The Pox

Shaylee is one of the lucky few children who got to experience chickenpox (insert sarcasm here).  She was vaccinated but apparantly a small percentage will still get the disease.  On the very bright side those that do get chickenpox get a much milder case.

Their was no foreshadowing whatsoever of what was to come.  I had taken the Ricks kiddos to play with us at the Splash Park.  We spent an enjoyable afternoon there.  About an hour after we got home Shaylee was exhausted and burning up.  I was immediately worried that she had heat stroke.  I treated her for heat exhaustion until she started complaining of a sore throat.  Game changer.  We had family that had strep throat the week before so naturally I assumed that was the problem.  So I treated her for strep and started an antibiotic.

She got 2 red bumps above her lip.  Weird.  I thought nothing more.  I was talking to Mom on the phone and she in gest said, "Maybe she has chickenpox."  And then we laughed.  That would be ridiculous right.  Do people still get chickenpox?  Where in the heck would she pick up chickenpox? 

The next day Shaylee was complaining of a spider bite.  My reaction...great...another thing for her to complain about.  Yeah, I'm nice like that.  It was about 9:00 that night when I saw several more bumps and it suddenly became very apparent that she had "the pox". 

I googled it and found that her symptoms of fever and very sore throat are classic chickenpox symptoms. The first night was the worst. She could barely sleep. Her feet were covered in sores that itched like crazy. Thank heavens for Benedryl. It saved the day. She just rubbed her feet back and forth on her bedding and when it got really bad she shuffled around the living room letting the carpet scratch her little feet.

I DO NOT know how mothers did this for a week and with multiple children! The worst of it lasted 24 hours. I feel like I had experienced a Motherhood Right of Passage. And here are the pictures to prove it.