had her vaccinated. However, after years of research, we were more afraid of the vaccination(s) than the disease, and honestly convinced that there really wasn't very much of a chance that our kids would ever actually run into and contract pertussis. I definitely learned a lot from the whole experience...

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Shortly after a whirlwind couple of months of my husband's losing his job, our preparing for and putting our house on the market, signing a contract within a week of it’s being MLS listed, all the packing and then closing on the sale of our home within the next month, we moved to the Chattanooga area of TN, landing in the home of some dear (generous) friends who'd offered us an interim place to stay while we looked for a (temporary) place to rent that would allow our 110# German Shepherd to live indoors with us, as he's always done. It was during that crazy month of August, 2009, while all 13 of us were living crazily cozily together, sharing the space of a 1500 sq. ft house that, unbeknownst to us, Pertussis, aka. The Whooping Cough came to call... It stealthily made the rounds, touching all of the children within the household but one, and also infected two of the five adults living there. My youngest daughter came down with the whooping cough the week before her second birthday. Our 10 year old daughter had a mild case (compared to the other children), and our 13 year old son wasn't at all effected (thankfully). They had both been immunized two years prior with the DTP, for tetanus, which ended up protecting them from this scourge of pertussis.

All of the other stresses of this particular soul-stretching-season of my life aside, nursing (figuratively and literally- seemed like she wanted to nurse constantly!) my daughter through this terrible illness was what had me praying the most… and it lasted for the better part of eight weeks! Looking back, if it had to happen, I am thankful for the timing, that it was during this time when I had nowhere that I needed to be or take our other two older kids to, since it had me pretty much home-bound for most of that time, since we never knew when little Savannah would have a coughing attack, which would inevitably bring on what she called “choke”, which was her gagging and throwing up three to four times a day, or more, and EVERY night after I’d lay her in bed to sleep, like clock-work. The few times that we were in the car when an attack would come on were so crazy-scary, with me diving in the back seat to lift and pull her up out of her car-seat so as to keep her from choking on her own vomit, while at the same time trying to catch it... with her all the while trying to catch her precious breath.

It all started with her having what I thought was a common cold, for about a week... with my friend’s one year old having had similar cold symptoms the week prior. However, my friend (in whose home we were staying) had developed this nasty cough shortly after our arrival there, and her oldest teen-aged son had come down with the same cough (but neither had had any other cold-type symptoms), which quickly moved into both their chests and turned into a persistent rattling, choking cough which would wake up the entire house numerous times during the night. They thought, insisted, it was allergies...

About a week or so after their coughs developed, her youngest daughter started to have what seemed like asthma attacks in the middle of every night, where she’d be gasping for her breath and there was lots of prayer and wondering if she should go to the emergency room going on. However, during the daytime hours, she’d have no symptoms of illness whatsoever, not even the coughing... Therefore my friend was thinking that they must all be suffering from some sort of respiratory allergies, an assumption that was confirmed to them when they brought their youngest, the one-year old in to see her doctor due to the persistence of the cough she’d also just developed, and the way that she was even turning blue as she’d lose her breath in a coughing spell. She was sent home with a “don’t worry” and a prescription for allergy medication. I felt certain that it was more, that it had to be some sort of infection, either viral or bacterial, with the way that it was being passed around amongst them (at this point none of mine were sick yet). But how was I to argue with a doctor? Everyone kept saying that it wasn't anything contagious... It was just my gut feeling that said otherwise, but as I watched the kids coughing up huge amounts of mucus, I was afraid, and I prayed for healing of these sick littles of my friend's, as well as protection over my own, even as I administered elderberry extract and lots of vitamin C.

A couple of days later, Savannah coughed for the first time, and gagged, and threw up… it was the night before her birthday. I vividly remember just breaking down crying as I was cleaning the mess up off of her and the floor… I just knew that this was something much more sinister than a passing respiratory allergic reaction… I’d watched it being passed around from one, to the next, to the next of the children. I was scared. My friend had been coughing for weeks now. But since no one else had yet thrown up, I was the only person who, at this point, suspected that it was all connected. I felt trapped (we had nowhere else to go yet) and wondered out loud to God what was going on here?!

The next week we finally found a place of our own to move in to. Then, within a few days I got a phone call letting me know that my friend's one-year old daughter was in the hospital, and had now been diagnosed with having pertussis, also known as the whooping cough. Now we knew what it was, and as I googled and read, it all became so clear that this highly contagious bacterial disease is exactly what they’d all somehow contracted from who knows where shortly before we'd arrived. Oh, I was scared, as I read on- of how it would get worse before it got better, of how there wasn’t anything much that I could do for my miserable baby girl.

