It was a relief when I did it. It was a relief even the day I did it. I didn’t realise how worried I was till I actually did it. And I did it and I was like, ‘It’s done now. It’s done. And I, and I worried, not worried, but the first week I watched and he had the little rash and, but he had no side-effects apart from that. And I think, I think you’re meant to look, I think it’s six weeks is it, that you’re meant to look for, that things could crop up in six weeks? And I think after a week I’d completely forgotten.

And when he had the, the rash what were your’describe to me about that and what you did?

I was fine with it. I know other mothers that babies have had the rash. And it was just on his trunk, it was very pale, I just saw it in the bath. I think it had faded by the morning. I had the leaflet. The leaflet was good, you know, I read that over and over again to check. And they said, and it was exactly when they said, you know, two or three days after the injection he had it, and he did and it went and he was fine. And, and that was it. And I think, I think really within the next sort of week I just did forget about it. And now I’m, I mean I’m just relieved I did it. I’m relieved hes, hes okay.

But then we talked about it again and then made that decision that yes I think that we are going to do it. But saying that, still had total reservations right up until the day that she had it and hoping, you know, that we had made the right decision and, and for about 12-14 days she was really not the same little girl in that she was very, you know, shed always been very smiley, very happy and suddenly she was very irritable all the time. And in fact I think about 10 days into it I phoned the health visitor again and said, ‘I’ve got some real concerns, you know. And sort of really thought, ‘Oh, perhaps she has now got autism or something. And the health visitor said, ‘Look, give it another couple of days. If you’re still unsure about it give me a call and I’ll come back out and see you. And it was almost in those couple of days that as if like, you know, I click my fingers and shed gone back to the same little girl. But it wasn’t anything major that she, you know, she wasn’t unwell in any way, she was just a lot more as if she was unwell basically. It was just that she was down in the dumps and very, like I say, always very moany, very kind of.

So really, and then like as, the next months went on I was still kind of looking at her and thinking, ‘Oh, is, is she OK with this? Has she been affected?’ And then as the months went by and then you thought, ‘Oh, it’s fine, everythings OK.

He was fine with the injection, well cried and screamed like they usually do. Everything seemed fine, came home and it was a little bit red and bit irritated and bit swollen, which they usually are. And then I’d say it were twelve hours later, well I can’t remember what time he had this injection, I think he had the injection around dinnertime. So it was late at night, he was screaming so I went into his bedroom and his arm was swollen up by this time. And it was horrendous, horrible, worse, ten times worse than what my daughter’s were. He was writhing about on the bed, screaming. And he said, he wanted the doctor. I mean, he doesn’t like doctors, you know, he never liked them. Hes been in and out of hospital with his ears and then his nose and things, because he gets nosebleeds. And just screaming, ‘Get the doctor, get the doctor, get the doctor. I mean I was in two minds whether to go to casualty with him at that time, but I left it until the next day.

Went to see the GP, she gave him some antihistamines. She said it’s just a reaction, hes had. Came home, he had another night of it really bad, screaming, crying and it was just huge, his arm was just huge… couldn’t move, couldn’t do a thing.

The next day I had to take my daughter somewhere, my mum watched him here. I came back after about an hour and a half and hed been laid on the kitchen floor because it’s tiles, it’s cold. His arm was oozing fluid from blisters. Just blistered, tight, and he was distraught. He was only four year old, he was absolutely distraught. I rang the doctor’s and, I wasn’t hysterical but they were, ‘Well you’ve missed the emergency appointment time or whatever it is. And I was, ‘Well I’m going to see, I’m going straight to casualty and I’m telling them that you wouldn’t speak to me, you know, you wouldn’t see the doctor or any, my child or anything. So they got me in to see the doctor again and she just wrote me a letter to say that he needs to be in hospital. So, I went to casualty and they kept him in then, which was horrible.

And he was in, how long was in there?

Three days. On a very high dose of antibiotics. Because they didn’t, they didn’t think that he could react to a vaccine like that. They didn’t understand why, they thought it were infection. I don’t know where they thought it had come from, I don’t know.