vaccination records

[Bootsie]

Do you have records of all of the vaccines that you have received?  With all of the talk of proof of vaccination recently, I started thinking about this.  I do not have a record of all of the vaccines that I have received and neither does DH. 

[HeartString]

I did.  My mom probably has it still.  I had a written yellow card with my oldest and middle. (19 and 13) About part way through my 13 year olds immunizations the doctor stopped using it and switched to electronic records.  My youngest has never had a card, only digital.  We were late on one vaccine with her doctor and got notices from the health department for year.  
 

I assume mine were digitized at some point because of things said at doctors appointments and at the hospital.  Things like “We can see you need a tetanus booster, want to go ahead and do that?”  

Edited April 6, 2021 by Cnew02

[Shoeless]

No. I have my military shot record and my Covid card, but that's it. I might have the paperwork from when I got the rabies vax, but I suspect I lost it when I divorced and moved.

[Arcadia]

We relocated to the states and didn’t have our records with us. We have only been ask for TB test results if we want to volunteer at schools. Our kids have the California vaccination record card in yellow. 
 

[HeartString]

That yellow card is what I had and my 2 older kids have.  

[MEmama]

Generally. My current doctor has them from the past 10 years.

It's another good argument for centralised healthcare IMO. Imagine knowing all this stuff was in one place, and that all your doctors had access to your important information. Sigh. 

[HeartString]

I’ve seen people on Twitter showing pictures of vaccine cards used to travel to certain other countries, I think yellow fever.  

[Terabith]

I have the little book my mom kept with my childhood vaccinations, and my doctor has electronic medical records, so I have records of what I've gotten at her office in the last ten years (a tetanus/ pertussis booster and some flu shots), and I have my covid vaccination card.  I don't have a record of any vaccines I got in that intermediate period, or flu shots I've gotten that weren't at my doctor's office (which is honestly most of them).  

When my kids started school, there was a huge hassle because while I had given our current pediatrician my kids' records from their first pediatrician in San Antonio (like ten years before), somehow they were entered for one kid but not the other.  So I had to have San Antonio pediatrician dig out their records from the basement.  It was a pain.  And oldest kid had vaccines up till 18 months with the military, but their records had been transferred at a reasonable time.  

[Moonhawk]

No, I don't have the original blue handout thing that I assume was given to my parents when I was a kid. And, I've lost I think all the ones that my kids originally started off with, oops. But when we started at our new PCP this past year they pull the state records for our files so I could ask for a printout of what I've gotten.

Interestingly, when they pulled them for DH, the couldn't find ANY. Like, at all. He's not that much older than me, but my records were available to them. And when he stopped to think about it, he realizes he doesn't have memories of needles like I do, he truly doesn't know and just always assumed he was. His mom was a doctor so I think that was why he assumed so. However, she was ADAMANTLY against us vaccinating our kids at all so that should've tipped us off (we thought it was a newer stance, not something she believed when he was little). 

So, anyway, he's going to start the long process of getting the vaccines that our PCP thinks he needs. I should ask if he can get a card handout thingy like they give to kids.

[RootAnn]

I have my kids' shot records but not my own. I can't even remember when I got my tetanus booster, but I think I just got one 5-6 years ago.

[Pawz4me]

I only have mine for the last ten years or so. I do have a printout of all the vaccines my young adult sons received, and they're available online through their patient portal. The pediatrician group we used (owned by a large hospital chain) stopped using cards a very long time ago.

[vonfirmath]

46 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

Do you have records of all of the vaccines that you have received?  With all of the talk of proof of vaccination recently, I started thinking about this.  I do not have a record of all of the vaccines that I have received and neither does DH. 

Our Doctor has quite a few. And we have a paper copy of ones from when my husband and I were younger in our file box.  Every year I have to get a paper copy of the kids' vaccinations for summer camp and other activities.

[Corraleno]

When we moved back to the US from the UK, I brought physical print-outs of the kids' shot records from the NHS, and those were added to their digital medical records by their pediatrician here, and then those files were transferred when we moved to this state. I'm so glad there are digital records, because I have no idea where those pieces of paper are now, and DS's university required proof of multiple vaccines to live on campus.

I have no record of my own childhood vaccines; if there was ever a paper record it must have been lost a long time ago. I know I had polio (I remember getting the sugar cube) and smallpox (got the scar), and I know I had some shots (because my mother said I hid under a table in the doctors office trying to avoid them), which I assume were DTP. I had actual measles, mumps, rubella, and chicken pox, because those vaccines weren't available yet.