Now that she was well past her first week into it, antibiotics would be useless. At this point, for my own peace of mind, I did take her in to see the doctor as well, even though I knew what she had and that there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it at this point. I did it, however, as a precautionary measure, so as to make sure that she didn’t have a secondary infection, which can sometimes develop and which would/could have been life-threatening, and would have required antibiotics. The doctor confirmed that there was nothing that I could do, and that no, she didn’t need antibiotics. He told me that the word in Chinese medicine for this disease means “100 day cough”, and warned me to brace myself, as it could last a very long time yet. He also explained that even once she'd healed (in the next month, or two?), her cough would be easily aggravated, and return with simple colds, possibly for years to come. He then admonished me to do what I’d already been intuitively doing during her attacks; holding her and soothing her during the coughing spasms by speaking gently and encouragingly to her, helping her to relax as much as possible… and just. BREATHE.

Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than hearing your baby gasping for breath, and its not coming… seeing the terror in her eyes, lifting her as she’s gagging on vomit that’s lodging in her throat, praying that she catches her breath in time, without choking in the process… praying that it will just go away!, wishing she could sleep for more than a few hours without the coughing attacks waking her, wondering how long this could possibly last anyways? The doctor also agreed that, as I knew, it was very good for her that I was still nursing her, since she was getting lots more antibodies and nourishment from me that she’d not otherwise have had to help her fight this mess... not to mention that she'd hardly keep anything else down!

I remember at one point having a sore throat for a few days, and an itching/tickle sensation in the back of my throat that made me want to cough a lot. For a couple of nights I had a small rattling in my chest and I was wheezy for the better part of three weeks or so. My case was very mild, compared to the others that came down with this, for which I was so very thankful, since I didn't think that I could emotionally/mentally take much more at that point without snapping (remember, the rest of our life was also being completely shaken!). All I could think of was how thankful I was to be able to pass on some extra antibodies to baby Savannah, for whom I was so worried. There were a few days when all she wanted was to nurse.

Some Things We've Learned to Help with Treating Pertussis:

Well, we did happen to learn a few things along the way that I'd like to share here in case they can be of help to and bless someone else.

1. Caution. If you even think it might be remotely possible that someone in your vicinity might have this, stay away. Apparently, from what I've been told and have read, this stuff- the whooping cough- cycles around every few years. It's out there, so be careful. I'm really not wanting to spook you, hate that I'm probably sounding like such an alarmist or scare-monger, but having witnessed it first-hand, and have seen that it is just SO highly contagious (even though we did everything right to build up our immune systems), and bad, bad, wicked illness stuff.
2. If you suspect that you or your kids have been around someone who's infected, see your doctor immediately and tell him/her the situation. Ask them to test you, see if you can get on a round of antibiotics asap, since apparently they're only effective if you catch this junk in the first week after you've contracted it. The tricky thing is that at this point you wouldn't necessarily have any symptoms yet, besides maybe common cold symptoms... hmmm. See what I mean? Wicked stuff! And for the record, though I'm not usually a big fan of antibiotics, in this case, if I could have, I most certainly would have used them to curb the mess. Uggh, it was horrible... If/when you ever do take antibiotics, make sure that you're also ingesting good probiotics daily, you and your children. You'll need more than you can get just eating extra yogurt with live cultures.
3. Probiotic supplements can be bought at healthfood/supplements stores if you aren't already culturing your own via live-culture yogurts, kefir, kombucha, lacto-fermented veggies or the like. They are indispensable to your body's immune system, and you'll need extra doses when you're sick, especially if you've been on antibiotics, which kill the good guys right along with the bad ones, at any point in your life. I've read that something like 80% of your body's immune system is (or isn't?) in your gut!
4. Lobelia tincture (which you can get at the healthfood store) was worth its weight in gold during this ordeal! We added a few drops to our drinks throughout the day, to help open up the airways, and ease an attack. I happened to have already had this on hand, to help with mine and my son's slightly asthmatic symptoms, like the wheeziness he'd get when playing sports. Instead of using an inhaler (as I did when I was a kid), I'd add about 8-10 drops of lobelia to his water or Gatorade bottle, and he wouldn't have the wheeziness and tightening of his airways! During the couple of weeks that I was battling the pertussis in my own body, I kept it in my water bottle (from which Savannah would take occasional sips) and it helped me out a lot. It's a blood thinner too, so use with caution. Read up on it, be informed.
5. Fenugreek seeds also help with the breathing. I took this in capsules (which I also had on hand, it's also good for increasing a nursing mommy's milk production), for Savannah's sake, hoping that she'd get some via my milk. My friend made tea from the seeds.
6. We made up a mixture of essential oils for treating the congestion that smells wonderful. I'd rub it on my baby's chest, back and the bottoms of her feet. To a base of Vit. E oil, add a few drops of peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, lavender oil, thyme oil and camphor oil.
7. Humidifier (warm or cold mist), in the bedroom at night. This is always a good idea any time someone is sick. I like to add essential oil of oregano to ours, in the medicine reservoir, which not only gives a warm, pleasant smell, but also has strong anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. It's good to drink a little bit (like a few drops- it burns) in some hot tea if you can stand the bitter taste of it! I do this, but wouldn't expect my kids to.
8. Stengthen your immune system: Probiotics (as mentioned above), cook with lots of garlic (eat it raw if you can!), use extra-virgin, organic coconut oil (we like to put it in our morning kefir/fruit smoothies), high-lignan flax seed oil, Vitamin D drops, Vitamin C supps., Elderberry extract, herbal teas with local, raw honey (if you can get some), and keep good cough drops on hand to suck on. We like the Zand brand. The cheapest place I've found to buy most of our supplements is at vitacost.com.
9. Eat smaller amounts spread out throughout the day. This helps to minimalize the vomiting that's brought on by the gag-reflex triggered during the violent coughing spasms. I also learned to not feed Savannah right before bed, but to make sure that she ate a very light lunch before nap-time and that she'd had dinner well before her bed-time- at least a couple of hours earlier. Again, this is where it was very helpful that she was still nursing, as she was much more apt to keeping mama's milk down than anything else. Also, eat lots of anti-bacterial foods, like those rich in pro-biotics, and also lots of GARLIC! I love to cook with fresh garlic, making hummus (a yummy veggie/chips dip) with lots of raw garlic in it, home-made chicken noodle soup, and miso soup are just a few of our favorites for fighting the crud, any crud.
10. More Herbs for Whooping Cough Treatment (Click to view.)

