What common childhood disease did you get as a kid (or later)?

dennilfloss

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Oct 21, 1999
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There have been a couple of cases of measles this week in Ottawa, triggered by a kid who traveled to the Philippines (where there's supposed to be an outbreak) and who also was not vaccinated. The local health authorities are worried because some parents are foregoing having their kids vaccinated (even though it was said that vaccination is mandatory if you want to attend public schools) as this hurts the herd immunity.

This got me thinking about all the childhood diseases I got as a kid, back when there was vaccination only for a couple.

For me: chickenpox, measles, rubella, scarlet fever. Also think I had whooping cough. The last one was mumps (got this from my little bro or sis when I was a teenager). My mom used to keep some sort of 'disease diary' where she would write all we caught, along with our weight and height during our younger years. Living in a small apartment, if one of us caught something, the other two soon had it, no matter how hard my mom tried to isolate the 'patient'. Nowadays there are vaccines for most of those methinks. Thankfully I was born a few years after the polio vaccine was developed. My mother had polio as a kid and it left her with one arm slightly smaller and less agile than the other.

And a couple of times some kids in class had lice so I caught them too.

My dad had shingles some years ago and I hope my chickenpox doesn't decide to return in this form one day because it is quite painful from what he told me and what I've heard elsewhere.
 
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waggy

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Dec 14, 2000
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I had chickenpox and shingles latter. other then that i been good on normal childhood stuff.
 

mmntech

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Sep 20, 2007
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Chickenpox is the only notable one I can think of.

It's scary that things like measles are coming back. When they hell did it not become mandatory to have all your shots in order to attend school? Time they started closing the loopholes these idiot parents are exploiting, because some bimbo Playboy playmate told them shots give their kids autism.
 

JamesV

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Jul 9, 2011
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I had chickenpox and shingles latter. other then that i been good on normal childhood stuff.

My great aunt just went through a bout with the shingles, and having had chickenpox, I'm dreading my 33% chance of getting shingles.

She had it directly over an eye, and explained it as a migraine + rash + pure agony, and had to be taken the hospital numerous times during it (she was 93 at the time).

Myself, chickenpox, measles, high fevers and possible pneumonia; I had it all as a child. When I read history, about how a few hundred years ago only two of maybe eight children might survive to adulthood... I count my blessings... but I'll be ready to call Kevorkian Jr. if I get shingles.
 

RockinZ28

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Mar 5, 2008
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The hell. Never had any of that bs. Think the worst I've had is the flu a couple times.
 
Feb 25, 2011
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The hell. Never had any of that bs. Think the worst I've had is the flu a couple times.
My first old-man moment was in my mid-20s. I got a job fixing computers in an elementary school and overhead some staff talking about chickenpox vaccinations.

I get all the arguments for it, and I'm nto an anti-vaxxer, but I was honestly a little miffed that kids these days don't have a "coming of age" process that involves a two-week stint of itchy open sores.

Jealousy, I guess.
 

Naer

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Nov 28, 2013
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I was given poor nutrition as a fetus and developed a severe case of pectus excavatum. Can't help but be a little bitter towards my mom
 

tygeezy

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Aug 28, 2012
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I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes right before my 30th birthday which was this January.

I got the chickenpox when I was in preschool.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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Chickenpox, Rubeola measles, scarlet fever, rubella measles, pneumonia, and whooping cough. My parents tried and tried to get me to get the measles...I used to spend weekends at friends' houses who had them to try to get me infected...to no avail. (remember, in the 50's and 60's the mumps vaccine didn't exist...getting the mumps was the only sure-fire way to ensure you couldn't get them as an adult when they're more dangerous)

For much of my childhood, at least part of my school class was sick/infected with one or the other "childhood disease" much of the time.

Fuck Jenny McCarthy and the "vaccines are dangerous" crowd. They've saved thousands if not millions of kids lives...and 100 times as many from the dreaded oatmeal baths...
 

norseamd

Lifer
Dec 13, 2013
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vaccines are good but the big pharmaceuticals might be thinking about how they could use them.

i still get vaccines. get the nasal flu shot every year. also got the tetanus shot recently
 

Jeeebus

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Aug 29, 2006
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Never had chicken pox, but did get scarlet fever and strep throat at the same time. That was fun.
 

Meghan54

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Oct 18, 2009
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Chickenpox, Rubeola measles, scarlet fever, rubella measles, pneumonia, and whooping cough. My parents tried and tried to get me to get the measles...I used to spend weekends at friends' houses who had them to try to get me infected...to no avail. (remember, in the 50's and 60's the mumps vaccine didn't exist...getting the mumps was the only sure-fire way to ensure you couldn't get them as an adult when they're more dangerous)

For much of my childhood, at least part of my school class was sick/infected with one or the other "childhood disease" much of the time.

Fuck Jenny McCarthy and the "vaccines are dangerous" crowd. They've saved thousands if not millions of kids lives...and 100 times as many from the dreaded oatmeal baths...


Went through the same stuff as you. Kids get sent to sick kid's house in an attempt to catch the bug. Only never had whooping cough or scarlet fever, thankfully. And I remember getting that newfangled polio vaccine.