I am so upset right now. Really upset.
This past week I called a "friend," someone in my ward who lives close by, to see if her 8-year-old would watch our cat when we were on vacation. She said she probably couldn't commit for her child, see, she doesn't immunize and her sister's kids recently got chicken pox, so they had a playdate and she just exposed all three of her kids to chicken pox. She figured about the time of our vacation would be the worst of it.
Whoooa nelly. Number one, I think she's crazy. Absolutely nuts. I completely totally utterly disagree with what she has chosen for her family, but I can't do anything about it. Whatever.
I thought to myself, maybe her kids aren't symptomatic right now, but I need to be on the lookout in case they come to Church anyway on Sunday. One of her kids is in Wesley's Sunbeams class.
And then I forgot.
And I remembered, in a wave of passionate anger, when I picked up Wesley from Sunbeams and there was the little girl, talking to the teacher, with chicken pox bumps all over her face. This child has full blown chicken pox and the parents brought her to Church??
I am so mad. Wesley is vaccinated, and I am praying to God that his one shot so far will keep him from getting this. But Laurel's not vaccinated. Who knows who else in the ward has had it or hasn't had it, or as an adult could get shingles, etc.These people deliberately exposed the entire ward to varicella. Everyone. All of us. Whether it fits in our calendar or not. I am going on vacation this week! If Wesley (or God forbid Laurel) breaks out in chicken pox, what in the world will I do?
Reading up on chicken pox on Wikipedia isn't helping at all.
This is just completely awful. I am so mad at them, but I am just as mad at myself for not remembering the scenario and running away the second I saw one of them at Church. It's unspeakable how wrong this is.
4 comments:
Inexcusable to take your child to church if they are sick in my opinion. And chicken pox is a serious disease that is very easily spread. Really hoping you aren't affected!
Interesting. I noticed a little boy at church on sunday with obvious chicken pox too and I thought it was a little strange. i dont' know who the people were, I'd never seen them before.
Just to give you MY experience with kids and chicken pox, so that maybe you might be able to calm down just a little bit. Both my kids have been vaccinated and I am a huge fan of vaccinations. We'll start there. Anyway, it turns out the vaccine is only about 85% effective so my dear N got chicken pox when he was almost 4. It was weird. We were baffled. We took him to an emergency doctor visit to confirm. The doctor had to come out to our car to inspect him. Yep. Chicken pox. So I asked the doctor how long we should keep him in quarantine. Do you know what the doctor told us? We would be doing a public service to all around us by exposing them to chicken pox and that we should absolutely NOT keep him home. The risk is not that great for babies. My sisters both had it as babies and they had pretty mild cases. Most people are vaccinated or naturally immune. The places where you have to be sensitive are hospitals mostly where people with suppressed immune systems might be.
Not wanting to incur the wrath that you have displayed, I emailed N's entire preschool class and asked them if it would be okay with them for him to go to school. Everyone enthusiastically said, YES! bring him! Same with church.
What am I trying to tell you? That it will probably all be okay. I'd rather my kid interact with chicken pox than strep or pinworms or lice. Those truly suck.
And now I am ducking in case you disagree with me.
If I remember correctly, YOU got the chicken pox at the same time as both of your brothers after we took in some kids whose mother was not able to care for them for a short while.
Those 2 boys were about the same age as you kids were (this was circa 1988), and were recovering from the pox.
About 2 weeks later, ALL THREE of you came down with the dreaded pox.
At least we were able to get you all through the course of the disease at the same time, instead of the usual one-kid-gets-it, then gives-it-to-the-next-kid-etc.
A rough few days for all of you, that was for sure. But we all lived through it, didn't we?
PS: I had `em when I was about 3, and still remember having those scabs all over my body.
Chicken pox is usually most contagious before it's "full blown." By then it's on its way out. It's when it's first starting, and moms aren't sure about it that you should be doing the whole doctor-comes-out-to-the-car thing.
(Though I see from your above post that there were no problems anyway.)
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