Controversy: the whole Vaccination Issue thingy that never seems to go away, nor be completely resolved in my own mind... along with the rest of our pertussis story.

Okay, I really hadn't planned on writing a book here, but besides our own testimony, and sharing what we've learned that might help others dealing with it, there's this issue of whether to vaccinate, or not, that's been a tough one for me for years! First of all, I would like to say straight away that I am not here to tell you what choices you should or should not choose for your own family. I do not even begin to think that I've even remotely figured all of this one out! However, my husband and I do know that there are certain vaccinations we would never recommend, get ,nor have administered to our children.

With that being said, about the time that our 14 year old son was five, and our now 11 year old daughter was two, we stopped vaccinating our kids, with the blessing and even recommendation of our naturally minded M.D. He was of the mind that so many of the vaccinations out now are totally unnecessary, and even potentially harmful, and the few that he did recommend, he said would be best given when a child was around 10 years old, after their immune system had had a chance to develop on its own. Now, obviously, that M.D. was the exception, as most of the pediatricians we've dealt with since moving have said and felt otherwise. Anyways, my point is just that we should try and be informed. Our decision not to vaccinate our baby girl came about after years of our researching and trying to be informed.

Jesse Hawkins has written a very informative article regarding making this vaccination decision as it relates to pertussis outbreaks over on her blog. Here's a short excerpt::

Pertussis Outbreak and Some Facts

One of the most popular talks I give is on the subject of vaccination. With so many scare tactics, misconstrued facts and anecdotal stories whirling around, finding accurate information about the risks and benefits of vaccination proves to be difficult at best. Now parents have an additional concern – there is a pertussis (whopping cough) “epidemic” in California, and if it continues, experts say it could be the worst in over 50 years. (The first vaccine was introduced in the 1930s and the vaccine was widely used by the 1940s, so this does not take us back to the pre-vaccine era, but does come close.) As of June 15, 910 cases have been confirmed and another 600 have been suspected – though as you will see, this could be a dramatic underestimation.

The emerging epidemic, assuming it reaches those proportions, has parents reevaluating their vaccine decisions, and is adding confusion to the already cloudy subject. What is causing this? Should we get additional vaccines? Is this caused by the anti-vaccine crowd? etc, etc, etc… Like anything, the story goes much deeper and is much more complex than any simple answer can provide.

Click here to read the rest of her article!

The surrealness of this whole illness seemed to be magnified by the fact that after that first week of cold-like symptoms, most days little Savannah didn’t have any other symptoms of illness, besides the cough. She'd play and carry on like her spirited, happy little self. This was, for the most part, the case for everyone who came down with it, and it was also interesting/weird how the sickness seemed to manifest slightly different symptoms in each person (10 of us altogether) that got it. However, when my (at thew time) 10 year old daughter, Tabitha, came down with it, she had one day of being feverish and lethargic, in which she mostly slept and sipped hot tea for her sore throat. The next day she felt better, but then a couple of days later, she started having a mild case of the coughs, which only lasted for a week or two in her case.

