Well, its bound to happen

[stella9]

Last night we had my daughter's best friend's family over for dinner. We absolutely love these people and there children are wonderful. They also have daughter my son's age and they adore each other.


Both of my kids battled headcolds, as did I, this week. By lastnight we were much on the bend. I told our friends and they were fine with it.


The kids played after dinner. The two older ones played upstairs in my daughter's room. The two younger ones played all throughout the house. About 8:00 p.m., they started to beg for sleepovers. As you all know, my emet radar goes to full attention with the sleepover thing. Ususally, I combat it and go with the flow and things are fine.


Well, you can imagine where this is going. I argued why a sleepover was not going to happen - its getting late, the older girls have karate, etc. My husband interjected with "why not?" Well, that was it. It was a done deal. The kids grabbed blankets and went downstairs to watch a movie. Al the parents (except for me) were okay with this decision. The kids are always great together and there should be no problem. My son came to sleep with me around 1:00 a.m. as he ususally does.


Fast forward to 8:00 a.m. My husband went to get bagels. The youngest daughter of my friends tells me she is going to v**. I send her to the bathroom where she v* only phlegm. I called her parents, who were there in 10 minutes. Literally.


Its now 12:33 p.m. She was doing fin and asked for breakfast. She tossed the bagel right after eating it, but her parents said she is not complaining and does not have a fever. They are so lovely and are apologizing hand over foot (of course it is not their fault). No one would have ever thought this kid was sick. In fact, she woke up feeling great. She also had a sv four months ago, so she was the last one I was worried about.


I am now kicking myself backwards and every which way to Sunday. I have bleached the house, aired it out for two hours, sprayed Lysol on every speck of furniture, given my kis probiotics and cranberry juice. Now we are in for the 24-48 hour wait. We are all still snotty and coughing. We don't want more sick.


No more sleepoovers. I am traumatized, I am done. The answer is - say no to sleepovers. My new mantrais - No more sleepovers, no more sleepovers , no more sleepovers. Can we spell no more sleepovers?


Stella

[stella9]

The word is "their" children not there. I can't spell anyomore.





Stella

[neesy]

It doesnt sound like a bug so please try not to worry - easy for me to say - I know I would be if I was in your shoes!

[SimplyMe]

I'm sorry this happened. Maybe the phlegm is what made her sick? Have you heard anymore as to if she is OK now? It's like you had a 6th sense or soemthing lol. Since you have gone above and beyond in the prevention mode I think you all should be fine. I don't know how old the little girl is but something like phlegm or maybe even eating junk too late (as sleepovers usually guarentee) just upset her tummy. I don't know if this will help or not but I remember one of my friends sleeping over when I was little and the next day she and my mom were talking of how she wonke my mom up because she had to throw up. It was alls o calm. She said it's cuz she ate too many cookies and no one caught anything from her.

[purpleteacher]

Does the girl have sinus problems? I know that sinus drainage can cause V*.

[stella9]

The little girl is now six and a half. The first thing I thought was she caught our colds. My guess it IS a sv. Her mom told me that she gets this a few times a year. She will v* some food, some phlegm on and off. She had it three times last year alone. She won't run a fever, but she'll feel punk for a few days. I have not called since 12:30 today. Quite frankly, knowing anything else would be too disturbing. Whether I know something or not, I will still ruminate about the whole matter.


No matter how I slice and dice it, I can look at the calendar and realize it is the last week of January. We all know that, here in the States, the end of January until about mid-March is pretty rotten with sv*. This is probably the beginning (although it was around before Christmas) of the increase of incidents.


All I need to do now is wait, wait and wait. I called my childrens' pediatrician for another matter and I brought up the sv thing today. She said she is seeing sv* BUT she is seeing (and has been seeing it for four months) tons of strep. She alsosaid she treats sv allduring the year. Yes, it peaks in February. However, and this is interesting, she said she sees a couple episodes every week all the time.


Here is what she told me about sv. She said she knows because she spent her residency and first ten years ofpractice in gastroenterlogy. She saideven though peopleincubatea sv*from the onset of infectionfor anywhere from 6-36 hours before they have symptoms, they are not typically contagious during this time. Shenoted that this is NOT true for colds and influenza which ismost contagious during the 1-4 day inclubationperiod. She said once the person with a sv* begins to V* or have D*, they are spreading the virus.Supposedly, they do so from touching things like toilet knobs,faucet knobs, doorknobs and lightswitches right after being sick and not washing hands. Theviruses are very robust at thattime and stay so for a few hours when other family members come in contact with them. Then 6-36 hours later they are sick. As for airborne factors, she said thereis a lot of controversy about that, although most studies concludethat sv are not airborne. They are mainly spread from from hand-to-mouth or to food and then mouth.She laughed and said, "If you never put your hands in your nose, eyes or mouth, you will never get a sv."


Now for the tricky math stuff. According to our pediatrician, lets say you have child 1 with a sv* on a Friday night. They stop V and D by Sunday morning. She said you must count 72 hours after the last episode to feel "safe." Yes, there may be spreading of virus, but notenough tocause infection. This means that child 1 is no longer spreading strong virus after Wednesdaymorning.Now if child 2 touched something on Tuesday that child one infected (even though theyhave seemed well by Tuesday, child 2 could be sick as late as Thursday.If by Friday night/Saturday morning child 2 has not gotten sick, they won'tfrom the infection of child 1. They could still pick it up elsewhere and duringan outbreak,that is likely.


The reason this is so contagious, according to the doc, is that people get sick so suddenly with sv's and are often at school or work when it happens. Then they touch communal items - phones, pens, doorknobs, water fountain handles, faucets,etc., when they are at their most contagious and sickess and not concerned with hygiene. Also she believes (and I do too) that parents are under the impression that after twenty-four hours their child is well enough to go to school. She said since kids bounce back so fast, they may appear completely well two days later.

[SimplyMe]

Good grief! Well, if she has this oftena nd her family never catches it that's good and at least you won't be around her after this a.m. So 36 hrs is it? Also the doctor you spoke w/ says she sees it every week right? Well, if she isn't constantly v*ing that can be a comfort thing right? Anyhow thanks for that ifo too that was interesting and good to know! I wish more people asked their doctors about stuff like this and would stay home or keep their kids home longer and that employers were more understanding ... ah in a perfect world. Anyhow, I think you are doing a great job holding up and taking precautions!

[kellybean]

Thanks for the great info Stella. I'm sure you all will be fine, try not to stress to much about it. In less than 2 months this will all be over, and we can all relax a bit.