What!

Today I ad one of those WHAT!?! moments. Our eldest is unwell again, over the last couple of days she has had a fever but hasnt appeared to have anything else wrong. No reports of pain, no funny voice or sniffy nose. She has been quite lethargic and not herself though. So this morning we called the doctor and got an appointment for this afternoon. After her afternoon nap she got up and went with my wife to the doctor while I stayed at home with the little monster.

So me and the little one are talking to my mother on the webcam when I get a call from my wife... "Doctor find anything then?"

"yes" she replies "she has Scarlet Fever".

"Scarlet fever!" I reply quickly typing it into google and hoping that the medieval plague kind of alarm bells that are ringing in my head cant possibly be right...

I thought Scarlet Fever was one of those old fashioned diseases that caused lethal epidemics and wiped out chunks of our ancestral populations... well kind of... apparently it can sometime occur with the same bacteria that cause "normal" Strep throat (tonsilitis for those on the other side of the atlantic).

It is caused by release of a toxin from the Strep A bacteriaApparently its not a problem at all nowadays because of antibiotics.

Apparently while she was asleep this afternoon the red patch on her cheek (that can kind of be seen in the photo above from earlier) from this morning had developed into a bumpy rash and while my wife was waiting in the doctors waiting room she noticed this rash had spread to her neck and back and she had "strawberry tongue" where the surface of the tongue goes bright red and has all little bumps over it like the surface of a strawberry.

She is on antibiotics now and will be home for the next several days with me and the little monster.

She finishes her antibiotics the day the little monster goes in to have the tubes put in her ears...

Winter with two little ones is disease city.