BUT...sometimes, they see chicken pox where there are no chicken pox.
Especially our doctor.
This isn't the first time she has cried "varicella" and been wrong.
Here is the story:
Connor had a ruptured ear drum, and per the ER instructions, we were scheduled to take him to our doctor for a follow up on Monday morning.
On Saturday morning, Lex woke up with a fever, and I was pretty sure that it was teething-related. He has been running a fever when he gets a new tooth, and he has 7 of them now.
But, he still had the fever on Monday morning, and I figured that we were going to the doctor anyways, so I called and had Lex added to the schedule.
We arrive at the doctor's office on Monday morning, and the receptionist asks me, "What is all over his legs?" I look down, and I inform her that they were mosquito bites. We've been spending too much time outside at dusk. Honest.
The doctor looks at Connor's ear and decides that she can't tell whether or not it is healed because of the scabbing. So, we'll check it again later.
Then, she looks at Lex and decides that either he is teething or he has some general run of the mill virus causing his fever. But then she sees the mosquito bites on his legs and decides that it *must* be chicken pox.
She put us on lock down (which I largely ignored, because I knew that they were mosquito bites) and told us that he would get worse in a few days. Then she was sure I would see more little pox all over his body, and the ones on his legs would be crusting over.
Instead, we kept him inside at dusk, and there are no more mosquito bites. His existing mosquito bites have gone away. His fever went away as soon as we got home from the doctor's office (which is how it always happens - the fever felt threatened and fled).
No one has the chicken pox. Not a single one.
Sometimes a mosquito bite is just a mosquito bite. And a little leg with 4 of them looks like it is covered in red pox. Two little legs with about 4 each look like an epidemic.
I guess I should just be more wary of the bugs. They really seem to like my little guy. He is so delicious that they don't bother me at all, so I have to be extra watchful of him.
As I was writing this post, the doctor's office called to check on Lex. The doctor was surprised to hear that we weren't in the middle of all the chicken pox misery that she predicted. But glad, too, for us.
3 comments:
Ok, you have me cracking up! The calm mom, and the over-reacting doctor. I don't know Julie, I'd probably be interested in finding a more relaxed Ped, one that's not going to instantly send you into quarantine for a few mosquito bites!
Wow....in that case, my little one gets the chicken pox once a week. In addition to being tasty, she has a major reaction to each one. Her already chubby legs topped with red welts look like a vicitm of the plague! I get eaten up too, and it's a pain, but I don't have the reaction she does. I swear, we can be outside for 10 mins and she'll come in with a dozen new bites. Stupid bugs. :)
She's been my doctor since I was a kid, and now she is the doc for all four of us. She's great, except for her propensity to see varicella where it isn't. She once thought a zit was shingles. :)
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