As if we didn't have enough to worry about already. I think I actually titled a post that the other day.
I've been doing this a lot lately, but I'm going to cut to the chase because *surprise surprise, *I'm exhausted.
Emmett is supposed to go to the eye doctor tomorrow. You may recall that his glasses broke about a week ago and it's about $100 to replace them because they're transition lenses. We could figure out the money but they need to be stronger and he was scheduled for an appointment in December.
I was able to get the appointment moved to today, at 10:45 AM. It's at Akron Children's Hospital, so we have a bit of a drive.
Emmett is so excited because he's having a tough time seeing and there was a 3 month wait. He does have backup glasses but they are the same prescription as his broken ones and he doesn't see well with them anymore.
There's no school today. Lizze was going to stay home with Gavin and Elliott, while I took Emmett to his appointment and to pick out his new glasses.
*Enter a potentially major snag*.
I picked the kids up from school on Thursday afternoon only to have Emmett climb into the car in a panic.
Apparently, someone in the school was been diagnosed with Whooping Cough. People blow that off like it's not a big deal but Whooping Cough is a very, very serious respiratory infection. It's making a comeback because people aren't vaccinating their kids. That's a whole other post in and of itself.
I called the school on the way home to figure out what was going on and because I hadn't seen the paper that was sent home.
There were questions I needed answers to in order to judge what the risk factors were and how much exposure my kids had.
The school is respecting the privacy of the kid, which is understandable but I have a child at home with a severely compromised immune system and I need to know as much as I can.
It turns out that the kid is in Emmett's class and Emmett has had direct exposure, for I don't know how long. Whooping Cough was confirmed Thursday afternoon, from what I understand.
We don't know much more than that and it's very frustrating.
Emmett thinks he knows who it is and that person has been absent on and off but was at school on Wednesday but out again on Thursday. The incubation period is typically 7-10 days but can be 4-21 days.
Whooping Cough is extremely contagious and it's most contagious during the two week period of time after the cough begins. This kid may have been coughing and no one thought it was anything to worry about. They would have no reason to think it was anything more than a cough.
There's no way to know how contagious this kid was at school but Emmett has been complaining of not feeling well the last few days. Nothing major but mild cold like symptoms. Things like runny nose and occasional cough.
That could mean nothing more than the common cold but it's also how Whooping Cough starts off before getting much worse.
I've got calls into the pediatrician and Gavin's immunologist. I should hear back in the morning.
That brings me to one of the many conundrums this presents me with. Do I cancel Emmett's eye appointment? He'll have to wait all over again and that's obviously a problem.
I feel like we should cancel but I don't know if that's overreacting.
I called Akron Children's Hospital but I need to call back in the morning to speak to the doctors office directly. I guess there's not a direct policy for something like this. The standard *of they aren't running a fever it's fine *approach seems irresponsible in this case.
Anyway, I know it would be very upsetting to Emmett and complicate his already challenging life, if we have to reschedule because his eyes are really bothering him. At the same time, he's been directly exposed over the last week or so and I can't risk spreading anything, should he be infected and just not showing more symptoms.
He's been coughing a little bit today but I don't know how much of that is an actual cough vs him being freaked out and coughing. Does that make sense?
He needs this appointment I don't want to be driving the monkey to the airport, so to speak.
Emmett's glasses aside, the biggest issue at this point is Gavin. I'm not sure how we handle this kind of thing with him in the house. We've never run into anything like this before and I don't know what to do at this point.
Hopefully, the doctors will call back in the morning and we can figure out how to proceed.
It goes without saying that I'm just a bit stressed out right now. Shit just keeps piling up and I can't get through any of it. This is potentially very serious, especially for Gavin and his compromised immune system..
It's important to note that everyone in our house has been vaccinated. That would be more of a comfort if we didn't know that the kid infected was vaccinated as well.
Vaccines aren't perfect and they work best when everyone gets vaccinated. Again, I won't go down that road right now.
Emmett's really stressed out about this. We're playing it cool with the kids because we don't want them to worry unless they need to. Emmett took it upon himself to research Whooping Cough and that hasn't helped.
We've explained what it is and that we can take some commonsense precautions.
Until we hear from the doctors, I feel like it's best that we avoid people for now. I called my Mom because I've been helping out with my 92 year old Grandfather, who's battling cancer.
We also called Lizze's Mom because the boys were around their cousins at the funeral and one of them was a newborn.
It's not about panic but rather making people aware, so if they notice anything, they don't brush it off as a cold and they get it checked out.
I'm hoping that everything ends up being okay and Emmett's friend makes a full recovery. Whopping Cough is a truly horrible thing for anyone but especially a child.
