Chickenpox is so much fun

said nobody ever.

So this morning Miss 4 woke up, in my bed just for a change, and when I went to put her clothes on I noticed she had 4 spots on her belly. Hmm. Interesting.

So being the mum that I am I stripped her off completely to make sure she didn't have any spots anywhere else. Cool. No more spots. Just 4 random belly spots.

We were late this morning. Master 3 was asserting his shoe choice capacity strongly. It wasn't going well. We finally got out the door at the time Miss 5 needed to be dropped off at school and I crossed everything that her class hadn't already left for gym, which they do every Friday morning this term, and it is off campus. And I don't know where. Bonus.

After that we did the obligatory run to the babycino shop. As I waited for my long black and the kids' babycinos to arrive I noticed 3 spots on Tabitha's cheek. Oh. Cool.

So we left. Went and looked at some helicopters, as we do, then went home.

Food o'clock. Then I stripped Miss 4 and commenced operation spotwatch. At 11.30am there were 4 on her belly and 3 on her face. Not too bad.

Miss 4 does not like doctors. At all. I can't really blame her. She has in the past broken her arm and her leg, in the opposite order. The leg fracture I think was particularly traumatic. Not the breaking part. She caned that. Standing in a room, turned around, instant slinky bone fracture. And how hard core is this.... she walked on it. Broken. Because she wanted to come with me. Unbelievable.

The x-raying of that leg didn't really go all that well. And she is loud. And x-ray rooms are fairly echoey. And x-ray technicians are fairly inexperienced in dealing with Miss 4 type people. Well, that's a generalisation. I should say "that" x-ray technician appeared to have very little experience dealing with Miss 4 type people.

And then there was the plaster. Oh good lord the plaster.

Anyway, I digress.

11.30am, 7 spots.

I had said to Miss 4 that if she got any more we might have to go to the doctor. She, of course, screamed. Fabulous.

So I said to her "You have 7 spots. What say if you get to 15 spots we go to the doctor?"

And reluctantly she agreed.

So by 12.30pm she had a spot on her arm and 3 more spots on her face. Oh yeah, that count was building.

Then we went to the school assembly, came home, played outside, had dinner, got the kids all into their pyjamas and Master 3 screamed a bloodcurdling scream.

Okey dokey.

"MY THROAT!!!!! AT THE BACK!!!!!"

So I got the torch and I looked. And to me it looked horrid. But then again I don't really know what I was looking for, but he was visibly disturbed by it, Miss 4 was gaining spots by the hour, and things were not going well.

Everyone in the car.

Down to the medical centre we go, lug the kids in, and they say "Oh we don't bulk bill after 6."

Lug the kids out, back in the car, and on the quest for a bulk billing medical centre. Ah yes, the joys of single parenthood and the inability to throw financial caution to the wind, even in the case of necessary treatment.

So we finally found somewhere. Walked in. Asked if they bulk billed and the lady said "Yes, but we have only 2 doctors on and 24 people ahead of you"

Crap. Actually that isn't the word I thought but I am censoring it for you.

And so she said "Is it urgent?"

So I said "Well, this one looks as though all the blood vessels at the back of his throat have burst."

"What about the other one?"

"Well she just keeps getting more spots."

Phone rings. "Hello, yes, the wait is fairly long. There are 24 people here, and 2 emergencies have just come in."

Mental fist pump. We were the emergencies. Queue. Jump. Boo yeah.

And as she got off the phone the receptionist said "We'll have to put you in quarantine. There is a pregnant lady here."

Fine by me.

So they did. And we stayed there. For a bit. Till the doctor came and got us and took us to his room.

Master 3's sore throat, although red, was more than likely due to his 3rd ear infection in the space of 5 weeks.

Miss 4, I warned him, was scared of doctors. He was fabulous. Made her feel so at ease that she even let him look down her throat, take her temperature AND look at the spots. I could see the tears beginning to well in her eyes, but she did amazingly.

So chickenpox it is. Atypical. Due to the fact that she has been vaccinated against them.

And so we finally got home, Miss 4 put out by her spots and Master 3 excited at having two different medicines.

And me, well, I'm just sitting, wondering how things can go from all healthy and well to such extremes in the space of 12 hours.

How? Children. That's how.

And yes. I did stop at the bottle shop on the way home. If I don't deserve wine now, then nobody does. Ever.

Cheers.