Tabitha had been vaccinated against pertussis a couple of years earlier, as was her older brother, who never contracted it at all. Savannah, however, had not been vaccinated... a decision that I began to really question, and then regretted, wondering if we could have avoided all of this mess! Eventually I was totally beating myself up over it, once I realized with certainty that pertussis is what she had. The bright side is Savannah will now be totally immune to it for most of her life, around 60 yrs. is what I read, versus the 8-10 yrs. that a vax will (possibly) protect. But OH, it was such a fight to get through it! I'm honestly not sure, if I had it all to do over again, that I wouldn't just rather have given her the vaccination... which brings me to my reason for sharing this whole story with all of you. I almost didn't vaccinate Nathan and Tabitha, but did, for the tetanus part of the vax, since we lived on a small farm.

Though the vaccination can help (as it did with my older kids), it's also no guarantee that one won't contract pertussis, as was evidenced by the fact that my oldest daughter still came down with a mild case (interestingly she also had a bad reaction to the vax, with lots of painful site irritation). When Savannah came down with it, I was really beating myself up so bad and feeling just so regretful and horrible, since we hadn't vaccinated her. A friend of mine called me up one morning (right when I really needed a lift!), said that she really felt like the Lord had led her to call me, and asked if I'd had Savannah vaccinated. My heart just sank, and trying hard not to get defensive, I said "no, she hasn't been vaccinated". Then to my surprise, she started to share with me of how years ago, before I even knew her, they'd almost lost one of her now older daughters to pertussis when she was two years old. She'd ended up in the hospital too, and she said that she had even been fully vaxed beforehand too, but still came down with it, and that it seems to cycle around every few years. Then she prayed with me (it was a VERY hard couple of months!).

Quite a few others around here, who had been vaxed, came down with it, besides the friends we picked it up from and us. It was really hard on my friend, who got it right along with her kiddos (the vax wears off eventually), and is STILL having a horrible cough from it that hits her if she even just laughs too deeply. It had been a long time since she'd had her booster. My case was ever so mild compared to most of the others as well, probably because I'd had a booster eleven years prior when I'd worked in a hospital. Anyways, if only we'd have known to catch it with antibiotics in the first week, but like I said, it makes its appearance as a simple cold, and there's just no way to know really, unless you KNOW that you've been in contact with someone who has it! Neither my husband, nor my friend's husband came down with it at all either...

During those months of battling pertussis, I was reminded of just how fragile this life really is, and of what a daily gift our physical health is. Most of all I was reminded of what a heavenly gift our children are, and of how protected we live. Even in the midst of our trials, emotionally and spiritually exhausted as I was from the previous few months of my husband's losing his job, our losing our home, adjusting (or not?) to a bit of (loud, rambunctious, chaotic, unforgettable) blessed communal living, and then being totally physically drained from cleaning up vomit numerous times a day, for over a month, and holding/nursing a baby who clung to me 24/7! as her life was turned completely upside down, from where she lived, to how she felt, the most prevalent realization in my spirit during all of this was I think simply... thankfulness... since yes, I TRUST Him, my Great Redeemer, my Savior and Lord. Yes, strange as it sounds, even as I was crying out to Him for mercy and healing, I was more aware of our blessings than before. I am thankful, for His hand of protection that I sensed was, and still is, hovering over us with a holy intent to redeem, restore and to renew... Yes, we have so very much for which to be thankful for.

Baruch Ha Shem Adonai, Bless the Name of the Lord.

Please feel free to share your own thoughts, concerns or experience with either pertussis or the whole vaccination issue(s)... It's an open, as in undecided, topic for me, in many regards. We quit vaccinating our kids (besides the DTP booster that N and T received a few years ago) when T was 18 months, and N was 4.5. Our little Savi hasn't yet received any vaccinations at all, and we're deliberating over whether or not to go ahead and have our older kids vaccinated for some things. FYI, click here to see my list of links/bookmarks on this topic of vaccinating.

I was just so thankful that our daughter wasn't any younger when she came down with this! There are certainly no easy answers regarding this whole issue of whether or not to vaccinate. All I know is that in those moments of my baby girl's not being able to hardly catch her breath before choking again on another cough and its induced vomiting, I was sure wishing that I'd just had her vaccinated, risky or not... even though before that I'd been SO confident in my/our resolve NOT to vaccinate our kids. It's such a personal decision one has to make after weighing all the options, each vax's merits and potential complications, etc. versus the validity of the protection they may offer, and then each parent according to their own conscience and convictions.

Truly, the more I learn, the less I know... *sighs*