Thursday, August 13, 2009

I was going to post that I was taking a break, but . . .

. . . it appears that my life will be a little more house bound than usual. Why? K- might have measles. Am I kidding? Uh, no.

K- was vaccinated for everything. Her shots are up to date. My friend Kim, who is a health educator at the local university and has worked for the Health department, is who I called last evening. I was stumped. I told her that at this point, I was certain that what K- had going on had to be one of the kid rash communicable diseases, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought she had everything or at least had it covered with vaccinations.

Chicken Pox from Varicella vaccine
Roseola from library group
5th's Disease from K-'s little friend
Hand Foot and Mouth this past fall (but I realize that there are different strains and we could re-run this one.)

I swore that they were all covered. So Kim started questioning me as to what she has, when she started with whatever and whatnot. K- has run a low grade fever off and on (more off than on and when she has it, it is only an hour or so) since Saturday night. She broke out into a rash that she woke up with Wednesday morning. Wednesday night brought us vomiting, which she had apparently done this AM, but didn't tell me since she knew that I wouldn't take her to Miss Laurie's house for the day. Oy.

When Hubs and I looked at the picture of the rash, we both said, "That is it." Oh, and we were with my sister, her girls, their friend and Leland on Saturday. Holy crap. My 3 month old nephew may have been exposed to measles, if that is what K- has. So, I dropped the potential exposure bomb on my sister, as well as the one that says that there is no way that it is safe for me to do the family yard sale this weekend. Leland is too important. She took the news well. I have her on watch, I plan on calling the pediatrician and perhaps getting in tomorrow. (Though I know there is nothing that they can do, but I'm more concerned about Leland at this point.) I want to make certain that K- is fine. Apparently if it is measles, it is a lighter case and we are on the backside of it.

So, how can she get these things having been vaccinated? Apparently vaccinations protect, but don't necessarily build up quite enough immunity in all people. With K-'s drug positive birth status, her immunity was compromised and thus leaving her at more risk of developing things like measles. Her immunity is leaps and bounds better than it was, but it is something that we must deal with.

So I'll find out today, perhaps, if K- has added another one of those childhood communicable diseases to her list of "had that." In the meantime, may all of your families be rash, vomit and fever-free.

Smiles in my day:
- Getting the Christmas markdowns complete in the time frame I promised.
- Laurie gave us a wheel barrow full of firewood for our new fire pit. There is so much wood there, that we'll be good for at least this season, if not wood for some of next.
- I think that K- may have fallen asleep and dare I say, she might be vomit free right now.

3 comments:

Rach said...

Oh. My. Goodness. Can you catch a break?!? My prayers are it's not measles, and if it is, that although he may have been exposed, the Leland is safe from them. Poor K. I hope she's feeling like the bee's knees again soon.

HUGS!

(BTW, don't worry about the eating thing, I'm doing it, oh how I'm doing it, lol!)

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

ACK! So sorry! Keeping fingers crossed and saying prayers it's not the measles.

Jamie said...

I know I am late in commenting, but hopefully she is clear.