Two's Day

Tuesday, April 26, was the last day of Study & Share for the year. I was sad to see it come to an end. How I have enjoyed getting to know these gals! We all have children about the same ages, and it's refreshing to study God's Word with other people who have a passion for knowing Him more. We've already planned our first play date for the summer, so hopefully we'll stay in touch and have the same or a similar group in the fall.

 Here is the butterfly Joshua made at preschool.

When I dropped Joshua off at his class that morning, his teacher stopped me to tell me that Calvary had had several confirmed cases of Fifth's Disease in many of the classrooms and hallways. While her class hadn't had any, they still travel to the gym, library, etc. so it would be VERY important to wash their hands, etc. She informed me that while this virus is not dangerous for little ones, it can be extremely dangerous for pregnant moms. So, I looked it up on the Internet when we got home. And I was stunned at what I found. The sickness starts with a high fever, and includes joint pain. As I thought back to little Caleb Luke the Friday before, he kept complaining of how badly his left knee hurt. Yes, indeed, he had exhibited most of the symptoms. Both boys were slightly rashy, but it looked more like heat rash to me, which isn't uncommon for them to get at the start of summer (and we had had some really beautiful days where we played outside most of the day). Caleb has super sensitive skin, so I even thought that some of his was just a reaction to changing from winter to summer clothes, which may or may not have been washed in the sensitive detergent I used.

That afternoon, Joshua's pre-anesthesia nurse called to register him. She said that if he did have Fifth's Disease, they would cancel his surgery. So, I called the pediatrician. How could I tell for sure? He hadn't exhibited any of the symptoms his little brother had, other than a slight rash. They told me to make an appointment for both boys, which I was able to do back-to-back the following morning. I also in the meantime called my OBGYN, who faxed paperwork to a lab for me to get blood taken to see if I was immune. I read that in adults, they can severe joint pain and Shawn had been complaining of how bad his knees hurt. I'm assuming he had it, too. Many adults are immune to the disease because they had it as a child. If not, most cases of fetal death arrive before 20 weeks, and I was long past that point. But, in rare cases it could also cause severe anemia or even stillbirth for women who were further along. We prayed that our little guy would be safe and healthy!

We also talked and decided not to send Joshua to preschool the rest of the week. If he did have it, he would be not spreading it. If he didn't have it, we didn't want to risk him picking it up and getting his surgery canceled. The following day (4/27) we saw Dr. Sanchez in the morning. Joshua had lost 8 oz, making him 37 lbs exactly or the 36.25% (much more like his normal percentage of weight). Caleb weighed in at 31 lbs 12 oz or the 60.26%. She said that neither of their rashes looked like "classic" Fifth's Disease, but based on where they were, how contagious it is, and Caleb's other symptoms, she was going to diagnose both of them as having it. She told me to call my OBGYN (which I had already done) and that neither boy was contagious since they both had slight rashes. By the time they break out, they're not contagious and can freely go to school or anywhere else.

That said, there was also pink eye and other sicknesses going around at preschool, so we decided to keep the Bean home one more day in an effort to keep him well for surgery. I called the health campus, and the nurse confirmed that the pediatrician had cleared him for surgery, so they were okay with him still coming on Monday.

It took well over a week to get my blood test back, but they confirmed that I am, indeed, immune to Fifth's Disease, so no worries there. Praise God!