Fleming's discovery, both a blessing and a curse

Heather was out of town a couple of weeks ago. I was with the boys on my own. Normally, I enjoy this time. It is exponentially more hectic, but it gives me a chance to just be with my sons.

On the Wednesday, I get a call from our daycare woman. This is what she says:

"Oooh, I think Lachlan has chicken pox."

Chicken pox??? He's only 13 months old. How could he possibly have chicken pox I'm thinking? I kind of banter this around with my co-workers as I'm trying to decide what to do. One of them asks me if he's had the chicken pox vaccine. Chicken pox vaccine?? They haven't invented such a thing I snort, and walk away.

So, I call Heather and she tells me that INDEED both boys did have this vaccine the previous week. I sheepishly walk back to my co-worker and apologize. He just kinda looks at me with the look reserved for morons, which I am one. I then call the doctor and they say that Lachlan could be reacting to the vaccine, but it should pass in a couple of days.

I pick both boys up from daycare. Lachlan does have some spots, but is otherwise his normal chirpy self. He's fine through the night and I take the kids to daycare the following day.

Well......

I then get another call from our daycare lady the next afternoon. I tell you, if there is ever a phone call I will answer within nanoseconds it's the one that rings which shows her name on my caller ID. She now sounds a bit more frantic and says that it's definitely NOT chicken pox, but something "weird". Weird is not an adjective you ever want to hear when it comes to your child's condition.

I race over to her house and Lachlan not only looks weird, he looks real bad. Swollen purple hives cover half his face, his neck, his arms, his legs.

This would normally be a good time for me to fuh-reak out, but I hold it together, take the boys back home and call the doctor. Of course, it's after-hours at this point so I have to take him to the emergency clinic, which I do quite rapidly. Thankfully, our neighbor watches over Finn while I'm gone.

I wait with Lachlan to see the doctor. People look at him like he's a leper escaped from French Guiana. I have to admit, I would've probably done the same. We're ushered into the doctor's office where he looks Lachlan over for, like, 15 seconds.

"Is this boy on any kind of penicillin?"

I tell him that he is. He's on it for an ear infection.

"Well, not anymore, he's allergic to it."

So, he goes through his treatment regime which includes things like steroids and antihistamines to take the hives away. He assures me it's not a problem, they see it often, and there are many drugs that replace penicillin nowadays. Interestingly, he also tells me that Lachlan could outgrow this allergy as penicillin is, and these are his words, "a weird drug in that way".

I took him home, put both boys to bed, had a beer, and was real tired of anything weird.

UPDATE: Oh yeah, he's fine by the way. Those frickin' hives went away in a couple of days.