The other pestilence Evan visited on us today is a very annoying piece of malware that he downloaded onto my computer last night. I have spent all day removing programmes, doing scans and removing shortcuts to get rid of the bugger. So annoying and frustrating to have your computer hijacked. I think he's banned from this computer from now on.
The last great pestilence epidemic that Evan visited upon the family was back in 2002 when he brought home chicken pox. Harry was a babe in arms so was spared the disease due to being protected by my immunity as I had already had chicken pox when I was a child.
Sarah, succumbed next followed by Steve with each successive victim getting a worse dose than the last. I must admit that I wasn't the most sympathetic to everyone's plight as I found the whole thing quite amusing. They were dreadfully uncomfortable and I sat there perfectly comfortable, feeling like I had super powers as my immunity protected me.
A few years after the event I wrote a couple of children's stories about them.
No Spots For Harry
Evan came home
from Preschool one day with a few spots on his skin.
“Mmmmm”, thought
Mummy, “they look like they might be chicken pox”.
She wasn’t sure
because she hadn’t seen any chicken pox since she had had them when she was
four.
That was a long
time ago.
She remembered
that they were very itchy and that she had had a lot more spots than Evan had.
Two weeks later,
Sarah who was a little older than Evan, came out in quite a lot of spots.
“Yes”, thought
Mummy, “They must be chicken pox”.
Daddy started to
worry. He couldn’t remember whether he
had had chicken pox when he was little or
not.
He rang up Ninny
and Pa. But they couldn’t remember
either.
Two days after
Sarah broke out in spots, Daddy who is a lot older than Sarah and Evan, broke
out in
loads and loads of
spots. Really itchy spots.
From his head to
his toes and everywhere in between.
He was miserable!
Although Sarah and
Evan were feeling a little itchy themselves they couldn’t help thinking that
Daddy
looked very funny.
There was one
other person in the family who had not yet come out in any spots.
Mummy, Daddy,
Sarah and Evan waited and wondered whether Harry, the youngest in the family at
only six months,
would get any spots.
But Harry, who liked
to snuggle up and breastfeed happily in Mummy’s arms didn’t get any spots at
all.
Because Mummy had
already had chicken pox as a child she couldn’t get them again. She had an
immunity to
them. It was this immunity that she
passed to Harry through her breastmilk.
Harry was
protected from
chicken pox because he was breastfed.
Harry and Mummy
being so healthy, looked after the rest of the family.
Evan had a few
little itches so on went the calamine lotion.
That helped him a lot.
Sarah had lots of
itches so on went the calamine lotion.
But it didn’t help enough.
So she got into
the bath as well. That helped a lot.
Daddy was beside
himself with itches. Every spot from the
top of his head to the tip of his big toe
itched –
especially the one right on the end of
his nose!
On went the
calamine lotion. It didn’t help at all.
So into the bath
he went. But that didn’t help either!
So he went off to
see the doctor. But even the doctor
couldn’t help him very much. Poor Daddy!
The Doctor said
that Daddy had to try not to scratch
and wait for his spots to get better.
It was a long few
weeks.
And Daddy did
eventually get better.......
All except for that one spot that left a scar
right on the end of his nose!
No Spots For Me!
One day
Evan came home from preschool with a few
.
Mmmm,
‘thought mummy they look like they might be the dreaded chicken pox.’
We
hadn’t had any chicken pox in our young family yet.
2 weeks later Sarah who was a little older than
Evan came out with quite a few
.
Daddy
started to worry. He couldn’t remember
whether he had got the chicken pox as a kid.
Mummy
well remembered having chicken pox as a child.
‘Ooh it was so itchy.’
Two
days after Sarah broke out in
,
Daddy who is alot older than Evan or Sarah, broke out in ALOT of spots. He was miserable. 
There was one other person in the family who had
not had chicken pox yet. Harry, the
youngest in the family at only 6 months didn’t get any at all.
So
while Harry was breastfed from mummy they were both protected fromthe
dreaded
. Harry and mummy looked after
the rest of the family.
Evan
had a few little itches.
So
on went the cream.
Sarah
had lots of itches.
So
into the bath with her.
Daddy
was beside himself with itches. He was
covered from head to toe including the one right on the end of his nose.
Daddy
was frustrated.
After a week the dreaded started to fade away.
Still
mummy and Harry did not get those dreaded itches.
After
2 weeks it was back to normal and they lived happily ever after.
There is a postscript to this story.
Although we thought that Harry was immune from catching the chicken pox virus, some years later, when he was around 4 years old, he came down with shingles. This was an odd occurrence in a four year old, particularly one who'd never actually had chicken pox. As it was an oddity we were sent to a paediatrician to have a look at him and check that all was well. The specialist conformed that it was indeed rare, but not unheard of for Harry to get shingles at such a young age. The specialist concluded that Harry obviously got a subclinical dose of chicken pox when he was a baby, and this virus had laid dormant in his body until he came down with shingles. He also told us that Harry would not need to be immunised for chicken pox as he now had his own natural immunity to it.
That sounded great, except that two weeks after presenting with shingles, Harry came down with chicken pox. I didn't spend the $100 plus to go back to the specialist and show him that Harry had managed to catch chicken pox off himself. I'm sure he would have presented as a very special oddity, but I didn't want to foot the bill to show the paediatrician, so he shall remain a medical obscurity.
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