Following on from my email on Thursday: after collecting Eve early from nursery with a high temperature on Wednesday afternoon, we are fairly sure that she had measles which began early last week.
She became really ill on Friday with a raging fever that was on and off for three days, with sore eyes (couldn't bare daylight), sore ears, aching limbs, sore mouth with white spots on her tongue and a rash all over her body. Everything suddenly seemed to drop into place. Eve had been telling me since the beginning of the week that her arms hurt and she kept waking up with sore eyes in the middle of the night. She also had a cold, which is part of the symptoms. I kept looking at her arms and not seeing any signs of bruising I dismissed it, but I kept wondering what it was. She had a scratch on her arm so I thought maybe she meant that.
Eve had sore teeth last week so I put her illness down to that as she really suffers with teething pain. It was on the evening of Good Friday when she cried out in bed, I went up to her and she was pouring with sweat and told me that her skin was itchy. Thankfully my mum had arrived to stay with us for Easter weekend, so we both looked at the rash which covered her body. We discussed it and figured it seemed to be measles. My mum nursed both my brother and I through it when we were small, and my mum's younger brother also had it when he was little. She said that she remembered the sore eyes as her brother was kept in a dark room for days.
I phoned Sam's Dad, Grandad Col, who is a semi-retired surgeon. We are so lucky to have his expertise on the end of the phone. I asked for his advice, and he said that once immunised you shouldn't be able to get measles. I checked Eve's medical notes. She had the first immunisation for MMR at 12 months old, and will be having the second batch at 3 years 4 months old.
After I got off the phone from Grandad Col I phoned Sam in Greece to let him know. When I hung up the phone from Sam I had a voicemail waiting for me from Colin. He asked if I had done the meningitis glass test, as he was unsure if it was measles. My heart raced, I dropped the phone and ran upstairs with a glass in a panic. I'm so glad that my mum was there to reassure me when we did the glass test as I was freaking out. I called Grandad Col back to let him know, and he told me that he had looked into it and that apparently there is a 10% chance of getting measles, mumps or rubella (MMR) between the two sets of injections. So it was bad luck for Eve, but in the long run it's good for her immune system to get these things early in life. Once both sets of injections have been administered it is impossible to get these illnesses I believe.
After I got off the phone from Grandad Col I phoned Sam in Greece to let him know. When I hung up the phone from Sam I had a voicemail waiting for me from Colin. He asked if I had done the meningitis glass test, as he was unsure if it was measles. My heart raced, I dropped the phone and ran upstairs with a glass in a panic. I'm so glad that my mum was there to reassure me when we did the glass test as I was freaking out. I called Grandad Col back to let him know, and he told me that he had looked into it and that apparently there is a 10% chance of getting measles, mumps or rubella (MMR) between the two sets of injections. So it was bad luck for Eve, but in the long run it's good for her immune system to get these things early in life. Once both sets of injections have been administered it is impossible to get these illnesses I believe.
The many positions of sleep!
The rash didn't last that long and wasn't too severe. I bathed her and applied aqueous calamine cream (absorbs better and feels nicer that the calamine lotion of the olden days). I wonder if there is the possibility that because she had the first immunisation that the illness wasn't as aggressive as it could have been?
On Sunday morning, after medicine, Eve became a bit brighter and sat at the table with me and Granny T whilst we ate egg-soldiers for Easter Sunday breakfast. Eve didn't eat any but managed to wander about the lounge finding plastic easter eggs. She enjoyed putting them in a little bucket.
Hunting for eggs completely zonked her out and she slept for the rest of the day on the sofa. She went to bed on Sunday evening, woke a couple of times with sore eyes and in need of a drink through the night, but slept until 11.30am the next day - 18 hours of sleep. After that point she seemed on the road to recovery and ate a bit of a gingerbread man that and drank a few glasses of milk. She had barely eaten a thing for the past four days, so this made me feel happier.
Of course as it's been Easter weekend the doctors surgery has been closed. I phoned them this morning to let them know that we thought Eve had measles (it is a notifiable disease). The doctor said that without seeing her they couldn't confirm, and that because Eve is so much better we didn't need to bring her in to be seen. The doctor said that they had one other case recently which could have been measles but they hadn't confirmed it. When I spoke to nursery this morning they said that some other children have had this, but the doctors won't confirm it as measles. Seems strange to me, but I guess it's difficult, as unless you see the child at the height of the illness it must be difficult for a doctor to say. When we were young doctors used to visit your house, but I'm guessing that doesn't happen anymore.
I personally think it was measles, and am glad to have Eve's first real illness nearly finished. I looked at the symptoms of similar illnesses and they just didn't sound like what Eve had.
I personally think it was measles, and am glad to have Eve's first real illness nearly finished. I looked at the symptoms of similar illnesses and they just didn't sound like what Eve had.
I'm so glad that Eve is feeling much better, as today I am back at work. She is recovering today with a very tired Daddy, who arrived home last night from his Greek tour, with a stuffed Peppa Pig toy for Eve. She gave her Daddy a deep hug when he walked into the lounge last night, and a huge smile spread across her face. She cuddled Peppa in bed all night long.
Although Eve was ill, I loved sitting on the sofa with her day after day, cradling her in my arms whilst she slept. We were lucky that she was ill during the Easter break so that I could look after her. I would have felt awful if I had to leave at home that ill whilst I was at work. We are so lucky to have paracetamol and ibuprofen, imagining when those medicines were not yet available is pretty scary.
