Whooping cough? Seriously? Wasn't that erradicated years ago. Nope! It's at epidemic levels in Snohomish County and unfortunatley Keri has it. Poor girl! We've been dumbfounded that she has it but have no choice but to deal with it now. It started with a nagging cough in the days before and through the snow storm. We went to the doc that Saturday and the first thing out of the doc's mouth was "it sounds like whooping cough." To which my response was "seriously? Didn't we erradicate that years ago? Don't our childhood immunizations protect us from that." To which she answered, "we used to think so but we're learning more. We've learned that you need booster shots every 10 years. There's an outbreak in Snohomish County." Wonderful...
To top it off, one of her first sentences after the whooping cough diagnosis was "this can be fatal to your baby." What? You don't tell an expectant mother and father that unless it's a legit thing to be concerned about. And even then, you break it gently. She followed it right up with "but you'll be fine and the baby will be fine. We'll treat it with antibiotics and it will be long gone by the time the baby arrives. It's also not transferrable in utero." Well, that's good news considering the fact that you just scared the $h*t out of us!
Poor Keri had to have two q-tips the size of chopstics shoved up her nose and into her brain cavity. They sent the chopsticks off to Spokane for analysis and it was confirmed that Wednesday that she has it. Phone calls from the Snohomish County Health district followed, etc. She's one of 41 cases in Snohomish County in January alone.
The good news is that we’ll all be ok. We’ve all been through the series of antibiotics. I was immunized in 2009 and again a couple of weeks ago. Riley is up to date on her immunizations as well. Keri will be immunized in the coming weeks and the baby will be fine.
With all that said, whooping cough (pertussis) is no joke. If you haven’t been immunized for whooping cough in the past ten years, go and get a shot! Tetanus shots now include whooping cough (DTaP – Diptheria, Tetanus and Pertussis). It’s at epidemic levels in Snohomish County. We had no idea it was still around and we found out the hard way. The epidemic can be prevented and is caused by individuals that choose not to immunize themselves and their children (damn Suburu driving, Crocs wearing, North Face vest sporting tree huggers! - sorry... i had to get that off my chest... I'm a wee bit bitter...)
If you’re at all interested, read here:
http://heraldnet.com/article/20120130/NEWS01/701309907
(Keri is one of the 41)
http://heraldnet.com/article/20120109/NEWS01/701099925
(A very sad story… since we live in Lake Stevens)
http://heraldnet.com/article/20120105/NEWS01/701059905
(One more just for good measure)
We hope this is the end of our string of bad luck. I’m a strong believer that bad things happen in three’s. Whooping cough is our third…
Keri is being a trooper but she's exhausted and weak. It's really taking a toll on her. It was wonderful and so much apprecaited for Judy to stay with us Sunday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon of last week (thanks so much Judy!!!). I'm taking the rest of this week off to care for Keri and attention-starved Riley. Riley and I really hope Mommy gets better soon!!!
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