Scarlet Fever

Miles got scarlet fever over his Spring Break.  Nice timing!  Man, it was awful.  I knew he was for sure, hands down sick when he fell asleep on the couch:

Since he NEVER naps and avoids sleep like it's a disease (or a bee.  He really hates bees and, in paranoia, thinks anything that flies is a bee.  I chalk that up to the time he got attacked by bees and scored like 5 stings at once when he was 4 or 5.), I knew we were dealing with something real.  He had a bad sore throat, fever, diarrhea, a rash on his neck/face, wouldn't eat and threw up Tylenol.  I made him this "sick bed" on the couch and he fell asleep.  I kid you not, he woke up 10 minutes later with an immediate, "Huh?"  In typical Miles fashion, he didn't really know he'd been asleep.  I told him that he in fact had slept and asked him how long he thought he was asleep?  Two hours, he thought.  If only.

We aren't a super rush-to-the-doctor kind of family, but I remembered a mom from Miles' kindergarten class telling me how her son had scarlet fever and that it was basically strep throat with a rash.  So I immediately made him an appointment and sure enough, it was scarlet fever.  I was really glad that mom had shared that information with me or else I never would have even imagined it!

Since scarlet fever is so contagious, the Doc had us keep him isolated for 3.5ish days and I was constantly disinfecting everything.  It was pretty miserable since he's not a big TV kid and we don't have a ton of space, but we all lived to tell the tale!  The first thing Miles wanted to do once he was out of his isolation period was give us hugs, which he did.  He's a good kid.