I have Bad Case of Loving You in my head. Thanks.

I get a booster Tetanus shot every 10 years. That is when you should get them unless you've been injured and might need another in case. I haven't had a reaction to the booster shot and hope I never do although I know a gal who did have a reaction. But she's fine now.

I had whooping cough when I was three months old and almost died. That is years ago. I do not get a vaccine for that now. There was whooping cough in my area and other states this past winter though due to the fact that a lot of kids now aren't vaccinated for it.

The injection was the TdaP. After reading your replies, I feel better now for being a wimp

I got my booster a couple of years ago....no biggy for me..

I got one about 15 years ago when I was bit in the thumb by a chimpmunk I was feeding white grapes to. He looked back and forth between my thumb and the grape and chose the wrong one. Then he grabbed the grape and scampered off.

Thanks to my microbiology class in nursing school as well as doing 2 semesters of independent study in microbiology and the micro lab (I think Stephen King worked there and got many ideas from there) I get them done regularly. They are opportunistic little guys with some nasty toxins (ranked one of the 3 most toxic - botulism & diphtheria are the other 2). The death rate is about 70% and they found that the older we get, the less immune we are, thus a higher death rate in people over 60.

Although it is becoming more rare in the U.S. in which vaccines are given, it is still a possibility to get tetanus. I like to play in the garden and the dirt and even though a little cut seems harmless, should the soil be contaminated with C. tetani (via horse/other animal feces) BAM I could end up with tetanus. Let's face it, manure is a great fertilizer.

Call me paranoid (thanks Mrs. Weider My micro mentor) but I don't want to take that chance. Now that I have MS, heck, I don't need any more spasms. LOL

However, Barb, you have to weigh the pros and cons based on you and your lifestyle. Like I mentioned, I love to work in the garden/dirt and for me it makes sense to get one done. If I wasn't a gardener or an outside kind of person, I don't know if I would get one done or not.

BTW - Sir Charles Bell painted a picture of a, I think, soldier dying of tetanus. It's quite famous. Google it and I am sure it will come up. I remember that picture from my micro books.

A man we knew well got Tetanus years ago and it wasn't a pretty picture. He survived. That is when our family starting getting the vaccine and kept up the boosters shots. You could get it even in the house if the stuff is there.

I would have been more worried about rabies from the chipmunk even though they don't carry it that often.

I had my tetanus shot (booster) two years ago. Sucker hurts, but not as much as Neulasta! I didn't have any problems afterwards except for a sore arm for a couple of days.