[Bootsie]

I know that my parents were consistent with vaccines.  I was born shortly before the measles outbreak in the 1960s and my mother had a number of friends who had children with birth defects because the mother had measles while pregnant.  And, my father worked in publich health, in communicable disesases, for the state.  However, something came up when I was in college about an inconsistency in my shot records regarding a measles booster.  And I know I received a measles vaccine at that time "to be sure".  I remember that one for sure.  My OBGYN did blood tests to test form immunity about the time my kids were born--and I didn't have immunity.  My childhood doctor retired decades ago--before electronic records were a thing.  

DH moved at least every two years (and not military) growing up, thinks he remembers have several childhood diseases and has NO clue what vaccines he did or did not have.  

So much has changed regarding combinations and timings of vaccines since I was a child.  Even from the time DD was born to the time DS was born less than three years later some of the recommendations had changed.  I am not sure that either of my young adult children have a complete record of their vaccinations

[Acorn]

I had to supply proof of childhood MMR or pay for titers for an education job. We didn’t have any records but I was able to write a state office. They told me they estimated about 50% of childhood vaccines from that time period were in an official register.

Edited April 6, 2021 by Acorn

[ktgrok]

I have a booklet with childhood vaccines in it that I got, and my state has a central database for vaccines that would have any I've had in the last several years. Only one that I may not have proof of is I may have gotten a measels booster as a teen...my old pediatrician would hav had that. 

The state database is nice - my husband was at our family doctor today and they had a record already of his covid vaccines, since it was in the system. We can look them up from home as well I think, on the state system. 

[Ali in OR]

I do have access to the electronic file which has about the last 10 years? I was just looking at it recently and was happy to see that they got the information about my Covid vaccine and have that in there--my shots were not at their office, but the information got to them.

[Sherry in OH]

My children's pediatrician gives me computer printouts of my children's vaccines annually.  I've noticed that although we get annual flu shots, they are not always reflected on the printouts.  

I have a handwritten vaccination record from my high school.  Other than my COVID vaccine card, I have no written record of other shots. If my memory is correct, I had two doses of the meningitis vaccine in the mid 1990s and my last tetanus booster when my oldest was 7 (I needed it to volunteer at summer camp), flu vaccines annually since the late 1990s, and that's all I remember.

[Lanny]

Not me or DW but DD has up-to-date records.  The reason for that is a few years ago, she applied for a U.S. Government program, for studying strategic languages. She applied for the Summer after her high school graduation. She didn't make the final cut (which I think was OK because I don't know how she could have done that and gotten ready to go off to the university in the same Summer) but we spent a lot of time researching her vaccinations and she had to get 1 or 2 that were required by UNC and have one or 2 tests. So her record is probably very up to date.    The hours we spent researching for the U.S. Government language program saved hours of work filling out the forms for UNC. 

I believe UNC will require the COVID-19 vaccination for Fall 2021, and I think they have already published the requirements for that but I haven't studied them yet.

If I assume, the COVID-19 vaccination will be a requirement for many things, including flying on airplanes and going to in-person school classes and in-person events.

Probably it will take about 24 months for things to return to pre COVID-19 days?

[Farrar]

Nope. I have the kids'. But not mine. The last time I needed them was when I was applying for my Chinese work visa and that was a LONG time ago.

[Annie G]

No, I don’t have any records of immunizations. When I was pregnant I know they did titers for some things.

My smallpox scar on my left arm is proof of that, I guess.

[Katy]

I think most states have electronic vaccine records.  If you contact your state’s database they’ll send you an official record of every vaccine you had in that state. 

[SoCal_Bear]

1 hour ago, Moonhawk said:

No, I don't have the original blue handout thing that I assume was given to my parents when I was a kid. And, I've lost I think all the ones that my kids originally started off with, oops. But when we started at our new PCP this past year they pull the state records for our files so I could ask for a printout of what I've gotten.

Interestingly, when they pulled them for DH, the couldn't find ANY. Like, at all. He's not that much older than me, but my records were available to them. And when he stopped to think about it, he realizes he doesn't have memories of needles like I do, he truly doesn't know and just always assumed he was. His mom was a doctor so I think that was why he assumed so. However, she was ADAMANTLY against us vaccinating our kids at all so that should've tipped us off (we thought it was a newer stance, not something she believed when he was little). 

So, anyway, he's going to start the long process of getting the vaccines that our PCP thinks he needs. I should ask if he can get a card handout thingy like they give to kids.

You could ask them to do titers testing for him first but given what you said about your MIL....

[Bambam]

I have two yellow shot records (one completely filled in) from childhood. Since then the only recordable shot has probably been Tetanus - information on file at my local doctors. 

