Stressing

Joseph has a rash. This is a problem because I suspect it might be fifth disease. And that can be harmful to a fetus in the first half of pregnancy. I took him to the doctor on Saturday to get checked, and the doctor swore it was not fifth disease. The rash was too papular, not lacy. Well, on Monday, yesterday, it looked more lacy to me. And it keeps going on and on. It has been going on for 2 weeks now, seeming to get worse when he is hot or stressed, which is a symptom of fifth disease. If it were roseola it would be gone in 3 days. {sigh} So I called up the pediatrician's office today demanding a lab slip. I read up on the internet this weekend and found out that there is a blood test for fifth disease. And if he has IgM for it, that means he was infected recently. He's sleeping right now. I just got home from work and I'm waiting for him to wake up so we can go to Children's Hospital to get his blood drawn. I took his older bro for a blood draw a couple of years ago at the adult lab and they hurt him badly and ended up not getting any blood at all. I took him to Children's after that and they got it on the first draw. So little Joseph is going straight to Children's. If he doesn't have fifth disease I can breathe easy. If he does, I will need to talk to my obstetrician about it. Also, I will need to report it to the Mommy and Me teacher of the weekly class that we go to as at least half of the moms there are pregnant. They would need to be informed.

The good news is that only 5% of babies of moms who are infected with fifth disease have problems. The bad part of fifth disease is that it can cause severe anemia. So bad in the fetus that it can die in utero. Kids with immune insufficiency or low resistance get anemia as well. They get pale and have malaise, and they get no rash. The rash is actually a good sign that the immune system is fighting properly. As for my chances, since Joseph is my fifth child (chuckling because everything is fifths today), I have probably already been exposed to this in the past from the other kids. So hopefully it is not a problem. Joseph takes Flintstone's vitamins with iron every day, so I think he is probably in good shape with his blood, but a cbc will also be drawn today so we will know for sure. And my red blood cells are excellent as you recall from my labs drawn early this month.