One Heck of a Week

Our little leper with her bandages
The day after treatment
internet photo of what the spots look like before treatment

Why is it when husbands go out of town that everything goes wrong? Ben spent the week in Huntsville, Alabama for his job. Ben left Monday. Monday morning while trying to get Addy to school, I got stuck in the snow at the bottom of our driveway. This wasn't a good start to the week. I was finally able to get out and even managed to get Addy to school on time. The week went downhill from there. My eyes are still a little puffy from all the crying I did. So here comes one of the worse things that happened. Wednesday I took both girls to the dermatologist. Addy has severe eczema that we can't get under control. I had Sydnee checked too because for several months Sydnee has had these little blister looking things on her arms. We thought it was just eczema. When the doctor looked at her he told Addy to go sit down across the room and immediately put gloves on. He then said she has molluscum contagiosum. I got the contagious part of the name but that was about it. It turns out the blisters on Sydnees arms are a very contagious skin virus. The doctor was shocked that Addy didn't have it too, because these girls play together, bathe together and share everything. Sydnee was such a good patient, she didn't flinch or complain. The doctor put a drop of medicine on each bump and then a bandaid. She had at least 3o+ bandaids under her arms. The worst part was when we got home we had to take each bandaid off which was traumatizing, but then I had to wash the medicine off. I wish the doctor would have warned us about this. The medicine made the spots raw. We had many tears, I cried right along with Sydnee. The next day the bumps had turned into huge blisters which I had to drain with a needle. Thank goodness for Sesame Street, it kept Sydnee distracted so she didn't notice the needle. Sydnee looks like a burn victim. Her arms look like raw hamburger, so we keep them bandaged up real good. She won't put her arms down because she is still quite tender. Poor kid!

I had no idea what Sydnee had and since she has had it for a few months and it's contagious, I apologize profusely to anyone that has been around Sydnee in the past few months. I really had no idea. Molluscum is spread by touching the blisters and then touching your own skin. Sydnee still plays side by side with kids and really only gets close to Addy who luckily hasn't caught it. If you think your child has molluscum have your doctor check it out. Once again, I am so sorry I didn't know what this was and I apologize to those we may have exposed.
On a better note, after our crappy week, Ben finally made it home. He missed his first flight and spent most of his day hanging out at airports, but he finally made it home last night. Yeah! Only 2 more business trips in the next few weeks, hopefully we'll survive.