Both my kids have a printout from their pediatrician (when we move, medical records were transferred, pain but worth it). I have printouts and scanned those and emailed it to them, and they have stored it on their cloud storage. 

[Loowit]

I have mine from when I was a child, but it doesn't have anything I have had since then.  My newer ones (1993 and newer) are in my online chart which I can access whenever.

I have one for each of my kids, but I can't remember where I put them.  I stopped tracking once they were older.  If they need them they can access them online.

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, Annie G said:

No, I don’t have any records of immunizations. When I was pregnant I know they did titers for some things.

My smallpox scar on my left arm is proof of that, I guess.

Oh! Good point! I have that too....do they check just Rubella when they do that or measels as well?  (never mind, it is just Rubella). 

Oh well, if it evre comes up and I don't have proof of a second MMR I'll just get one again. 

Edited April 6, 2021 by ktgrok

[Ali in OR]

52 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Oh! Good point! I have that too....do they check just Rubella when they do that or measels as well?  (never mind, it is just Rubella). 

Oh well, if it evre comes up and I don't have proof of a second MMR I'll just get one again. 

I actually did this two years ago. There was a measles outbreak in OR, and I was pretty concerned that I was born in that 4 year window when the shot first came out and they aren't sure it was effective. When I talked it over with my doctor, he also told me that after an outbreak in the late eighties/early nineties, they decided children needed two shots, not just one. So everyone born before then may be somewhat at risk. It didn't matter so much when almost everyone was vaccinated, but with more people not vaccinating, we have more outbreaks now. Anyway, he said the easiest thing to do was just get a booster, so I got one that day.

[Ellie]

Nope. Neither does dh. Probably, though, the only ones we've had are polio and small pox.

I didn't keep my dc's records, either.

[regentrude]

Yes. We have an International Vaccine Passports for all family members where all vaccines are listed in German, French , and English.

As immigrants, we were required to have all kinds of vaccinations and have official proof.

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by regentrude

[Carrie12345]

I have a dot matrix printed copy, and I have no idea where it came from! I don’t think I had any other vaccines until 2016, and everything from there on is online.

I do generally keep a copy of my kids’ most recent vaccination history “just in case”. Of what, I’m not sure, but I keep way stupider things, so why not?

[Bootsie]

3 hours ago, Katy said:

I think most states have electronic vaccine records.  If you contact your state’s database they’ll send you an official record of every vaccine you had in that state. 

The state in which I grew up started their electronic database in 2001--after I was grown and had moved out of state.  

Texas has a database but the patient must provide written authorization to be included.  Once a child turns 18 they must sign, records are kept until they are 26; if by 26 they have not signed the consent, their immunization records are deleted.  

[J-rap]

It would be easy for all of my kids to find them...  Our state began a data base that combined all of them, and it's easy to get a print-out.   Although, I really don't know if their Covid vaccines are connected to that.  They got them at such random places, not at local clinics.  Just random pharmacies, grocery stores, job-sites, etc.  

I have only my last 15 years or so of vaccines, which would really only include tetanus I suppose and shots required for living/traveling in other countries -- like yellow fever.  I doubt flu shot records could be found easily, unless I got them at my local clinic (which I sometimes did, but often not).  I didn't get my MMR vaccine until age, 25, and I don't think anyone has a record of that.  Maybe my mother wrote down my childhood vaccines in my baby book.

[kbutton]

1 hour ago, Ali in OR said:

When I talked it over with my doctor, he also told me that after an outbreak in the late eighties/early nineties, they decided children needed two shots, not just one. So everyone born before then may be somewhat at risk. It didn't matter so much when almost everyone was vaccinated, but with more people not vaccinating, we have more outbreaks now. Anyway, he said the easiest thing to do was just get a booster, so I got one that day.

I had to get one before I went to college because I was in that window. 

I have seen my shot record...now I am wondering if my parents gave it to me, but if they did, I don't know where it is. It's not in the place I would expect it to be, so now I am a bit worried. It's odd for me to not know where something like this is. 😳

When I've needed the kids' records, I have been able to get them from the ped. They prefer to get their shots at The Little Clinic instead, but we always send them copies of the documentation from the The Little Clinic, including flu shots. The Little Clinic has had records if we've misplaced them. 

I got my Tdap a few years ago when we were traveling, and it was time to update tetanus. People who don't vax will be sly about pertussis going around, and since they think it's no big deal, they don't necessarily inform you until after they've had a bout of it--our old chiropractor casually mentioned that his family had it AFTER they were over it, but I had been going to his office the whole time. I was not pleased. It definitely made me pursue the Tdap shot when it was time to update.

