Measles, Mumps and Rubella, oh my!

I have had a few things that I'd like to post over the last week, but I don't because I haven't posted about this yet.  So, here goes.

Wednesday morning, almost 2 weeks ago, Benson woke up crying.  He had snuck down to the girls room in the night and Kaia brought him upstairs looking like this (and the picture doesn't really do it justice):

He had been a little sick for a few days, but this was a whole new kettle of fish!  After a mild freak out and consoling words from a brother-in-law, we went in to see a doctor.  His verdict: he has mumps.  Say WHAT?!?

Backstory:
Over 6 pregnancies and many blood tests, I have found that I'm not responsive to the MMR.  I have no antibodies in my blood that show that I've ever had it.  Each pregnancy had a different doctor, so I was sent in over and over to get, yet another, MMR.  I have probably had 8 MMR's now (including the ones as a child).  I have officially been labelled as a "non-responder" and they've given up.  Apparently this is quite rare and is officially the third weird medical thing about me.  (I also have a Protein S Deficiency and a family history of Malignant Hyperthermia - doctors want to sit down and talk about my chart every time I come to the hospital in labour).

The first question the doctor asked me after looking at Benson was, "Is he immunized?"  Yes.  *pause*  But I don't respond to the MMR, if that's something to take into consideration.  He was almost certain that it was mumps, but sent us for a blood test to confirm it.

Benson wasn't too keen on having his blood drawn and kept on insisting, "Mommy, I don't want a blood contest!!"  He was so adorable.  He cried for just a second after he saw the blood coming out (despite my best efforts to divert his eyes) and cheered up for a spiderman and hot wheels sticker.  Plus, there's no needle that ice cream can't fix. 

Blood results came in... he has no antibodies against mumps at all.  For something completely random, it seems to run in my family.  I began to panic a little about Lanaya (as she is too young to have the MMR), but she has been fine and the mumps are long gone by now.  We put Benson under quarantine for about 5-6 days and  he was as happy and normal as can be (just with large bumps on his ears).  Apparently, this is only contagious from people who have not had the vaccine, so the kids were still good to go to school, but Benson, Lanaya and I had to stay home.

After a second blood test (10 days after the beginning of symptoms), which he didn't cry at - at all, we will get the results again to send over to a Pediatrician that specializes in abnormal responses to vaccines.  They will, more than likely, test everyone in the family and see who we need to worry about and what precautions we will have to take because of this.  Such fun! 

So very luckily, Benson didn't develop any severe symptoms of Mumps and it was very non-eventful. I did, however, have a chance to really think about vaccines over this experience.  If those people who choose not to vaccinate, would vaccinate, people wouldn't be able to spread this to Benson, or myself or anyone else who doesn't respond to vaccinations.  I felt very upset that someone else felt they could make that decision that affects so much more than just themselves.