Thursday, January 01, 2009

Half man, half chicken pox

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Oliver after one of his many coverings in calamine lotion.

Oliver is suffering badly with his chicken pox. He is covered in itchy spots, particularly in regions which spend the most time covered by clothes or (at night) a nappy, if you get my drift.

Bless him he was quite distressed tonight when I applied calamine lotion after his (not too hot) bath. "It hurts Daddy" he kept saying. He even has a spot on his lip and mouth ulcers to boot. Last night he slept badly and as if that weren't enough he somehow ended up wetting the bed so he needed a complete change of his pyjamas and his bedding at 2.15am.

Tonight he's had Piriton and Calpol before bed, he's wearing cotton pyjamas and has just a cotton sheet and blanket for now. He always gets hot to start with. I'll add a blanket or quilt later. I also offered Bonjela but he said his mouth was OK. He was quite cheery reading his bedtime stories and went straight to sleep.

Meanwhile Lucy doesn't have half as many spots and is relatively untroubled by it all. She can be seen scratching at her chest every now and then but is largely herself. She too has spots in under her nappy but not half as many, nor apparently are they as bothersome as Oliver's.

Already, less than an hour after going to bed, Oliver has woken once and Hayley has re-applied some lotion to where he is scratching. I think it could be a bad night again so I'll sign off.

It's hard to watch them suffer, but at least I know there is an end in sight. It does serve to remind me that there are others who can't say the same. My heart goes out to them.

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Oliver inspects the chicken pox spot on the underside of his big toe.