Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Why am I not surprised
Last Thursday, one of the other moms on the MOMS Club board unknowingly came to the board meeting with shingles. Once she was diagnosed, she immediately emailed everyone she had been in contact with apologizing & offering to answer any questions people may have. Not too many other moms have to worry about it since they've either had the chickenpox or their kids have been vaccinated for it. Only a few people have newborns & I'm pretty sure they made out OK.

I emailed her back wishing her a speedy recovery (I've heard shingles is super crappy to deal with) & that I was the strange one of the group actually hoping Logan would get the chickenpox since he's not been vaccinated (& won't unless he never gets the disease by his teen years).

I've been keeping a close eye on Logan's rashes & eczema outbreaks, looking for any signs of chickenpox. Last night he had a very nasty breakout - a bright red rash on his stomach, hips, arms & the back of his knees & a few bumps on his face. I was sure that he would wake up covered in spots. He actually woke up looking good, but I still took him to the Doctor to get checked out just in case.

We were seen this morning & I was told to leave him in the car while I got him checked in at the front desk. After check-in, they had us come into an exam room by a side door to the building so no other children would be in contact with him if he did have the highly contagious infectious disease. The PA looked him over & checked out the spots on his lips, ears, hands, face & feet. Chickenpox was ruled out, but he was diagnosed with a different contagious infectious disease. Hand-Foot-Mouth disease. I was told that it is really common in kids his age, especially if they are thumb suckers (Logan is more of a whole hand chewer - still). He's been living in the sandbox ever since the weather has been nice, so it's no surprise that he has some virus from the combination.

There's no treatment plan or medication for him to take, we just wait it out for about 3-7 days. He doesn't have a fever & he doesn't have open blisters so he's not contagious & we don't have to be quarantined in the house for an extended period of time. The PA thinks that his rash from last night was a combination of seasonal allergies causing his eczema to flare up, along with the HFM symptoms. It's been suggested that Logan start taking a daily medication like Zyrtec. I might have him take it only during high-pollen days. We'll see.

So, HFM disease. Yuck. Although I was really hoping it was chickenpox.

8 comments:

Erin said...

Hailey's had HFM once. She got it from daycare and gave it to my husband! Hopefully Logan will get over it soon. :)

Alicia said...

Why hasn't he been vaccinated? Are you like a big percentage of chiropractors out there that refuse to immunize their children?

Casey, Tracey, and Kids said...

Kristin,

Savannah has had that very same thing, she got it while she was in daycare last year. She has had worse; we are battling pink eye right now. Good luck.

-Tracey

Kristin said...

Alicia-

Why do your comments come across as judgmental & confrontational when I write about a topic in my life that you don't agree with? Does it really matter to you that much to take moments out of your life to antagonize my blog?

Just for your peace of mind...

Logan was fully vaccinated according the CDC recommendations at 2 months old. He had a severe reaction to DTaP that had to be reported to VAERS (vaccine adverse event reporting system), which is a part of the CDC. It was found that his reaction was specifically to the pertussis part of the combo, so he can never be vaccinated for pertussis again or it will potentially kill him.

He's gone through allergy testing up the wazoo to figure out why he had a reaction. They don't know why. He's also had mild reactions to other vaccinations, the last being Hib which gave him a huge rash all over.

We are on a selective, single dose, delayed schedule. At this point, I'm considering not continuing with any vaccinations (other than 1 or 2)due to his continued reactions to everything he comes into contact with. Baby # 2 will probably not be vaccinated as well because I firmly believe that our family is genetically prone to sensitivities.

Varicella vaccinations we're developed in 1995 specifically because of economic reasons. Parents had to take time off from work to stay home with the sick kids & there was a loss of money because of it. Before the vaccination was developed, an average of 145 people died per year due to chickenpox. After the vaccination was introduced, it dropped to 88 deaths per year.

This is not a deadly disease & the vaccination was introduced only because of convenience & financial loss.

Not only this, but the vaccination is only 85% effective. If you contracted chickenpox, you have life long immunity (only a very small percentage get chickenpox twice).

So to answer your question...

No, I'm not one of the big percentage of Chiropractors out there that refuse to immunize my children. I have damn good reason not to.

me said...

ugh, that does not sound like fun at all! Poor Logan!

Be careful about chickenpox though, isn't that dangerous for your unborn baby if you were to get it? I vaguely remember reading something about that when I was pregnant, but could be wrong.

and personally, I am all about delayed vaccinations. I'm doing it with mine, even though they've never had reactions.

Lisa

Anonymous said...

You can still get chickenpox when vaccinated, and you can get shingles from the vacination later on. Your cousin Jackie had shingles at age 16. Very painful, something I had never heard of - so she suffered until we got her into a skin Dr. Now we know. Vacinate if you can - but pay attention and be proactive when you cannot. You know your kid better than anyone else does. A five minute Dr. appt is not enough to find things - they count on you to TELL them mostly anyway. My two cents.
Aunt Meg

Anonymous said...

I meant to comment yesterday but apparently my ADD kicked in or something. :)

How is Logan feeling today? Better I hope!

the nervous mom said...

Awww I hope Logan gets better quick!!! It sounds like it's not stopping him from being an energetic and crazy toddler. lol (sorry..we just think all toddlers are crazy until they get more normal later on..temporary insanity right?) LOL