Did anyone have measles as a child?

[Daffodil101]

With leg pain afterwards?

Been reading about measles tonight. I definitely contracted this as a child, we moved house a lot, so I can place it to about 1978 given the house we were living in.

I also remember an incident ( in the same house) where I had excruciating leg pains and my mother wouldn’t believe me. It was agony to weight bear. She forced me to walk to the shops on my hands and knees to ‘prove’ I was lying, which I wasn’t.

I’ve never connected the two until I read that measles can cause terrible leg pain. Talk about the penny dropping!

Anyone else remember experiencing this?

I (along with the rest of my year) were vaccinated in 1978/9 whilst we were obviously coming to the end of the incubation period for Measles. Even the antivaxxers' kids came down with it at the end of the week. I can remember that my mother actually closed her bedroom curtains - something that never happened - and put me in her bed with a little black and white portable TV to watch whatever was on (not a lot at that time, but I wasn't a child that ever stayed in bed, so it must have been bad to keep me in there).

Almost as soon as we went back to school, we all got Mumps. My mother said I was extremely ill with that and I can remember the GP walking to our house every morning after surgery finished to check on me.

By Easter, Whooping Cough had done the rounds and one child ended up in hospital and her baby brother was dead from it.

Either that same year or the next, the antivaxxer parent of the girl that lived opposite was visiting hospital daily to see her slightly older son as he was critically ill with Tetanus.

Luckily(?) for me, we lived in a relatively affluent area when DD2 was small in 2000. Complete with people saying their child had 'Homeopathic Immunisations'.

So she caught Measles before her first MMR was due. What frustrated me about that was that I was told a) she couldn't possibly have Measles as everybody was vaccinated and b) she couldn't possibly come into the surgery to be checked out if she had Measles so I was refused appointments.

DP's father is an antivaxxer. Went ballistic when he found out that DP had been given DTP at school and banned his mother from giving him any others.

He's not had Measles, Mumps, Rubella, etc. Lost his best mate through Meningitis, though.

I had measles and mumps (went to school with the latter on the first day without telling DM that the glands in my neck were all swollen)

No, no assumptions from me, @NoMorePoliticsPlease, just some facts (the dates) and some personal thoughts. I assume you are familiar with terms like "possibly" and "perhaps"? The only thing that I have assumed is that had my mother known about the vaccine, then I would have had it. Unless you are my sister, which is highly unlikely, there isn't another living person who could know that so I am going to stick with that assumption if that's ok?
As for sources, try the BBC's NHS history series, oh, and Public Health England. I think their knowledge of the UK vaccine programme is likely to be accurate. They published a detailed article in 2018 celebrating 50 years of measles vaccination in this country. The first trials of a single measles vaccine in the UK started in 1964, the early results were published in 1966 with a second report in 1968. Following this second report the national measles vaccine programme was launched, also in 1968. PHE report that the uptake of the vaccine was low til the 80s. MMR wasn't launched until 1988.

I was 5 or 6 when I had measles in the 60's. I remember being taken to the doctor late at night (past my bedtime) wrapped in a blanket and the surgery was in the back of a pub. I have since checked with my mum and that was the case, I wasn't hallucinating.

I don't remember much after that other than being in bed in the dark and the doctor visiting a lot - apparently he came twice a day for a week or so. My dad was working away and he sent me a huge parcel and so did my granny. I remember hurting everywhere but the only lasting effect was that my hearing was poor for quite a while afterwards.

@IthinkIsawahairbrushbackthere interesting that you remember it so clearly. I have little recall, although I would say that my first year in infant school I had more illness packed into two terms (I started late) than ever since (maybe that's why I have such a robust immune system?).

I remember the start so clearly. My mum was out and her friend was looking after me and I couldn't stop crying - something had never happened before. But no memory beyond going through to the back room of the pub and being in the dark. Strangely I never had mumps and didn't have chicken pox until I was in my mid 20's.

Did you get chickenpox badly @IthinkIsawahairbrushbackthere getting it so late in life?

DD (mid teens) hasn't knowingly had it despite spending a whole holiday with a child who was brewing it about ten years ago.

I remember being actively encouraged to get measles, German measles and chicken pox before school.

I managed to get chicken pox but not measles and German measles until i was in the first year of school.

I don’t remember anyone being massively affected by these illnesses and although you felt ill it was just treated as a childhood illness to be got out of the way with but the older you were if you got these diseases the worse it got. So it wasn’t recommended to wait and end up with them at the age of 10 or 11 or worse as a teen or an adult

I somehow think that back in the era of these childhood communicable diseases being rife, most people wouldn't have batted an eyelid at COVID-19.

Measles in childhood left me with complete hearing loss in one ear. My siblings also had it but had no long lasting effects from it.

Oh no @LovingLola sorry to hear that. That's one of the main side effects of it isn't it?

I had measles as a child, must've been the early 80s. I remember having to lie in bed in a darkened room and I wasn't allowed to read. The GP came out to see me-I'm not sure if that was the usual thing in those days.
I wasn't given that jab or the mumps one as I got that too. I found my vaccination card and I had all the other usual injections. My mum told me they were advised by the doctor not to get the measles jab as my dad developed epilepsy following measles when he was in his early 20s.

Didn't MMR jabs only come in midway through the 80s (or was it earlier?).

NewModelArmyMayhem18 The vaccinations were all listed separately on my card- I had the rubella jab at school in year 6 in about 1988, but perhaps the younger kids were getting them in one go by then?

I agree that Covid would have been treated as a minor inconvenience and if someone died then it would have been awful but the community would have rallied round with buttering bread and making sandwiches for the wake and life would move in very quickly

It would have just been taken as given that life would go on as usual @Oliversmumsarmy, I'm sure. The era when you weren't given time off school unless you were virtually dying... (not in my family anyway, hence me not reporting mumps swollen glands to DM initially).

I am another who had measles, german measles, chicken pox and mumps in early childhood (but not all at the same time although my baby brother had chicken pox and measles at the same time).
I too remember the GP doing frequent home visits (this was the 60s - another world) and also I remember having 'growing pains' in my legs.

I had it, we all did (friends, cousins etc). I can also remember being made to stay in a darkened room for about a week and I wasn't allowed to watch any TV because we were told there was a risk to eyesight. One cousin did suffer eye problems from mashes and wore glasses afterwards.

*measles not mashes!

Yes and I was very ill indeed. It took six weeks for me to learn to walk again. My legs were both weak and painful. (Iwas about 7)

Yes when I was 10. I was really ill with it. I had the leg pains too and it wasn't long after I'd got over it that I started having migraines.

I had measles in the early 60s. I remember being in bed with the curtains drawn and at one point asking my mother to stop the bed tilting - she said it was just my temperature making me feel it was tilting.
I did have leg pains afterwards which were put down to growing pains.

Mr Sheen - that’s how I felt, weak legs.

I had measles as a child & was really unwell for about 2 weeks with a high temperature & hallucinations. Leg pain afterwards was always referred to as growing pains