To take my pox ridden ds on public transport

[veryworriedme]

am feeling a bit sorry for myself and my ds and so wonder if this has made me very selfish. My ds aged 2 has been in a hip spica cast from his chest to his ankles for the last month which has been tough. Now he has chicken pox. My dd has not yet come out in any spots but I kept her away from activities just in case she is infectious. However, I have taken my ds on the bus as it's about the only thing he can enjoy at the moment. This was in fact an empty bus and I would not have got on it if we could not have kept away from people or if there were children but the bus, but that's not really the point is it - there could be a pregnant woman for example. Is keeping him at home or just walking outside the only decent and responsible thing to do?

Your poor poor son veryworried. You must all be miserable being stuck inside.

I know we had 3 weeks of the pain of being inside with back to back CP. The only thing was that when my DS got CP, he was only 6 weeks old and ended up in hospital convulsing with it (due to the fever). It was utterly terrifying. Also, we then found out SIL was PG (8 weeks) and that she had never had it. So she ended up having to have immunoglobulins to protect the baby, then spent the rest of her PG wondering if it had affected her baby in some way.

I just think it's not worth it at all and that no matter how anyone justifies how 'necessary' it is, unless people deliberately want to catch CP then you really should stay inside.

Another one here feeling sorry for you, veryworried.

My DS has been exposed so we're in quarantine and have had to cancel a hospital appointment (EAT Study, but we would have had to go through the main hospital, full of poorly people). Because of the new date for our visit, I now have to be careful which of our friends we see, just in case he hasn't picked it up but they have (all at his birthday party), which would mean we would have to start the quarantine all over again. I've also had to cancel a visit to a friend with a 2mo baby and a visit from a friend who is pg.

In no way do I blame my friend who's baby has CP. She didn't know, how could she unless she'd been told by whoever her baby caught it from that she might be infectious. And my friend immediately told me and other people she knew at the party. I have passed on the news to anyone else that she didn't know well.

And do you know what, when I cancelled the hospital appointment I never even considered the public transport thing. I was just concerned about the hospital patients who didn't have a choice about where they were. So, if that takes some of the flack for you, veryworried, let everybody judge away!

You could have killed me if I came into contact with your infected child.

In the past year I have have parvovirus and whooping cough. As bad as my cabin fever was, I wouldn't risk pregnant women/children/other people catching it.

I'm very sorry about your son's body cast, and I empathise. But you can't do something so foolish and dangerous for your own peace of mine. YABVVVVVVVVVVVVVU.

I do feel for you OP a whingy ill toddler whose run you ragged over the last month. I think we all know how exhausting it can be and how much you want it to stop and have your happy lovely child back again. The temptation of an empty bus for one stop, I can easily imagine doing the same thing and feeling just as bad afterwards.

Oh honestly, give the woman a break.

Unless each of you immune suppressed people are living in complete isolation in a hospital with it's own oxygen supply you are exposed to things that will kill you every second of every day. Including chicken pox as it is contagious long before the spots show.

She made an error in judgement. I didn't realise that being immune suppressed also made you perfect and error free.

It's all well and good to feel 'bad' afterwards.

How would you feel if I had died because of your cabin fever and exhaustion at having a sick child? Would it be okay because you felt bad afterwards?

I think sometimes certain posters fail to see the bigger picture.

Nobody has denied that tee, but when people go out aware of the fact that their child poses a potentially serious health risk to others then that is at best poor judgement at worst selfish. I think in this case it was more poor judgement but either way it was still potentially dangerous.

I lost my baby when I was 6 months pregnant and had to give birth to him because someone took their pox-ridden DC to the supermarket.

Does that tell you how selfish you were?

Did you also know that someone who has had an organ transplant is on anti-rejection drugs for life? That suppress their immune system. And that means that if they catch CP, they are at a much higher risk of severe complications and death from catching CP.

The same thing is true of : Anyone having Chemotherapy to treat cancer, anyone taking prednisolone, which can be used for lots of things, including treating asthma.

I don't think people in the UK take CP seriously enough, they just see it as a 'mild' childhood illness. But for lots of people, it's NOT mild. They can get viral encephalitis, meningitis, go deaf, and many more things as complications of CP.

You wouldn't necessarily be able to tell if someone would be severely affected by CP just by looking at them.

And having a vaccination OR having previously had CP DOESN'T protect these people, because their immune system is suppressed, which means it's not working properly, so their body can't fight the CP virus.

