What to do for a missing spleen?

March 20, 2009

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been on lately... I feel really out of touch! I've

had a rough week and a half and I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me

out with some information. Last Tuesday, the 10th, my dad (69 yrs old) went in

for a routine colonoscopy. Everything was fine with that, but when my mom and

dad got home, my dad felt very lightheaded and passed out on the front porch,

falling backward into the porch railing and knocking himself unconcious. My mom

was able to call 911 immediately, and over the next two days my dad was in and

out of emergency. It's a long story so I won't put in all the details, but what

ended up happening is that most likely during that first fall, he severed his

spleen. So over the course of two days, he was bleeding internally and got so

sick that we almost lost him. Finally they figured out what was wrong, and

transferred him to a really good hospital where he had an emergency spleenectomy

on Wed night (the 11th). He has been healing very well and is actually home

already and doing very well. Here's where my questions come in.... After the

surgery, the doctor came out and explained everything to my mom and the rest of

our family. One of the things he mentioned is that now that my dad no longer

has a spleen, he will be more susceptible to infection so he was going to have

to be " vaccinated for everything he can be vaccinated for " . OK, I was sitting

there absolutely cringing when he said this! What are some alternatives to

this? Unfortunately, my mom and dad are very old school and pretty much do

whatever their doctors tell them to, even though they are on board with us not

vaxxing our two children, and supposedly have read all the info I've given them

about vaccines. But this is a man who got the flu shot this year because the

nurse came into the exam room with it so he thought he had to have it...Ugh!!!

Have they not learned ANYTHING???

So thanks for reading my long post, and I'm hoping for some input. I'd like to

at least tell my parents some alternatives, and then they can decide for

themselves. (I hope obviously for the not-vaxxing route!)--

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