Friday, January 05, 2007

Pox, Pox, and More Pox

Well I received that wonderful phone call about three weeks ago from my dear friend Lisa V. "Hey, my kids have chickenpox! You want 'em?" I made plans to visit the next day. The kids didn't know what they were in for. I sent two of the younger ones into the kitchen to tell Christian that they were going to David's house in the morning. "We're going to get the chickenpox!" they shouted with joy. Then they stopped. "What are chickenpox, Daddy?" It was really cute. The next day we made poor sick David stay up and play Uno with us. (You were a trooper, David. Thank you.)
Fast forward 13 days . . .Two of the kids have a few spots. Not quite sure if they are pox. Given another 24 hours we knew for sure. With in 3 days all 5 of them had it. Each case slightly different than the others. After 9 days we are officially on the mend. I think we are safe to leave the house again.
What a strange thing, the varicella virus. It is a virus I wanted my kids to get and we even had play dates to expose two other families. I had it when I was 18 years old and it was such a dreadful experience. I am thrilled that our kids won't need to worry about it. It has been sad to see them blistery and feverish but it has been amazing to watch the full course of this virus from start to finish. God made our bodies in such an amazing way - our bodies get sick, they fight infection and usually win, finish with immunity to that virus. Hundreds of itchy, puss filled blisters come from inside, damage our skin and then our skin heals leaving only a few minor scars. Truly amazing.
One night while rubbing Aveeno cream all over a little polka-dotted body Christian looked at me and said, "Can you imagine how freaked out we would be if we weren't expecting this? All of a sudden our kids are covered with itchy blisters?" I'm so glad we were able to schedule this sickness.