Some comments have been deleted - aunaturelmama, did you answer my question about how the pertussis was diagnosed?
I ask because mine and my sons was done on a venous blood sample, and then reported to Public Health.
It’s NOT the same as a very bad cough. What happens is, your lungs produce phlegm, not loads like in a normal chest infection, but what there is, is SUPER thick. So, you fetch up a bit of the phlegm and it sticks over your windpipe. Like glue. And you just can’t shift it so then there is no air going in. The only way to breathe is to remember to try and breathe through your nose - and that’s very hard if you’re losing consciousness or panicking.
When I had it, I suddenly started passing bright red blood in my urine, and it turned out I had torn my bladder when coughing. I was in all other ways fit and healthy and with no history of respiratory disease, and yet this felled me. I had to sleep sitting up, as lying flat meant the phlegm moved. I lost control of my bladder and bowels during the coughing fits and honestly thought I would never recover from that, but now the pertussis has gone, I’m fine again.
If you’re dithering about whether to have the vax, do it. Do it now. Whooping cough is a very frightening killer disease.