The Po Show

Taking the Fifth

Last night Tessa called out to me from the bathtub: "There're red spots on my legs!" Sighing inwardly, I went over to look. This is the girl who can get dramatic about a tiny, not-seen-with-the-naked-eye bump on her skin, so I figured it wasn't anything, or just one of the many itchy little bumps that spring up on her body due to her variety of allergies.

In fact, her whole torso, both arms, both legs, and back were covered with a bright red and white, splotchy rash. She got out of the tub, and the rash appeared just slightly raised. It didn't itch, though, so I decided to wait and see how it looked after the heat of the bath wore off. In a couple of hours, it was still there, but much lighter, so I thought we should wait till morning. She doesn't do well with benadryl, and otherwise seemed to be fine, though I did have "Should I take her to the ER for a shot of prednisone?" running through my head.

And then I promptly forgot about it :(. This morning we all got up as usual (well, I was up from 5:00AM on) and it wasn't till she was getting dressed, after having been sitting right next to a space heater, that I noticed that the rash was BRIGHT red on her legs now, all the way down to her feet. Then it hit me, "That looks like Fifth's Disease!" Neither of my kids has ever had it, and I don't even think I've ever seen it in person, and she didn't have that classic slapped-cheek look (she's as fair as Snow White and always sitting next to heaters these days, so she always has rosy-red cheeks), but I just immediately knew that's what it was. I got online and looked up pics of Fifth's, and they looked exactly like what Tessa had.

So, no school, quick call to the ped to get her seen, and he confirmed that it was Fifth's. Of course now she's not contagious, so she then went to school. I called Ross to make sure that no one in his office is pregnant. And that was that.

Except for one thing that was kind of funny. I went to Tessa's class again this afternoon to observe math and computer lab time (so fun!) and I saw a stack of notices on the teacher's desk. You know, the notice you hate getting, that says, "Your child may have been exposed to a contagious condition" and has several conditions listed. The one that flips me out is the notice about lice. It was just weird to think that this notice going out to all the families in class was about MY child, the bearer of contagion. Oh well, I guess if you have to be the bearer of contagion, Fifth's is a pretty mild thing to bear.