YOUR STORY: Thanks for my whooping cough nightmare

PLEASE vaccinate your children/grandchildren. It is not HEALTHY or "Natural" to avoid vaccinations.

WHOOPING cough turns Christmas into "Christmess"

Please vaccinate your children/grandchildren. It is not HEALTHY or "Natural" to avoid vaccinations.

You just make other people sick. So thanks a lot (snarky tone) to the hippies of the Northern Rivers who chose not to vaccinate their children 'because it's not natural'.

Whooping cough is dreadful. You simply cannot get a breath in, no matter how hard you cough - the airways are blocked and you are gasping, choking for breath, then a full chest spasm and then vomiting reflex sets in (nothing comes up).

The spasms just continue until they are 'done' with you. It forces out tears, snot, and even urine.

OK, the take-home message:

The whooping cough vaccine given at birth may wear off. (little did I know).

After 50, they recommend booster vaccines for those who have contact with babies under one year old (the vaccines are given at Age 1).

Ask your Dr., as people are irresponsible nowadays and think somehow it is "cool" and "healthy" not to vaccinate their children.

As I've had no contact with babies,I think I might have picked mine up from trolley handles in the supermarket. It's a bacteria. From now on, I've decided to wear gloves. They do offering anti-B wipes at the store but sometimes the container is empty.

I'm not feeling too well, we started our whooping cough pills, but I had it for too long.

The ER doctor did not recognise the words: "cough" "spasm" and 'retching" and 'gasping as Whooping Cough. In the Northern Rivers, that option should be at the top of everyone's "pick list" after those symptoms were described.

I was assessed by three doctors. The first one treated me for a chest infection and asthma. The second doctor checked foe whooping cough but due to the holidays the lab results didn't come back for six days.

The ER doctor (as I have a reflux issue) finally did a chest X-ray (clear) and thought I had a reflux-related syndrome called GERD.

Today, I can't lie down as will start coughing again although the spasms are much milder now.

Still somewhat hard to swallow, so it's soup, rice pudding and applesauce. Finally after a week on antibiotics, it has definitely settled down - except I wake up coughing in the middle of the night.

With spasms and retching. Right now, I just feel exhausted and of course, very sore around the middle from coughing. And sore back.

And further, I feel it is possible I have developed a oesophageal hernia from all the coughing.

So to all those who don't vaccinate their children, I say: THANKS A LOT.

Originally published as YOUR STORY: Thanks for my whooping cough nightmare