Saturday, January 12, 2008

"Chicken. Which is so ironic, considering that I'm a vegetarian." *

They say bad things happen in threes.
Let's hope it's not fours.
I really don't think I can cope with more right now.Maybe next week...

Bad Thing #1:
On Wednesday evening Primo got the staples out of his scalp. Two came easily; the third had been put in incorrectly at the ER, and so his ped had to shoot his scalp full of Novocaine to wrench the damn thing out. That's one white uniform shirt that will go directly into the rag pile, do not pass Oxy-Clean, do not collect two hundred dollars. It was NOT a pleasant evening, much as I adore my pediatrician.

Bad Thing #2:
Stupid male OB/GYN freaking me out about the fetus. See here.

Bad Thing #3:
Chicken pox.
Yes, you heard me correctly.
Chicken. Pox.
For which all three of my children have been vaccinated, per the AAP's recommended vaccination guidelines. And which are required for Pittsburgh public schools.

This was not a break-through case, like you might have a month or so after your vaccine. No, this was a bona fide case. Seems the vaccine has about a 3% failure rate. And Seg just got lucky. Lucky middle child syndrome, we call it around here.

So now he is in the bathtub full of warm water and baking soda, and daily ingesting huge amounts of some antiviral stuff that is meant to stop the pox in their trax (see how I did that? Clever, huh?)

And everyone we know is freaking out.
Do you remember how when WE were small, your parents WANTED you to get chicken pox, to get it the hell out of the way?
I never actually attended one, but I have heard tell of "chicken pox parties," thrown by the lucky first victim, to infect all the other kids and get it over with. I recall having chicken pox in my mouth and up my nose and in my ears and between my toes; I was miserable and itchy, but that's about it. My brother had it even worse; he had pox, um, up his butt.

Now though? I mean, I am not sending Seg to school or anything crazy, but seriously, I am sorta shocked no one's come to fly the plague flag from our porch. Sheesh. Everybody's been vaccinated, and most people my age have had chicken pox, and still you'd think we were infected with bubonic plague or worse. So we are just hunkering down and keeping Seg comfy, and waiting for his pox to scab up; Primo and Terzo had boosters, just in case.

If you aren't itching by now, just from power of suggestion, you are probably the only one.

*********************

* Phoebe, on "Friends," episode: "The One with the Chickenpox"

11 comments:

Suse said...

You're also not meant to get chicken pox twice, so once you've had it that's it. Immune for life.

Ha.

HA, I say. Tell that to Son #1.

Sarah Louise said...

oh poor Seg. I remember chicken pox--I got it at the ripe age of 20!!

Badger said...

SL has me beat -- I got it at 15. When I came back to school, everyone thought I had scabby zits. AWESOME.

HEATHER said...

Poor little guy.

Velma said...

I had it at 14, which made for a crummy summer, but my husband got it at 27, while in the midst of his medical residency, 3 months before the vaccine became available.

On Christmas Eve.

The only good news is the anti-virals really work well and nullify much of the discomfort and, uhm, poxing? Hopefully you'll have a rough 2 or 3 days and then it'll be over with.

Lisa said...

Chicken pox is not fun. I'm glad the vaccine came along in time for my child (who is now 7 and hopefully won't get it!)

I sometimes hear talks of people throwing those parties still. I just don't agree with it, despite all the rationalisation.

Joke said...

29

Read it and weep.

-J.

P.S. This all relates to why I hate Mariah Carey's singing.

Sarah said...

I thought I never had chicken pox until I got these painful red bumps all over my back, which my dermatologist told me was SHINGLES. Which is chicken pox come back to haunt you decades later.

Back in 1993, when my firstborn was 1 1/2, my playgroup staged a pox party. My group thought I was nuts when I begged out and got my baby one of those newfangled pox vaccinations. Which worked, thankfully.

Caro said...

I remember chicken pox. They were everywhere and I mean everywhere on my body, kind of like your brother.

Now aren't you glad that baby didn't come yet? Don't you wish you could throw something at me after that comment?

My ob/gyn is female too. Bad enough to have anybody down there, worse if it's a guy.

tut-tut said...

Oh, my. L got it in first grade, which is the year I got it too. I still tottered to my desk to work, between bouts of lying down.

Unknown said...

SS#1 had the vaccine as part of his kindergarten shots. The Manimal had it sometime during his first year (they give so darn many shots I can hardly keep track). Now my pediatrician says they're discovering that more kids than they expected are getting the pox even AFTER they've been vaccinated, and a booster will likely be required soon. Fun...