Attack of the Pox

Emmy was determined to sleep in my bed for the umpteenth time. Usually it is because she is afraid of ghosts, but this time she had an excuse. She was convinced that she had a spider in her room. She said she had been bitten several times.

I attempted to make claim on the spider. I told her he lived in MY room (which is were she sleeps anyway) and I kept him under the bed to snack on visitors. Before you judge me try sleeping in a bed with a ten year old who likes to cuddle... every dang night. It is the PITS. It was starting to work. Then I asked her to show me where this spider had bitten her. She lifted up her shirt to show me and I knew instantly... there had to be way more than just ONE spider. She was covered in little red dots. I contemplated the possibility that somewhere in the house I had a little mob of spiders, but in all reality I knew that that wasn't the case.

She had pink spots all over her front and back. She had them down her legs. Dang... and I was so close to convincing her I had some mean little spider under my bed biting her at night. I just stared at her for a minute contemplating the stories that I could come up with that could keep her out of my bed FOREVER... and then I ruined it all and told her those were not spider bites. The child seemed to have the chicken pox, also know as the varcella-zoster virus which by the way she was immunized against.

It came from the little sick boy at the cabin. We were warned that the children had been exposed to the virus, but I wasn't worried since they had all been vaccinated against it.

Emily was an itchy mess. We spotted her with calamine lotion, but it wasn't the relief she wanted. She had spots in places people shouldn't have spots. Her head was covered with bumps.

Ashlee had no sympathy for her sister. She was downright jealous when she realized Emmy was going to get to miss a week of school. Emmy would have gladly passed them over to Ashlee to be done with them.

To make me feel better, the next day two of the neighbor kids came down with it. That way we all got to stay home and have a party. At least that is what Ashlee was sure we were doing.

After a few days Pox decided to move into a sensory nerve ganglia where it may remain dormant for the rest of her life or decide to reactivate causing shingles.

The two weeks have now passed but the Pox never came to visit Ashlee... she was upset, but then she got a virus that triggered her asthma and kept her home for a week anyway, so all was fair in Ashlee land.