Sick Day #3

Well, it seems my son has SCARLET FEVER. Actually the doctor put "scarlet fever" in quotes, like that, air quotes with her fingers, because it's really just strep throat with a rash, blar de blar, no one get panicky. Of course I did anyway; I was all, SCARLET FEVER! All caps! What shall we do next, doctor of physick? Do we procure for him a bloodletting? Retire him to his bedchamber for a fortnight?

I knew something was going on when he entered our bedroom this morning looking like someone had beaten him up. You can't get anything past me, nossir. His face is all angry and blotchy and he has the puffy watery eyes of an allergic basset hound. It's the saddest thing I've ever seen.

And now we have some antibiotics and we're watching some television. Once again, medicine and technology join forces to save the day!

Comments

[Eve]

Scarlet Fever? What the? How retro of Henry!
If I were you, I would have fainted in my petticoat, and needed smelling salts to revive me.

[Tempered Woman]

Oh my gosh! I send lots of happy healthy thoughts your way. If the Dr. had said scarlet fever to me I would have begun full panic mode and started posting the quarantine signs.

[Steph]

Poor Henry - my kids just had strep so I know how you feel.

Also I just discovered that I might have a condition where I have too much iron in my blood and guess what the therapy is for that? Weekly bloodletting! I'm not kidding I thought that was in the same leaque as snuff!

[Suniverse]

Poor guy. Did you procure a poultice?

[kate]

Leeches. Tell Henry the cure for Scarlet Fever is blood. sucking. leeches. That'll get his little butt back to school.

[siobhan]

My sympathies. I've just got back from the doctor with antibiotics so I have the medicine part, but no TV.

[victoria]

Poor Henry! Also, Steph, be glad they caught the hemochromatosis, if that is indeed what you have. Hemochromatosis used to be a condition that wasn't caught until people started having orgain failure from iron build up. And a weekly blood donation is a complete cure, plus it's painless, cheap, and side-effect-free. :-)

[Mary Peyton]

Scarlet Fever! That makes me think of the Velveteen Rabbit- some good bedtime readin'!

[Vikki]

Ah yes...scarlet fever. My son had that a couple of years ago and I mistook it for RHEUMATIC FEVER and began to cry about the eventual heart transplant he would need from the damage. It is much better to think of it as strep with a rash...much better indeed.

[PicklesMom]

When Pickle's brother got chicken pox (in the dark ages before the vaccine), I asked the pediatrician what would be the best thing to do for him. I was expecting prescriptions, medical equipment, and daily deliveries of oxygen for the tent we would have to build him to make him healthy again.

Rent some movies and get some new crayons was the response. Oh, and lots of ice cream - for you, she said.

I loved that pediatrician. Then she went and retired on me.

[Catizhere]

My nephew called it "Stretch Froape".

Poor lil' guy. Bein' sick is no fun.

[leah]

If you burn his stuffed animals I will have to cry for days and days.

[Tammy]

Scarlet fever is going around our preschool, too. I was all, Scarlet Fever? Didn't that go the way of cholera a long time ago? Guess not. I hope cholera isn't next for a dramatic comeback.

[Michelle]

Watching Grease 2 cured me of all illnesses when I was a child. That and really buttery mashed potatoes.

Hmm... All of a sudden, I think I need to get sick and go visit my mom.

[Jennifer]

I'm in the IL and our school had a huge scarlet fever outbreak this year. So strange.

Just wait until Henry's older. My daughter (13) was sick a few weeks ago and the doctor did a mono test! We were both like "Mono?" because she had never heard of it and I remember it being called "the kissing disease" when I was young...

[Beth]

My little one was diagnosed with scarlet fever last winter, but the doctor (not our usual, as it was the weekend, of course--can my kids ever get sick during the week?!?) didn't do me the favor of doing the air quotes. He just said it all nonchalantly, and I replied, "Um, don't people die from that??" He assured me that it was just strep with a rash, but goodness me, why can't they just call it strep with a rash then, instead of something that sends me into a panic thinking about the quarantine we'll need to endure? Geesh!

Here's hoping Henry feels better very soon!

[Frogdancer]

In Australia no one gets Scarlet Fever. It's unheard of. But we are very sympathetic to strep throat. That's what we get. None of these retro diseases for us!!

[The Mom Bomb]

Awww. Hope the lil' guy feels better soon. I'm sure he's handling it much better than I would. I've been terrified of Scarlet Fever ever since I read about Beth kicking off from it in Little Women. Then again, she was a goody-goody.

[sizzle]

How dramatic! But seriously, I hope he is ok and gets better soon.

[All Adither]

If only Pa had invented some antibiotics for Mary. And if only the Ingalls had had TV. She never would've gone blind. But then, she never would've met Adam and started the school.

Hope Henry recovers quickly and, most importantly, returns to school!

[Heather B.]

Well now, it's the 1880's up in here. In all seriousness poor Henry and poor you. I hope things are better post haste.

[Katze]

I had that when I was a kid. It makes a cool story now-- no one ever quite believes it when they first hear it. The fever damaged the enamel of my permanent teeth (which were still, I guess, developing at that time?), and even now you can see small white streaks on the front teeth. But it appears to be purely cosmetic damage, as I only recently had my first cavity, at age 31.

