Still alive
It's been brought to my attention that I have not posted in a week. Wow...I knew it had been a while, but did not realize it had been a whole week. Sorry. There has been little to blog about, and when there was, I seemed to have little access to the computer.
There is huge news in our house this week, however: Audrey has chickenpox! Mama is not terribly upset by this turn of events. Truth be told, she might just have taken the kids over to play at the house of a family where she knew a couple of the kids had spots. Yeah, yeah, I know there's a vaccine. I'm not convinced it offers lifetime immunity the way a typical outbreak would, though, and I would be horrified if, twenty years from now, the shot immunity wore off and my poor kids came down with a scorching, serious case.
Anyway...where was I? Oh yeah, she's got spots! We were actually at the doctor's office when we realized, it was quite funny. She was there to get shots, and was quite hysterical about the whole thing on the whole 20-minute ride up. As we were sitting in the waiting room, about 10 minutes after we got there, she suddenly announced, "Mommy, my back itches!" I did not first think chickenpox; it has been five, yes FIVE weeks since she was exposed. My understanding is the thing has a three week incubation period. But when I lifted her shirt, I saw maybe twenty spots on her back, and maybe ten on her belly. I know how much doctors enjoy having highly infectious rashes in their waiting rooms (NOT), so I quickly ran to the receptionist and asked to see a nurse NOW. Within a minute, we were in an exam room with two RNs and a nurse practitioner. Chickenpox was quickly confirmed, the shots were postponed, and we were escorted politely but quickly to the back door!
So far, she's doing pretty well. Spots aren't itching too badly, not even enough to warrant Benadryl. She had a low-grade fever in the doctor's office, but I wouldn't have known if they had not taken her temperature. There are more spots today, but some are already starting to crust over. I'm bummed (and she is more than bummed) that she's going to miss a whole week of school, at least; when she was exposed, it was still three weeks before school started, so we thought it might work out perfectly. We still aren't sure how she managed to get it FIVE WHOLE FREAKING WEEKS after exposure, but wondered if baby sister managed to get an indiscernable case, being partly protected by my immunity through breastfeeding, but still managed to pass it on. We'll see if Aislinn develops any spots this time. I'm not holding my breath!
There is huge news in our house this week, however: Audrey has chickenpox! Mama is not terribly upset by this turn of events. Truth be told, she might just have taken the kids over to play at the house of a family where she knew a couple of the kids had spots. Yeah, yeah, I know there's a vaccine. I'm not convinced it offers lifetime immunity the way a typical outbreak would, though, and I would be horrified if, twenty years from now, the shot immunity wore off and my poor kids came down with a scorching, serious case.
Anyway...where was I? Oh yeah, she's got spots! We were actually at the doctor's office when we realized, it was quite funny. She was there to get shots, and was quite hysterical about the whole thing on the whole 20-minute ride up. As we were sitting in the waiting room, about 10 minutes after we got there, she suddenly announced, "Mommy, my back itches!" I did not first think chickenpox; it has been five, yes FIVE weeks since she was exposed. My understanding is the thing has a three week incubation period. But when I lifted her shirt, I saw maybe twenty spots on her back, and maybe ten on her belly. I know how much doctors enjoy having highly infectious rashes in their waiting rooms (NOT), so I quickly ran to the receptionist and asked to see a nurse NOW. Within a minute, we were in an exam room with two RNs and a nurse practitioner. Chickenpox was quickly confirmed, the shots were postponed, and we were escorted politely but quickly to the back door!
So far, she's doing pretty well. Spots aren't itching too badly, not even enough to warrant Benadryl. She had a low-grade fever in the doctor's office, but I wouldn't have known if they had not taken her temperature. There are more spots today, but some are already starting to crust over. I'm bummed (and she is more than bummed) that she's going to miss a whole week of school, at least; when she was exposed, it was still three weeks before school started, so we thought it might work out perfectly. We still aren't sure how she managed to get it FIVE WHOLE FREAKING WEEKS after exposure, but wondered if baby sister managed to get an indiscernable case, being partly protected by my immunity through breastfeeding, but still managed to pass it on. We'll see if Aislinn develops any spots this time. I'm not holding my breath!
posted by Andrea | 8:57 PM
6 Comments:
I remember that my sister and I had them at the same time, and our mother was very pregnant with the littlest.
Get em done when your young! Getting them later, i've heard, is just horrid.
Audrey has reached another childhood milestone. I'm glad its not been too hard on her, that is such a blessing.
I am not laughing at Audrey's misery -- I hate to itch! -- but I have to giggle about how she very handily got out of getting her shots! Once again, smart kid (but we knew that)...
Congrats on reaching her milestone. And tell her I'm sorry she had to miss school. I know how hard that is. Don't tell her that she's lost her perfect attendance certificate for her grade-school graduation. :)
Jur, indeed, she was quite tickled at not having to get her shots (again!). I'm actually struck by how close it was...if she had told me even 20 minutes later that her back itched, she could have ended up with those shots, and that could have been very bad for her immune system. As it is, she has not really itched AT ALL since then. With any luck, she'll get away with the ideal case of chickenpox: bad enough to give her full lifetime immunity, but light enough to merely be a nuisance and keep her out of school.
There's a pox on you!
Sorry, couldn't resist. I hope they aren't TOO terribly itchy for Audrey. And I'm sure she's REALLY bummed about missing school... :(
Oooh, dear. I am sorry but it's good that they get the pox the real way. The shot isn't effective really. You can still get the pox after the shot as did my niece and nephew. My son T did n't get the shot and was going to HAVE to get it and poof that Spring he got the pox from school. The school nurse told me that 90% of the kids that had them (and there was an outbreak) had already had the shot.
Worthless.
My wee one got the pox shortly after and was ill but not too uncomfortable for about a week.
It's just one of the things we must get through. Good luck and give her nice cool Aveeno baths. =)
The immune system is STRONG on that one! It fought valiantly, but in the end, there is no match for the pox.
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