the happy homewrecker

Saw this posted over at Aimee's: High quantities of lead found in soft vinyl lunchboxes. Good grief, what next? And why has this not been all over the news?

So we're in the process of switching doctors and DH has had to constantly pester our old dr. because they kept not faxing Ginger's vaccination records to him and her first appt. with the new dr. is tomorrow. This afternoon when he called them again, he spoke with the office manager who told him that the last time we had Ginger in, they think they gave her the wrong shot. We have both our kids on a selective delayed vaccination schedule; she was supposed to get the Hib and IPV, but what they think they gave her was the Hib and DTaP. The doctor wrote down the correct shots on the shot order, but what happened after that is anyone's guess. The nurse is saying that she gave the DTaP and not the Hib, but she's going by her memory and I don't know how she can remember one shot from nearly two months ago. DH and I both remember him asking the nurse right before she gave the shots if they were the correct ones; when he inquired about one of them, (we can't remember which), she said, "Oh no, I have the wrong one," and left and returned with a different one.

Basically it comes down to no one knowing for sure what she got, which is royally ticking me off. Not only about Ginger getting something we didn't want her to have in combination with another shot, but now we don't know which one she got, and so we don't know which one to give her next---we run the risk of either duplicating one vaccination (or both) or unintentionally skipping the first dose of the other. The doctor and his staff don't seem at all overly concerned about this, but I'm so angry that they can't even keep basic records about what they're putting into my child. I feel like I should do something, but what? We've already written them recently about their ridiculous wait times and to inform them that we're leaving the practice; is there someone we can file a complaint with?

I saw this article linked over at Aimee's.

Deadly Immunity: Robert F. Kennedy investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal

This statement totally enrages me (emphasis mine): "At two months, when the infant brain is still at a critical stage of development, children routinely received three innoculations that delivered 99 times the approved limit of mercury."

and

"In April, reporter Dan Olmsted of UPI undertook one of the more interesting studies himself. Searching for children who had not been exposed to mercury in vaccines -- the kind of population that scientists typically use as a "control" in experiments -- Olmsted scoured the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who refuse to immunize their infants. Given the national rate of autism, Olmsted calculated that there should be 130 autistics among the Amish. He found only four. One had been exposed to high levels of mercury from a power plant. The other three -- including one child adopted from outside the Amish community -- had received their vaccines."

It makes me feel like weeping.

Spencer and I were outside for five whole minutes before I was bitten six times by some mosquitoes (mosquitos? oh, wait, dictionary.com says it can be written either way). Last night Gary and Spencer were outside for awhile and Gary mentioned later that the mosquitos seemed awful already. We emptied our birdbath a few weeks ago to get rid of the standing water, but last night we filled up the wading pool for the first time, though we're keeping it covered with a tarp this year. What does everyone else do? I'm wondering if the pool is a breeding ground, even covered, though we can't afford to keep dumping it and refilling it every day. Natural-minded mamas, what do you use for mosquito repellent? I've heard mixed reviews of Skin-So-Soft, that it works for some people and not for others. I've read that West Nile is worse this year, and while I'm not paranoid, seeing the little welts on Spencer and on a pregnant me does make me uncomfortable. I don't want to spend all summer indoors!