Possibly Pox

For the past couple days Ethan has been inexplicably whiny, which is a pretty good bet that he's not feeling well. Then yesterday evening he started getting a runny nose which got much worse as the night wore on. He also seemed to be running a slight fever last night, but no temp today. Tonight I noticed two little spots on one of his arms. They don't exactly look like blisters, but it certainly raises the possibility of chicken pox.

I can't tell you how happy that makes me! 

And no, I'm not being sarcastic.

My personal view on vaccines is that we should treat them with much more caution than most of us do. The vaccine issue is a complicated one that requires a lot of digging before you can even begin to feel confident in forming opinions. After doing some digging of my own, I would much prefer that in the case of chicken pox my children get the actual disease instead of the vaccine. For one thing, there is a much higher rate of lifetime immunity for those who experience the disease versus those who are vaccinated. Unfortunately (in my opinion), it is rather difficult to get the actual disease these days. Incredibly, Ethan had a possible double exposure last weekend. We went to Kanab for Easter (post on that coming soon), and out of all of my family, the two sisters that were there had kids just recovered from chicken pox. Amazing. 

I do have doubts that Ethan has really contracted it, though. For one thing, none of the kids had spots left when we were with them. For another, the incubation period is usually longer than just the few days we've been home. Even so, I am very hopeful. I know that is so weird to say. I'm hopeful my kid is sick. But honestly, even though I had logical reasons to hope he would get chicken pox, I was surprised at how light-hearted I felt thinking he might actually have it. I think it just boils down to the fact that for me, it would be an answer to prayer.