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.