[Danae]

My mom still has my childhood one, and most of my adult vaccinations are in my doctor’s electronic records.  I might be missing records of a few boosters from around college-age, though.

[Tap]

Everyone needs to keep paper records of all vaccinations. Even if it is just a receipt that lists the vacccine, lot number and date. I made the mistake of expecting doctor's office and digital records to be sufficient. 

1. DD's medical record was digitized and when they scanned the records, they missed 2 pages. One page was part of her vaccination history. She had to have several vaccinations repeated due to this. Her doctor could have signed a waver....but then she would have to have a waver signed every.single.time she needed it for school, college, employment etc.

2. DS got some travel vaccinations for traveling to Haiti right after high school graduation. The pharmacy kept all records for 10 years at that time. A few years later, the pharmacy changed computer systems, and the new system only had records for 3 years. Luckily I had the original records in his travel docs from the trip when he took another trip 7ish years later. The pharmacy can still access the records with a 30 day notice (they have to submit a request t someone to get records that old), but you can't just walk in an ask for them like you used to be able to. 

3. There is not a national database for vaccinations. Every state is different. If you rely on the state database you are also relying on remembering which state people were vaccinated in. And relying on the office or pharmacy to accurately record the data. No biggie for families who don't move around, but a nightmare for families with multiple children and states.

4. Pharmacy records for vaccinations are not always communicated to doctors offices. It is an extra step for the pharmacy and isn't always done. (I work in pharmacy and I know this is true).

[DawnM]

I have some of my immunizations on a card, but many weren't recorded (overseas).

I have the older two kids yellow cards but they have long been digitized by their doctor.  

Yellow cards are in the safe with our passports.   It is a small fireproof safe and only has our birth certificates, car titles, passports, and such.   (Didn't want you to think we have a giant safe with money......🤣.....we don't!)

[Ausmumof3]

I don’t.

My kids do.  The government here has a register anyway which is probably horrifying from a freedom perspective but is helpful when you forget that your kids were meant to have shots in high school.

[Bootsie]

13 hours ago, Tap said:

Everyone needs to keep paper records of all vaccinations. Even if it is just a receipt that lists the vacccine, lot number and date. I made the mistake of expecting doctor's office and digital records to be sufficient. 

 

I have looked back at some of the records I do have and no lot number or any other identifying number (such as producer of the vaccine) is listed on what I have.  So, I can't know exactly what I was given.

I also don't know that the things I have written on a card, stray receipts, etc. would be anything that is really "proof" in any meaningful or legal sense.  Any of those documents would be easy to alter, add to, or duplicate.  

[SKL]

Definitely not.  The only one I had as an adult and could probably trace was a tetanus shot I had after an accident about 15 years ago.

Maybe my mom could dig up my baby shot book - I've never asked.  I don't know whether or not that book would have vaxes I got at school during those mass booster events we had.  I do know that I had the then-required-for-school shots.  So I should be immune from measles.

I think if I had to prove anything, I'd probably need to get titers.  Not sure how difficult or expensive that is.

[SKL]

The other thing worth wondering is what about people who had the actual diseases as kids?  My parents and some of my friends had measles and mumps for example, as did all their family and friends.  If they even bothered to go to the doctor, would there be any way to prove it now?  I'm guessing no way.  Similar for my chicken pox.

[Bootsie]

3 minutes ago, SKL said:

The other thing worth wondering is what about people who had the actual diseases as kids?  My parents and some of my friends had measles and mumps for example, as did all their family and friends.  If they even bothered to go to the doctor, would there be any way to prove it now?  I'm guessing no way.  Similar for my chicken pox.

And I have friends whose mom's say "I think you all had chicken pox--or was that just Johnny?  And Meredith, did you have measles when Billy had them?"  Some people are old enough to remember having a disease, but some are simply depending on mom's memory of which kid had what (without ever having a medical diagnosis.).  

[vonfirmath]

7 minutes ago, SKL said:

The other thing worth wondering is what about people who had the actual diseases as kids?  My parents and some of my friends had measles and mumps for example, as did all their family and friends.  If they even bothered to go to the doctor, would there be any way to prove it now?  I'm guessing no way.  Similar for my chicken pox.

If its important, you check titers.

Or you get the shot again.

 

[HS Mom in NC]

No, I've never had any of my vaccine records.  I was fully vaccinated on schedule as a public school student where I received most of my shots in elementary school. The school must've had my records because in high school I had to go to the nurse's office for one I hadn't got on schedule.  I clearly remember having chicken pox as a kid.

In my adulthood I've had 1 MMR booster and 1 flu shot. I have records of those because I got them within the last 5 years.