PLEASE will people start to treat CP as a possible SERIOUS illness that could cause viral encephalitis and/or DEATH in other people?!

Why do I open these threads? I miscarried at 12wk in 2010 because I contracted chickenpox and there really is no excuse for knowingly exposing people to cp virus. I also cotracted pneumonia, as a result, and was ill for some time.

OP, I can only imagine how difficult things have been for you all, but you know you shouldn't have gone onto public transport.

Nailak, I'm sorry but you were unbelievably selfish. Did you actually contact your GP and explain your predicament? Your posts suggest that you knew you wouldn't get an appointment/ sick note because it wasn't an emergency, but not that you tried. I'm also very surprised at the attitude of hospital staff at your hospital; my chickenpox came out whilst I was in gynae miscarrying and, thankfully, I was in a single room already. But all the staff who had been in contact with me were notified that I had contracted chickenpox and I was placed in actual isolation.

(I also have an 8yo who is often immune suppressed when on pred for asthma, and when CP goes round his school, he has to take weeks off at a time, disrupting his education, as the LEA only provide an hour a day AFTER he has had to be off for over two weeks).

People just don't realise the effects CP can have on other's lives.

CouthyMow, I'm so sorry. Miscarrying at 12wk was horrendous enough, I cannot imagine what you went through

Nailak - The jobcentre WOULDN'T have stopped your benefits if it was the first appointment time you had been given, you just phone them to rearrange. The ONLY reason they would say that is if you had ALREADY rearranged the appointment TWICE.

So, not a good enough 'excuse' for me. And you CAN get a sick note from the GP over the phone. So what if it costs you £30, or is my baby's life or my 8yo's life, or the life of my 14yo DD's friend undergoing Chemo whose parents CAN'T drive worth less than £30?

Yes, it's hard being on benefits, and £30 to you or I is like £300 to some other people - but are other people's lives worth less than that £30?!

Applauds CouthyMow

I have NO natural immunity to CP, despite having had it 4 times now. The vaccination won't help, because it is a live vacc, and if I haven't got immunity from having CP so often, I won't get it from the vaccine.

10yo DS1 is the same, and if there is CP in his class at school, and DS2 is on pred, I have to send him to stay with his dad due to the risks...

I've said my piece now, and am going to now out gracefully from this thread before I get too upset.

Have a good discussion, but remember, CP ISN'T just a 'mild childhood illness' for everyone, and not all immune suppressed people can live in a bubble, we HAVE to rely on the sensible good nature of OTHER PEOPLE to keep us safe.

Over and out.

When ds had chickenpox I had to take him out to the chemist for medicine - no one else to have him.

Seriously Helen NOBODY at all who could have nipped to the chemist for you?? No family, friends, neighbours, acquaintances? I find that hard to believe

Chunkythighs and the others who have caught chicken pox as adults, you are being totally out of order taking digs at the op like that.

Sorry you caught it, that must have been shit, but you cannot possibly know who gave it to you, given it's one of the most common infectious diseases going and infectious before it shows.

I don't think it is out of order at all. Of course they cannot prove who gave them the virus - but someone did. The amount of times when I was a facepainter years ago I have had parents with pox ridden kids present them for facepainting with the comment of "well now he has scabbed over he is not contagious anymore..."

Sorry but people do not take it seriously at all. There are many vulnerable groups who could be killed by exposure to such a virus and truly you don't want that on your conscience. I do sympathise at how frustrating it is, but you need to see the bigger picture. Stay quarantined and deal with it, as frustrating as it is. It is just not fair to play with other people's lives like that.

I seem to remember a Miss Marple murder was over this very thing "The Mirror cracked from side to side" I think it was.

Can you not see the difference between going out not knowing you are incubating CP and knowingly going out with CP?

Can you all not see the difference between telling the OP politely she did wrong and harping on for 96 posts on what a horrible person she is?!?!

Or is it your goal to make everyone as miserable as you are?

You know what? Forget it. I hate self centred ill people. I happen to have several illnesses. I hope I don't act as rude and mean as y'all are.

Is wanting people not to deliberatly expose you to a disease that for you or your child really self centrered? I would actually suggest the self centrered person is the person who takes a child out knowing they have chicken pox

You're right, being ill and not wanting to die because of a moronic parent makes me self centred.

You sure got my number!

Why don't we (via the NHS, as part of the childhood immunisations programme) immunise against chicken pox? Surely the arguments about herd immunity that apply to measles, rubella etc also apply to chicken pox?

Thank God kids are vacced here in Aus.

Didn't help me though. :(