If I wasn't feeling so miserably ill with a silly cold, I'd be raving mad. But no energy left for the raving madness at present, it takes all my effort to sit in a reasonably comfy position and not to faint (why do I have that fainting streak? It's rather annoying).

Cubling is running late with her immunisations. She'll be 15 months next week and still hasn't had her MMR. This is because we missed two appointments which fell on dates we weren't in the country and it usually takes a month to recuperate that appointment. We also had to change clinic because we moved house. All my pleading was in vain. When Cubling managed to catch two viruses recently, we went to see the new GP three times with what was diagnosed as measles, and a fourth time with the chickenpox a few days later (different GP, same practice). A few  months earlier, hubby had suspected measles. Now I don't know about attitudes to measles in school medicine in the UK, but even a lay person like me knows it's a serious disease with a risk of fatalities. When hubby had suspected measles, he was told he could mingle with people and travel, no precautions in relation to baby (then still under a year) or me meeting other mums with babies, and I didn't know any better. Blood tests were undertaken because he went back and insisted, and he didn't have measles as we found out about 3 weeks after he was ill.

Then, with Cubling, on the third appointment, koplik spots were detected. I was asked to keep her out of daycare, but could still go to the playground. I looked up measles on the internet. I got very scared. Very. Nevermind that I also feared to get them myself as I'm neither immunised nor had them as a child. More time off work. At the same time, to me the rash didn't look like the images I saw, but what do I know, I'm not a GP and the GP saw koplik spots.

When Cubling got chickenpox and we went back for a diagnosis, a different GP saw her and said it was extremely unlikely she'd have measles and then chickenpox. She suggested it might have been roseola followed by chickenpox, which incidentally was my guess from reading books and comparing symptoms (3-5 days of 40+ fever, then rash for another 3 days, no rash in face, and rash looks different to measles).

When I read up about measles I really started to wonder why it was dealt with so lightly in both incidents. It is a highly infectious disease, which can have complications which are fatal - up to 10 years after the actual illness. I truly hope Cubling didn't have the measles and it's looking good as I didn't get them and would have. Considering the complications that can come with a true measles outbreak, surely it's an illness that should be reported? Where definitive blood tests should be undertaken for an exact diagnosis?

So when I received an invitation for the MMR two weeks ago, I couldn't wait for the appointment. Unfortunately, it was still from the old clinic. So I phoned and asked whether I could come anyway. I was told yes. I made arrangements at work to manage a mid afternoon appointment, which involved driving all over Glasgow to make it happen and still get a decent daily amount of work in - after all I'd been off work enough already with Cubling having two viruses that required isolation. When I was called into the health visitor's practice, I was told that sorry, they couldn't do it. Cubling is no longer on their system. She was deleted that very day, in the morning. On top of that, the red book had not been kept up to date, and the Health Visitor at the new GP practice couldn't be reached. I understand that they couldn't administer the MMR without confirming previous immunisations and their dates, what I don't understand is how I was given an appointment, phoned to confirm it was ok to attend, and how medical records were deleted rather than being shared across the two clinics, or why I have a red book when none of the immunisations Cubling was given has ever been noted in it.

Above all I'm not a happy camper because Cubling didn't get her MMR.
G. sent me an interesting link to the dangers of measles and why immunisations are really very important. It's in German, but to summarise it confirms my views - having been through thinking that Cubling had the measles and reading up on it, I can only say don't play with the measles. They can be nasty. Very nasty. They kill. Not often, but they do.