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Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Did I mention she has the Pox?

Ellie has Chicken Pox, again. She was immunized 2 years ago by accident – sort of. Those were the days when we were up 7 times per night and walking around like zombies. Dave took her in for a doctor’s visit and they surprised him with the immunization. We had not discussed it and he did not realize it was a live one. 24 hours later Ellie landed in the hospital with a fever and severe vomiting and exactly two little pox on her skin for EIGHT days. After that I thought we were done, DONE with the pox.

But nooohhohooo. Apparently the Chicken pox immunization works only so, so. In our case it worked not at all as Ellie got the pox from it. So get this insanity, Ellie was scheduled next week to have her booster shot for Chicken Pox. If you step back and look at it, as I am right now in writing this post – it makes no sense.

Anyway, now that she is having what they are calling a “break through” case of the pox they assure me that she really, REALLY will be immune to Chicken Pox forever, oh except she has a 20% chance of getting Shingles later in life like all who have had the pox.

Don’t ya love it?

The good news is that it’s a really mild case. She does have several mini chicken pox on her back, legs, and arms but she has not been itching them. She has a small fever yesterday of 99.8 axillary and is keeping her fluids and foods down though she is refusing to eat (this is when having a g-tube keeps you out of the hospital – small consolation). In general, though a little tired, she is in great form.

My memories of the pox are old and very different. My two sisters and I had them when we were between the ages of 2 and 5 all at the same time. We were covered with them and they were so itchy it was insane. I remember us jumping up and down on my grandmother’s bed, laughing hysterically and itching all over and scratching! Ellie seems far more dignified about the whole thing.