Skip to main content

The Pox

It's itchy. It's irritating. It's annoying...especially when it comes three months after the vaccine that was supposed to keep it from ever rearing its ugly head.

It's chicken pox. And leave it up to my kid to have weak immunity to it.

We're taking turns staying home with him, since he's a bag o' germs and infectious until his sores scab over. How disgusting is that? Anything that features pus-filled blister-like sores that must pop, ooze, and crust over before the sufferer can safely re-enter society without infecting others...well, it just can't be good.

My husband and I are whining about it a lot more than our kid is. He's playing and jabbering like there's nothing wrong, until we change his diaper, at which time he sticks his hands between his legs, grabs at his private parts which have bore the brunt of the pox, and pulls and tugs and kneads as though he were molding dough into intricately braided bread. He pokes. He scratches. He giggles. Can't be too painful.

Still, we feel bad for the guy. We're poking medicines down his throat three times a day. We're keeping him quarantined from the world and, more importantly, from his daycare buddies. He'll be out the rest of the week. We're all looking forward to Monday.

I'm a bit wary, though, of what may await us in the weeks and months ahead. If he gets a varicella vaccine for chicken pox at 15 months, then develops the childhood illness anyway three months later, what's next? Diptheria? Pertussis? Measles, Mumps, Rubella?

After all this, a plain old cold will seem heavenly.

Comments

Brianne said…
You know, I've always wondered why it is such a big deal to keep kids with chicken pox away from kids who haven't had it. Why not get it out of the way? Isn't it worse and sometimes deadly if you get it as an adult? Anyway, maybe I'm overlooking something but I always wondered about that.

Popular posts from this blog

Ho, Ho, Ho, How Many Times Can I Use "I'm too busy" as an Excuse?

I haven't had time to write. Work, swim meet volunteering, holiday decorating and shopping. But truthfully, I've not been in much of a mood to write anything anyway. Last night we put up the tree and Santa chachkies, and I drank my first egg nog of the season, so perhaps I'll be in a cheerier mood. Also, I have spent some time writing the annual Schoon holiday newsletter. If you happen to get a copy, treat it like a drinking game. Every time I make you roll your eyes, take a drink. Nog, wassail, Everclear. Whatever gets you through. One sure way to assist with merriment motivation is listening to Christmas carols. I'm not going to get into a debate over what truly constitutes a carol. You can "Jesus is the reason for the season" yourself until you turn blue; I generally lean toward the secular end of the holiday tune spectrum. And if you just gasped at my use of holiday instead of Christmas, go suck on a candy cane. It's my blog and my opinions. Deal. ...

Who knew...

'Tis the season for bridal bliss. 'Tis also the season for the accompanying reception dance. And what's a wedding reception without that most unique of all marriage celebration dance numbers: The Chicken Dance. You know the drill. Polka starts, beak-quacking hand gestures, flapping, butt shimmying, and clapping ensue. A fun time is had by all (especially if there's an open bar). What you may not know is that: 1. This oom-pah song's origins rest with a Swiss according player named Werner Thomas who wrote it, most accounts say, in the 1950s. It originally was called the Duck Dance. 2. It is NOT German or Austrian, despite the images its roll-out-the-barrel-ish feelings it might conjure up. 3. A fellow named Norm Edlebeck, who was a bandleader from Wisconsin, introduced America to the Chicken Dance on TV's PM Magazine in 1982. 4. More than 140 versions of it have been recorded worldwide, including Walt Disney Records, together making more than 40,000,000 records (o...

IHATE IHOP Update

Tim went a few rounds, verbally, with the IHOP manager on Sunday and ended up getting our meal for half price. He still had to pay, though. I do not think that these people understand the severity of their incompetence. Or perhaps they just do not care. Someone commented to us that perhaps we should tell the IHOP folks what happened to the last restaurant that did us wrong. Recall the lactating masses who came out in support of us when we were booted from Hoover House restaurant in West Branch because I refused to breastfeed my baby in the bathroom? Remember the stories that ran in every newspaper and on every TV news show in the state -- and beyond? I'd like to point out that the Hoover House (which interestingly enough doubled as a venue for wet T-shirt contests on weekends) went out of business after our little incident. And for those of you who were befuddled and wondering how the police got involved on Sunday...someone from IHOP took the time to run out and write down our lice...