fifth disease

have you heard of fifth disease? Yeah, me either. Madelyn's teacher pointed out the notice of a case in her class a few weeks ago since it is one of those things that can be 'dangerous' for pregnancy.

i called the ob office and they said not to worry about it unless i had direct contact with someone with it. i did do a little research on it (mainly curiosity) and called my mom to see if i had it as a child (it is most common between the ages of 5 - 10). she had never heard of it either - and like every other person i have mentioned this to - freaked out a little at the word 'disease'.

the symptoms are similar to a cold - slight fever, runny nose, etc. the real indicator that you have had it comes weeks after you are contageous in the form of a 'slap cheek' rash on the cheeks and maybe on the torso and arms. as it fades, it can look 'lacy' (adults may not get the rash but might experience joint pain). it really isn't much of anything for those infected. in fact, most people never even know that they have it or have had it. in rare cases the baby can catch it in utero and become anemic to the point of heart failure. my pregnancy book just said that they will monitor via ultrasound for 12 weeks to watch for anemia - but i only have three weeks left so i wasn't too worried about it.

even knowing all of this, we thought that madelyn's red cheeks and upper arms were the result of a sunburn after being in the garden all weekend with daddy. granted it had been weeks since the notice went up at school so i had sort of forgotten about it. that is until her teacher pointed it out to me when i picked her up from school on wednesday. (four other kids had shown up with the tell-tale rash that day too.)

so now that i knew for sure that i had come in direct contact with it, i called my doctor's office. they did want me to come in for blood work but only after a doctor had given madelyn an official diagnosis. erg. so i called her doctor and they said that there was no reason to see her at this point since she was basically over it and since it is a virus there isn't really anything that can be done except let it run its course. once i explained that i needed to be tested but couldn't until she was officially diagnosed, they found a way to squeeze us in - tomorrow.

it was one of those appointments where the doctor must feel bad even billing for! she didn't even have the rash any more and he essentially took my word for it before giving her a 'diagnosis'. it was nice to be able to ask him if it posed any risk to a newborn since mason had an outbreak in his class as well recently and i figure that the boys are going to get this too. there is no risk at all. it seems the only risk if for babies in mommy's belly.

so i loaded all of the kids up to get madelyn diagnosed and then called my doctor from the parking lot to see if we could head over for my blood test since it wasn't very far from where we were. the nurse said that she would have to call me back. after sitting for 20 minutes (with a potty training mason in the back), i decided that we couldn't sit here all day and headed for home. to stall a little longer, i swung through mcdonalds for free cherry berry chillers and smoothies (coupons from the paper). just as we were pulling into the neighborhood i got a call back from the doctor's office saying that, yes, they want me to come in - what day would work for me? what?!! was what i was thinking. i am due in three weeks and you are putting this off?! instead i said, "could i come in today?" the girl said that she didn't know but kept me on hold while she checked. if i could get there right away they could squeeze me in. so a quick u-turn in the 'hood and back we went.

the lady taking my blood was a little concerned about my three little ones tagging along when there were going to be needles involved. i assured her that they would be fine with seeing it and that they would sit without problem. they sat in a row blocking the doorway drinking their cold beverages.

i was told to call back at this time tomorrow and they would have the results. but they didn't. in fact they told me my blood work was fine but since i had done a little research i knew that the results should be 'immune' or 'infected' so i questioned "fine". oh, no, my fifth disease results were not back - call back tomorrow. and then when i called the next day it was call on tuesday! obviously this was not considered a 'rush' situation. normally it would be annoying (and it is a little) but it actually reaffirmed my impression that this isn't really a big deal.

i have an appointment this afternoon so hopefully my results will be back and i can discuss them with the doctor. because i really don't know what it would mean in i had the virus while pregnant; as in what would they do at this point.

at this point (and before we even started this process) it seems like an excuse to bill our insurance for some unnecessary tests and to give me a lot of run around that i didn't need, but it seemed better to follow through than to wonder. an update to come later. love.