Sick, Sick...Sick?

The children have been sick for the past week. I'm not sure what virus has invaded the house, but it's different for each kid. Jake has problems with his intestinal tract. He's on a high-fiber diet. Bentley has a very nasty cough which disturbs those of us who have to listen to him hacking far more than it seems to disturb him. Viva doesn't usually get sick, but this go around she did. She has a very stuffed up nose and a mild cough. She's rather short tempered and beats on her brothers if they annoy her. (Although it was Jake who gave Viva a bloody nose last night, not the other way around.) Lincoln has a stuffed up nose, too, so he's not sleeping well at night.

You expect a few winter viruses, so we just deal with it with as much patience as we can scrounge up. Jake is pushing the limits this morning. “I can't make my bed. I can't get dressed.” He can, however, pound on the door, the wall, and his grandma.

Then Kara learned on Facebook that some of the families that we go to church with have young children who in the last seven days have come down with chicken pox. Last Sunday (after church), one of the boys in the twins' Primary class sprouted spots. Today another child who had contact with that family last Sunday acquired spots. After learning about these two boys Kara immediately googled chicken pox and read that the incubation period is seven to twenty-one days.

It's three weeks after your last contact with an infected person before you know for sure that you didn't get infected?! It's going to be a long November as we wait to see if the children get chicken pox. If not from the first exposure, then from subsequent ones when they go back to church and are exposed to the newest crop of children coming down with it. And, if chicken pox is in town, then ballet, gymnastics, Lego club, and play dates could also be sources of the virus.

The trio have been vaccinated against chicken pox, but the vaccine isn't 100% effective. If you've been vaccinated and still get chicken pox, it should be a milder case. The real concern is Lincoln. Chicken pox is harder on young infants and, of course, he's not had the vaccination.

Within hours of Kara reading about chicken pox she spotted some red spots on Lincoln's chest. I'm sure (I'm praying) that it's just paranoia on her part.