A Pox Upon My House
So I'm sittin' at SGF last week just moments before boarding my flight to California when my phone rings. Uh Oh.
Nobody calls that number unless it's super important.
It's the school nurse. My youngest is there with a fever and reports she feels like crap.
She was perfectly fine the nite before when I dropped both of them off at their caretakers.
( a wonderful elderly couple who are like their adopted grandparents and spoil 'em rotten.)
Ah jeez! I tell her to contact a certain person who is authorized to pick up my kids in my stead on these rare occasions when I can't be there and secretly just hope it's some anxiety over my leaving for this trip.
It wasn't.
24 hours later the adopted gran'ma calls me in California and tells me my youngest has chicken pox!
Talk about massive maternal guilt. Here my baby is facing a major childhood illness and where am I? 2000 miles away, thank you very much. I was just about sick myself from worry. It was bad enough that I had been dreading this trip to begin with since it would entail sorting through over 55 years of my parents belongings, a memorial service for my Mom and doing all the other nasty legalities that such a thing requires, now I also had this to contend with. Oy!
But I knew my little one was in good hands, this gal was an old pro. A farmer's wife, she had raised 3 boys and had had experience with this sort of thing and much worse, I'm sure. She reported that my little girl was doing just fine, holding court on the sofa, surrounded with plenty of coloring books, a warm quilt, a never ending supply of juice, kid vids and every kid channel DirecTV has at her fingertips...she had it made, in other words. So I calmed down some. Especially after I spoke with my child and she asked if she could come there everytime she was sick...oh, thanks alot. But that assured me she was gonna be alright.
All the business tended to in California and I was winging home yesterday morning. I couldn't wait to collect my kids. We finally got home last night about 9-ish.
It's been awhile since I have seen someone with chicken pox. And it was even more dramatic seeing my own child with it. The fever and initial illness now passed, she acted all the world like her usual self...except for these horrible scabs all over her face and tiny body, looking all the world like the worst case of acne ever. Good thing we always seem to have plenty of bottles of calamine all over this house. We're gonna need 'em.
She's 86'd from school until all the poxi have healed over. She still has a few weepy spots, so she'll probably will be out the rest of this week. I believe my eldest said she counted 143 pox on her...not counting the plethora in her scalp, in which case, that may bring the number up to nearly 160. My youngest is especially proud of the one in her armpit, and will happily show you it if you ask-or even if you don't. Sheesh...kids!
Nobody calls that number unless it's super important.
It's the school nurse. My youngest is there with a fever and reports she feels like crap.
She was perfectly fine the nite before when I dropped both of them off at their caretakers.
( a wonderful elderly couple who are like their adopted grandparents and spoil 'em rotten.)
Ah jeez! I tell her to contact a certain person who is authorized to pick up my kids in my stead on these rare occasions when I can't be there and secretly just hope it's some anxiety over my leaving for this trip.
It wasn't.
24 hours later the adopted gran'ma calls me in California and tells me my youngest has chicken pox!
Talk about massive maternal guilt. Here my baby is facing a major childhood illness and where am I? 2000 miles away, thank you very much. I was just about sick myself from worry. It was bad enough that I had been dreading this trip to begin with since it would entail sorting through over 55 years of my parents belongings, a memorial service for my Mom and doing all the other nasty legalities that such a thing requires, now I also had this to contend with. Oy!
But I knew my little one was in good hands, this gal was an old pro. A farmer's wife, she had raised 3 boys and had had experience with this sort of thing and much worse, I'm sure. She reported that my little girl was doing just fine, holding court on the sofa, surrounded with plenty of coloring books, a warm quilt, a never ending supply of juice, kid vids and every kid channel DirecTV has at her fingertips...she had it made, in other words. So I calmed down some. Especially after I spoke with my child and she asked if she could come there everytime she was sick...oh, thanks alot. But that assured me she was gonna be alright.
All the business tended to in California and I was winging home yesterday morning. I couldn't wait to collect my kids. We finally got home last night about 9-ish.
It's been awhile since I have seen someone with chicken pox. And it was even more dramatic seeing my own child with it. The fever and initial illness now passed, she acted all the world like her usual self...except for these horrible scabs all over her face and tiny body, looking all the world like the worst case of acne ever. Good thing we always seem to have plenty of bottles of calamine all over this house. We're gonna need 'em.
She's 86'd from school until all the poxi have healed over. She still has a few weepy spots, so she'll probably will be out the rest of this week. I believe my eldest said she counted 143 pox on her...not counting the plethora in her scalp, in which case, that may bring the number up to nearly 160. My youngest is especially proud of the one in her armpit, and will happily show you it if you ask-or even if you don't. Sheesh...kids!
posted by white trash republican at Wednesday, March 01, 2006
2 Comments:
At least now when terrorists release smallpox onto the unprepared world your little one will be safe.
Hmmm, are you sure about that?
I know the viruses are in the same family, sorta. But would a dose of that make you resistant to smallpox?
You know when they were little and it came time to get their shots, I was so shocked to find out that they don't vaccinate for smallpox anymore. I recall when I got mine-it was no big deal. I think that as long as it remains a threat or possible tool by nefarious sorts, folks should be allowed to get vaccinated for it. Hey, but what do I know?
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