Emmett is having a difficult weekend. The poor kid is so afraid that he's going to get Whooping Cough. If you're late to the party, you can read the detailed background about this here and here.
Basically, Emmett has been directly exposed to Whooping Cough by a classmate that was sick with what appeared to be a cough and cold but was later diagnosed as Whooping Cough..
As soon as we found out on Thursday after school, we reached out to our doctors to find out what we needed to do, if anything, as a result of this direct exposure. We wanted to protect Emmett and Gavin as well because of his compromised immune system.
Emmett's pediatrician ultimately decided it was best to put Emmett on antibiotics ASAP and he finally started them yesterday morning. He's got another three days worth of meds left to take.
*Here's an educational video by Akron Children’s Hospital about Pertussis, the bacteria that causes Whooping Cough. Please educate yourself and get vaccinated*
Between being vaccinated and the antibiotics, we're hoping that he will not experience the horror that Whooping Cough is.
We've been very careful what we said around Emmett but he looked it up himself and that has him terrified. At that point, we felt it best to be very honest with him about what Whooping Cough is because facts can help him to reign in some of his terrifying thoughts.
The truth is that Whooping Cough is very serious and it's extremely contagious.
At the same time, it gets so bad because people don't realize they have it until its spread to their lungs and they're very, very sick. Most people think they have a cold and therefore it's not diagnosed right away.
We explained that in his case, he's vaccinated for it, which does help to protect him from it. He's also not showing any symptoms or running a fever. Most importantly, he's on the medication he needs to be on in order to kill the bacteria that causes Whooping Cough. In other words, if he is in deed infected, we caught it before it moved into his lungs or had a chance to take hold.
Those are all very good things. We exercised precaution and did everything we should do.
He says he feels better about it but he's still scared. Everyone in the house is vaccinated and Gavin's on IVIG, so we should be good.
If Emmett were to show any signs of even a cold, we're supposed to get him in right away.
Frankly, that would probably go for any of us as well. It would most likely be a cold but no one wants to take any chances, especially with Gavin in the house.
The challenge is conveying the seriousness without causing the kids any needless fear. They were already scared when they left school on Thursday and it's been a struggle since.
I'm pretty sure that everything is going to be okay and the antibiotics are simply a precaution. I also want to remind my readers that we are *not *proponents of antibiotics for everything. The only reason we are taking this approach is because Pertussis is what causes Whooping Cough and it's an aggressive bacteria. Emmett was directly exposed and the risk is significant enough that antibiotics are warranted.
Emmett is the only one being treated because he's the only one with a known direct exposure.
I will say that I'm a bit nervous about sending them to school on Monday. I'm sure the classroom has been sanitized but this is a special needs school and hygiene is a struggle on a good day. With a classroom of kids directly exposed, how many are sick and contagious without knowing what it is? That's scary.
What's even scarier is that the child diagnosed with Whooping Cough was vaccinated as well.
Too many parents are refusing vaccines and they are not only putting their child at risk but all the rest of ours as well.
Education is so important because there's a great deal of misinformation floating around online and it's very dangerous. Facts are not based on opinions. Facts are based on science and science is the forefront of human knowledge.
