Saturday, June 13, 2009

The pox

This is a public announcement on behalf of any of you out there with a child who has not had chickenpox.

Finally, four false alarms later, the pox came in the night and stalked across my baby son's pristine skin leaving its fiery footprints behind.

To be more precise, the pox has rampaged across every nook, every cranny, every hill and dale, every fold and, well, pretty much every inch of the spud's epidermis. He has spots on his tum, his bum, his back, his face, his arms and legs and neck. He has spots in his hair, in his ears, up his nose, between his toes, on his willy and on his tongue.

I know that chickenpox can be bad but I've been lulled into complacency by the number of Mums I've spoken to whose offspring 'only had two or three spots really, it was nothing'.

I had no idea it was going to be this bad and while I am technically glad he has it and glad that it's going to be over soon, I feel awful that I was actually relieved when the first spot appeared; I really really want it to be over.

He goes up and down and so do I. We had a good day with some running and playing and planting seeds in the garden but he hasn't eaten solid food in two days and he wakes up every couple of hours in the night screaming in agony.

It's those moments when one's child is blind with pain and before the analgesic cream kicks in that are the worst. The ones where you look at his body in the bath and see it ruined with lumps and covered in pain, well those are almost bearable.

Oh and to cap it off our boiler, barely older than our son, blew up today so we have no hot water and can't even offer him frequent soothing baths without boiling up a million kettles.

Life, I tell you, has been better than this.

8 comments:

Fe said...

Oh this post brings back memories of when my youngest had the Chicken Pox. Both of my boys had it at the same time.... they were around 1 and 2... and the youngest one really had it bad.

It was even on the inside of his eyelids.

I can remember trying to soothe him and put calamine lotion on him and give him pain relief.... but mainly I remember the agony of seeing my child in such pain.

I hope he gets through it quickly.

(((( hug ))))

KJ said...

Sounds awful. Colin had them at about 1 1/2, and had spots everywhere too. I ordered a Chickenpox Balm from http://fonoils.com/, and it was amazingly helpful. SO much better than calamine or anything else we tried. A little pricey, but so worth it. Anyway, that may not help you at this point. Hope he's over the worst of it quickly.

Lisa @ Boondock Ramblings said...

Hang in there. Sounds awful. Jonathan hasn't had them. We had a vaccine for it, but I don't know if it will mean anything.

I had them as a child and directly after them I had a respiratory infection. I was out of school for a month or more. It was not fun. At least the Spud won't miss any school. Not that that is comforting at all during this time.

I wish I knew what to do for him and could take it all away for you!

cactus petunia said...

Oooh. I feel for you, really I do! And poor Spud! I had both of mine go through it at the same time, and went through gallons of calamine lotion.
Hope he's all better soon!

Michelle said...

So So So Sorry to hear about the severity of Spud's pox. I am thinking of you and hoping that he is well soon!

C said...

oh my! your poor little man :( (and you!) I hope he feels better soon.

DJ Kirkby said...

Sheesh and here I was thinking that I had had a bad week! Por you and poor little spud!

Sparx said...

Fe - thank you so much! Inside of the eyelids, that's awful. I have read that it's possible and I have also read that it's a 'myth' that children can get the pox on the tongue and the inside of the eyelids but the spots on the spud's tongue are unmistakeable. Oh poor you, I'm glad it's over!

Kat - thanks for the link; I think it might be too late but we have bought something stronger that a friend recommended (Eurax) which seems to work (but stinks to high heaven

Hi Lisa - the vaccine should stop him getting them. It's not regulation in the UK to get the vaccine, we have to suffer through it!

Cactus - two at once, awful! My brother and I had it at the same time, my poor Mum.

Michelle - thanks hon! I think we're getting through it.

Carlie - thanks! Sympathy always welcome.

DJ - Well, you've been through it so you know what it's like; thanks though!