It’s been a long week.

Last weekend was the holiday celebration out at the wife’s Mom & stepDad’s place up north. The Saturday early afternoon drive up there was uneventful- mostly just rain and cool temps. We noticed that the wee-one had some speckles on the backs of her thighs before we left. Nothing too worrisome, as she’s had similar things before- we just thought that she was having a reaction to wetting though a diaper overnight.

Sunday rolls around, the speckles are still there and getting more numerous, but no worse overall. Just a couple clusters of small (1-1.5mm) red spots on the back of her legs and rump. A couple (less than 5 out of 50-70) almost appear to have a small scab (.1-.25mm) at the center of them. The Wife decided that we’d take her into the Doc the following day (1 day before we hop on an airplane). After the drive home we took the wee-one’s temperature and all was normal.

Monday, same story- speckles in the same spots, no fever, and she’s still in great spirits. We get a 2:00pm appointment with a new pediatrician and spend the rest of the day working on getting the last of the presents and winter gear packed into the box for shipment out west. When we left for the Doc appointment UPS had a pickup window scheduled and the box and paperwork are sitting on the front porch.

2ish rolls around and we head over to the doc’s office on the other side of town. After the usual waiting room, well, wait, we go back and get vitals taken, etc. Still nothing off.

Doc wanders in and introduces himself. Nice guy, good manner, etc. Examines the wee-one and her specks for about 10 minutes and utters the words “There’s a good chance this is chickenpox”

Waaaah?

Doc explains that this really kinda looks like chickenpox, but the wee-one doesn’t have a fever or any other symptoms, and reminds us that there are lots of viruses that aren’t chickenpox that have the same general symptoms. We have the concerned parent discussion about travel, exposure, vaccinations, etc for others and get the usual warnings.

Head home. Start making calls to my family to let them know that we might not be coming, but we haven’t made the call yet. Wife starts contacting play-group friends and giving them the news. Wee-one is still in good spirits and not running a temp.

While we were at the Doc’s office UPS stopped by and picked up the package of presents and our winter gear from the front porch.

Wee-one bedtime rolls around and as we’re getting her ready for bath & bedtime Wife notices that she feels really warm. 101.7 warm. Break out the acetaminophen. Cancel trip. Make calls. Curse the airlines. Curse UPS.

Realization #1: In 2 days we’re supposed to have a inaugural winter season blizzard dumping anywhere from 5-20" of snow and all my heavy wintergear (boots, jacket, hat, gloves, etc) are on their way out west.

Realization #2: It’s not worth recalling the package to get our winter gear because we’d have to re-ship all the presents.

Realization #3: Wife has a nasty (and tenacious as it turns out) cold.

The wee-one spent 2 days with a fever and sleeping a lot more than she usually does. Her fuse was shorter but we can still make her giggle and laugh. She’s a trooper.

As of today she’s still got speckles that are healing and a couple that look fresher. She’s on the mend and even got to spend a little bit of time outside today.

The Wife is on the illness roller coaster- feels better yesterday, worse today.