A Happy Family Is But An Earlier Heaven

Chicken Pox Connect-the-Dots
I got a case of chicken pox.
My skin was strewn with spots.
And so I grabbed a marker
and I played connect-the-dots.
I started on my pinky toes.
The lines went up my feet,
Around my ankles, shins and knees,
and right across on my seat.
They circled 'round my belly-button,
outward toward my hips,
then up my chest, around my neck,
and past my chin and lips.
The lines continued on my ears,
my eyebrows, cheeks and nose,
then out my arms and in again
and downward to my toes.
I ran and got a mirror,
and I smiled as I was seeing,
by linking all the dots
I'd drawn a 3-D human being.
--Kenn Nesbitt

Thursday night after returning from a bank function Samantha showed us some spots on her chest. My first thought was chicken pox but knowing she has had the chicken pox vaccine thought this was impossible. I asked her if they itched and she said no so I passed it off as a heat rash and sent her to bed, (Favorite babysitter exposed). Of course I sent her to school Friday and of course after school she played with the neighbors and lets not forget our friends who all got together for dinner and came back to our house to visit with all their children and a niece. It was at dinner that she showed me more spots on her arm. I of course showed all the other mothers who in my defense were just as puzzled. (1 teacher, 20 + school children, 5 adult friends, 7 children, 1 niece, a restaurant full of customers and 2 chinese waitresses...(yes we ate chinese food which can I just say was a bad idea...I'll save that story for another day!)

The next morning we woke in a frenzy to get showered and ready for football. Jake had already left and I was in a hurry to make it to the game on time. I hurried and put the girls in the shower and that is when it hit me! Sammie has the chicken pox...HELLO...DUH!

I called Jake to tell him what I had finally discovered and that I would not be able to make it to the game. He then handed the phone to a parent on the team who happens to be a pediatrician. He told me to bring Sammie to the field and he would check her out for me. He told me that if I took her to the Dr.'s and it was Chicken Pox that they would have to quarantine the room for 24 hrs. (nice to know).

I got ready as fast as I could(which for all of you who know me means an hour later) and hurried to the field. He confirmed my findings and his darling wife, who is also a pediatrician seconded his opinion. They then told me you are actually contagious the day before you break out. That is not what I wanted to hear. As if exposing your favorite babysitter, a classroom full of first graders, one darling first grade teacher, 5 adult friends, 7 children, 1 niece, a restaurant full of customers, and 2 Chinese waitresses, I had also exposed Sammies WHOLE dance class and who knows who else! SERIOUSLY YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

Thank heavens for Sammie she did get the vaccine. However it didn't prevent her from getting the chicken pox it did prevent her from getting them too bad. They are mostly concentrated to one side of her body and thank heavens she doesn't have a single one on her face...at least not yet. It seems like every time we check we count a new one. Looks like Sammie will be missing some school but don't worry counting chicken pox has to COUNT for something!!