The Plague has Struck

We have chicken pox! Or more accurately, Axa has it. But I’m sure Raj is soon to follow. Luckily, he’s been guzzling plenty of breastmilk, which I’m sure is full of appropriately useful antibodies.

I can’t say I’m very upset about it. In fact, I’m quite happy. I had chicken pox at sixteen, and would have much preferred to contract it at three. She doesn’t even seem terribly uncomfortable. No fever, and she’s doing a stellar job at not scratching. Poor girl, she’s had a fair amount of practice with eczema. We’re also re-using her special shirts with sewed-up sleeves to help her not scratch in her sleep. And this morning we put calendula ointment on every spot where she said she itched (picture a dot on every individual pock, and you can imagine how long this took).

Last night she had some asthma, a little worse than her usual mild flareups. I wasn’t very happy to be here alone, and things always seem worse in the middle of the night. I considered going down and waking Giorgio up to give her a blessing, or if it got worse, to take her to the hospital. But I filled the bathroom up with steam (never mind Giorgio, who keeps reminding us to not take showers with the window closed, but forgetting to put a screen on the window. I’m not willing to bathe with the mosquitos), and then looked online for home remedies. I chose the only one for which I had (most of) the ingredients: cinnamon, thyme, oregano (the only three spices I have at the moment), garlic, and onion, all boiled together for several minutes into quite a nasty tea. To her credit, she drank quite a bit (with plenty of honey, also recommended as a remedy).

She quite enjoyed being up so late with just Mommy there, catering to her every whim. And her asthma quieted down too.

Halfway through the night, she came into my room because she was “just too sad” to sleep (her usual reason for insomnia), so I let her sleep in Tony’s empty spot on the bed. That means in the morning I had one little bobble snuggled up on each side of me for a morning snack. We got up this morning somewhat less than rested, but everyone’s still alive, so I guess I’m doing O.K. Hopefully Tony comes home before Raj starts his bout with the Pox.

2 thoughts on “The Plague has Struck

  • July 19, 2008 at 5:01 am
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    Yeah, the only bad thing about getting it now is that we’ll have to do it all over again with more children. Oh, well.

    I’m sure they’ll start vaccinating soon here too. The pediatrician in Italy reigns supreme.

    Good luck finding a Pox Party!

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  • July 17, 2008 at 4:35 pm
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    Oh how I wish your family were here or Nora were there. Brian and I were actually just talking about chicken pox the other day. I don’t know how she is going to get them here in the states since kids are immunized for them now 🙁

    Brian works for Intel now and he hasn’t done any traveling for them, up until today. He will be gone for a week and a half because of work and then he heads out to Idaho for a rafting trip with the Young Men. I can just picture it, Brian and Tony rafting with the boys and us at home having a pox party. But then I remember that you live in ITALY.

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