My Little Chickadee has Chicken Pox!

Libby got the Varicella vaccine on the 10th, at her one year pedi appt. Earlier this week she had a low grade temp and runny nose and has been refusing almost all solids for the past 4-5 days. I chalked this up to teething since her molars are right under the gums. And having to go to the babysitter this week since my mom is out, I figured she's just feeling a little "off." Then, on the evening of the 23rd I noticed a few red bumps, including one that was oozing, in her diaper area. We have been treating her for a yeast diaper rash since the pedi appointment and I thought that this little bump might be due to chaffing in the area that is already rashy.

Yesterday, I put her down for a nap and when she woke up 2 hours later she had a red, swollen bump right under her right eye. I put some breast milk on it and in a few hours it was less swollen and looked like a little pimple. Later, during bath time, I noticed she had more pimple-like bumps...one behind her ear, several on her leg where she was injected (behind the knee, on her ankle, etc.). Today when she woke up she had two more bumps...one on her back and another one under her arm. All in all she has like 12-13 of them in random places all over her body.

So today I took her to the After Hours Pediatrician (which is open weekday evenings and all day on the weekends) since her regular pedi is closed on the weekends. The doctor said it could be chicken pox since it's a live, attenuated vaccine that is given. But she was adamant that  it's very rare for children to develop bumps. The statistic is like 5%. She seemed very skeptical.

So I asked her, "Well, what else could it be?"

She said, "Do you have pets?"

I said, "Yes."

She said "It could be bug bites."

I told her that all of our animals are on flea preventatives and that none of them have been itching or scratching and neither me nor my husband have any bites. Not to mention we've just have tempertaures below freezing and thought that it was too cold for flea season to have already started. She didn't say anything after that.

Then I said, "Libby's usually not in daycare but has been this past week and is scheduled to go again this week. Given this situation, should I keep her home or is it safe to send her to the babysitter? She has a four year old and a four month old."

The doctor paused and said, "Well, the four year old has probably been vaccinated but since there's a four month old, she probably shouldn't go..."

So I said, "....so it's probably chicken pox...caused by the vaccine?"

Then the doctor said, "Well, even if it is chicken pox, it's a mild case and there's really not much we can do for it. I can give you a script for some anti-itch cream..."

Arg! This woman simply would not confirm that it is actually chicken pox nor would she admit that it was most likely caused by the vaccine. I am beyond annoyed.

First of all, J asked the nurse at the pedi's office if Libby could get chicken pox from the vaccine and the nurse said no because it wasn't a live virus they were giving her. Well that's false. Secondly, had we known this we would have waited to give her the vaccine, especially since we knew that my mom is out-if-town and therefore we'd be up a creek if Libby couldn't go to the babysitter.

So now, I am taking time off work, J is skipping classes and has resigned himself to take an incomplete on his assignments this week. He doesn't get them until Wednesday and they're due at Noon on Friday. He's been struggling to get them in on time with my mom out of town because he's watching Libby during the day on Thursday and Friday while I am at work. He does the best he can, staying up late after he gets home from work on Wednesday and Thursday nights and squeezing in more homework when Libby naps, but it's been tough. This week, I actually took Friday morning off so he could get the assignment in by Noon.

What's even more irritating is that the other students in his cohort have until Mondays to turn in their assignments. He a small group other students got stuck with a clinical instructor known to be a hard-ass and purposely makes it difficult for her students. It's totally unfair. And might mean the difference between J passing this class or having to repeat it. He's going to make a formal complaint and ask to be switched to a different instructor, who allows assignments to be turned in on Mondays. I have no idea if they'll accommodate his request.

What's more, this is probably the worst week for me to be out of the office. Although I have plenty of leave time accrued and can use it, the timing is just really bad. We've had 5 snow days this month and I have some big projects that are due April 1. Next week, I'll be in Chicago for a conference. Ugh. So I am going to try and work from home...while I am looking after my little with chicken pox.

I am trying to make her as comfortable as possible. Bless her heart, she's not scratching. But she's cranky and clingy. I gave her a lukewarm, colloidal oatmeal bath and we're giving her acetaminophen. And snuggling a lot. Poor baby.

The silver lining in all of this is that she and I will have a lot of quality time together this week, which is good since I'll be leaving her for 5 days and 4 nights next week. I've never been away from her for longer than 18 hours, so I am anxious about this trip. But she'll be in good hands, my mom will be home and with her 24/7 and J will be here too.

I just hope to be able to leave enough pumped milk for her (she refuses all frozen BM). The plan is to pump as much as I can, starting this Tuesday, and leave it in the fridge for her. The stuff I pump this Tuesday, they'll use first next week and so on. Perhaps being being away will also convince her to take cow's milk? It's been introduced, but she basically refuses it. I am going to pump 4-5 times a day while I am gone and bring the milk home to give to the baby to whom I've been donating my extra milk. I still need to read up how to do that with the TSA. *sigh*

It's times like these that I really wish I was a SAHM. I know it's not easy to SAH, but it's not easy to be a working mom either. Especially one who has to travel away from home. Let's face it, being a mom just isn't easy, no matter how you slice it.