Hope Henry is back up and better soon, and that you make it through with your sanity intact!

[Lindsey]

I never had any of the dramatic childhood diseases until I went and caught "The Scarlet Fever" in fifth grade. That was back in the(19!)90s. My mom had the same reaction. From personal experience, please don't sit Henry down with the home medical journal, point to "Rheumatic Fever" and inform him if he gets any of these symptoms, he's to come to you right away -- RIGHT AWAY! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?!

The only advice I have is to start stockpiling your chosen cough remedy now. While scarlet fever itself was fairly tolerable, I had a lingering hell cough for weeks.

[superblondgirl]

See, that is when you know you are awesome and Victorian. You need to invest in a fainting couch. Kids with scarlet fever need those.

Or maybe scarlet fever is less Victorian and more like Little House on the Prairie? I don't know. I'm behind on my obscure ye olde diseases.

[amy]

My son had it about 18 months ago. The antiobiotics cleared it right up, but it is a startling diagnosis. It never occurred to me that kids still get it.

[Melanie]

Wow, leave it to Henry to get a malady straight from last century.... I must comment on the irony- your little guy was complaining about pain in colors and now he has "scarlet" fever. In all seriousness, I hope he feels better soon-and I hope you don't get it either!!

[Jenn @ Juggling Life]

All the funny comments have been made. All I've got is "get well soon!"

[kristi]

I heart these comments. (and poor Henry to boot)

[cartoongoddess]

Ugh. I feel for you. We got slammed w/ strep today. Last night was hell.

Here's to both of us having a silent night.

[Christi]

One of my kids had Scarlet Fever once. I can't remember which, though. How's that for good-mommy?

Wait 'til the doc tells you your kid has Cat-Scratch Fever. You'll walk around for weeks with Ted Nugent jamming in your head. To this day, I can't hear that song without saying to my daughter, "Hey...remember when you had...?" How many 11-yr olds do you know who can identify CSF by the opening rif?

[Jennifer]

I thought most people died if they came down with The Scarlet Fever, but alas, my niece and nephew have had it a few times (her once, him twice) and are still alive and thriving. It is dramatic, though.

[honestyrain]

if i had to have a fever, scarlet is the color i'd choose. that or orange. i'm really into orange lately. blue too, which is weird because i never like blue. but i wouldn't want blue fever. that sounds cold and not fevery at all.

[geminigirl]

Last year my son got SF too. I panicked and looked out the window for the plague of locusts

[angelawd]

I was always getting weird maladies when I was a kid, too. Pit Rosea, creeping blisters, chicken pox twice, infected saliva glands, Osgood-Schlatter disease...I think my doctor used to say, "oh crap, here comes that kid again. What now?"

[mike]

Definitely keep with the antibiotics/apothecaries and tv routine. We got hit with "the fever" earlier in the year. The best part about it was explaining that "oh, hells yeah, it's still around!".

[Dee]

I've had scarlet fever. It's not a big deal, although it sounds scary. He will be back to normal soon.

[TitanKT]

Yeah, I'd go ahead and get panicky about SCARLET FEVER even if told not to, as well. I hope he's feeling better soon, though. I HATE it when my kid is really sick... it just breaks your heart, doesn't it?

[Kerri Anne]

Yes, my mind was instantly traipsing back to images of the original Oregon Trail game I played in elementary school. Everyone circle the wagons!

I hope he's less scarlet-y soon.

[Michele]

My son had scarlet fever last year, and I remember thinking at the time, "Scarlet fever? Beth in Little Women died from that." But when the pediatrician explained it to me, I felt much better. But my youngest is on antibiotics now, due to a raging ear infection. Thank you, Cefzil!

[Candy]

Well I'm glad to know medical technology has a handle on these diseases. What's next, polio? Rubella?

[Jenn]

oh my gosh! this is too ironic, my son has scarlet fever-he woke up with it yesterday morning. i was thinking how ironic it was that, for that past 3 weeks my other 2 kiddos have been passing strep throat around, but this one never got it.
however, our ped. didn't put him on antibiotics cause "he was just on them" and my parents said his rash has gotten worse, so i think i may just wait and take him to the er tonight???!

[punchanella]

one time when my son was just over a year and had been very sick, we administered antibiotics. he had a really bad allergic reaction and that's not the part that pertains to your scarlet fever post. the part that is important is that a couple days later the hives started to turn purple and so my husband called the after-hours health service and they told him that after hearing the symptoms he described that it was likely scarlet fever and they were dispatching an ambulance to our house.

we declined and drove him (fast) ourselves, and it was NOTHING more than too little benadryl and extra-old hives and norwalk virus.

what's my point? i don't know, i wonder that myself... but i guess what i was getting at is WHY DO DOCTORS KEEP TELLING PEOPLE THEIR CHILDREN HAVE "SCARLET FEVER"? this is exactly why i didn't go into medicine, that and having to touch sick people.

[Dory]

Hope Henry feels better soon!

Don't make me send the leeches. *deadpan face*