My mother didn't do babybooks or memory books or even develop the film of pictures she took.  It was an ongoing thing people who knew her joked about. Any pics of me were taken by my grandparents or my dad who I saw every other weekend.

[rebcoola]

Nope a few recent ones show up in my health portal.  But nothing including my Covid shows up in the states record search for me and I don't have any paper records from being a kid.    All of the kids show up.

[Lady Florida.]

My mother had mine. I found them in her house after she died and we were cleaning it out (my brother's were there too). When I was going through fertility treatments before conceiving ds 23 she couldn't find them. I had to end up having titers done. Good thing too. She swore I had both types of measles but the titers showed I never had Rubella which of course was most important. I was required to get the vaccine before treatment. I have no idea where the record of that vaccine is.

When I was teaching there was a big Hepatitis B scare in the 90s and the school board had all teachers get the vaccine.

At one point my doctor recommended DTaP booster. I no longer see that doctor. I have no idea where the record of any of these vaccinations are but I'm pretty sure I never got a physical form. 

I don't think I have a record of my shingles vaccine either.

Bottom line - I have my childhood records. No record of any vaccines I received as an adult except for my Covid vax. 

[stephanier.1765]

The only record of my vaccines are those the military has on file in my medical records. I suppose the school system had a record of my childhood ones at one time but I'm sure they've been burned or shredded since then. As soon as I have my second Covid vaccine, I'm sending a message to my doctor so that all my adult vaccines are recorded together.

[Pam in CT]

I needed proof when I started a mid-career degree program ~15 years or so back, so my PCP ran titers (which evidently show up for most diseases whether the immunity is from vaccination or from disease).  Since then my PCP more or less has more or less everything, EXCEPT there have been a handful of shots I got at specialized travel clinics that I don't suppose have made the records, and I get my annual regular-flu shot sort of catch-as-catch-can at CVS or the town VNA or whatever, and not COVID.

It would be really really really helpful to have a national clearinghouse, so if I entered into an ER they could just look it up.  I think sometimes about all the private information, both really personal and really inane, that shadowy private sector data mining companies whose names I don't even know, DO have about me; and it's just insanity that something like vaccination records are not instantly available to health providers.

[athena1277]

I have all our medical vax records.....somewhere.  Dd18 needs proof of vax for college next year.  The ones she needs to show are from when she was a baby!  We were military at the time, so she got them from the base pediatrician.  We aren’t military anymore, so no way to get the records from them.  I took her to get established with a new doc a few weeks ago (she hasn’t had one since 5th grade) and get an updated tetanus and meningitis vax.  They tried to look in the state system and the records are not there.  Titers would cost $700, so I’m still searching for the missing records.   At least I know the health department has ds’ records because we needed them when we moved here for public school speech therapy.

[Tap]

4 hours ago, athena1277 said:

I have all our medical vax records.....somewhere.  Dd18 needs proof of vax for college next year.  The ones she needs to show are from when she was a baby!  We were military at the time, so she got them from the base pediatrician.  We aren’t military anymore, so no way to get the records from them.  I took her to get established with a new doc a few weeks ago (she hasn’t had one since 5th grade) and get an updated tetanus and meningitis vax.  They tried to look in the state system and the records are not there.  Titers would cost $700, so I’m still searching for the missing records.   At least I know the health department has ds’ records because we needed them when we moved here for public school speech therapy.

This is exactly why we all need to keep paper records. Requirements change year to year which immunizations we need to show proof of, especially for college and work. If you can't produce them, it is one of two options.....pay for titers, or pay for/get extra vaccinations. I really feel for families who have relocated multiple times. It would be so hard to get the records from a doctor a family maybe saw once or twice, and since the records would be archived by now, timeliness wouldn't even be a consideration. 

[Tap]

5 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

My mother had mine. I found them in her house after she died and we were cleaning it out (my brother's were there too). When I was going through fertility treatments before conceiving ds 23 she couldn't find them. I had to end up having titers done. Good thing too. She swore I had both types of measles but the titers showed I never had Rubella which of course was most important. I was required to get the vaccine before treatment. I have no idea where the record of that vaccine is.

When I was teaching there was a big Hepatitis B scare in the 90s and the school board had all teachers get the vaccine.

At one point my doctor recommended DTaP booster. I no longer see that doctor. I have no idea where the record of any of these vaccinations are but I'm pretty sure I never got a physical form. 

I don't think I have a record of my shingles vaccine either.

Bottom line - I have my childhood records. No record of any vaccines I received as an adult except for my Covid vax. 

Some immunities wear off too. So having titers of some illnesses like MMR isn't a bad thing to do, especially if there is an outbreak in your area.