(no subject)
Alright, this has been a crazy couple of days. I wanted to keep track of everything that has happened, so LJ seems to be the way to go. About 3 weeks ago, Mackenzie started getting a cough. This is nothing irregular for a 7 year old. She didn't have any other symptoms, just the cough. She was acting the way she always acts - lots of energy, eating well, etc. So, last week, we went to the beach house for a week with all my family. Mackenzie still had the cough, but there was nothing else wrong with her. So, Tuesday, after we got home from the beach, I figured we should probably go see the doctor. Since it had been 3 weeks of coughing, and it wasn't getting better, I figured it was just time to see what was wrong. Everything went well in the doctor's office and they did some tests. Yesterday, Joe got a call from the Dr. saying that Mackenzie has Pertussis. If you have kids, you know that one of the shots they routinely give your child is DTP or DTaP. The "P" is for pertussis. It is NOT common for someone who has been vaccinated to get this disease - especially since Mackenzie's last DTaP was in Jan. of '05. Anyway, since we found out yesterday, DHEC has imposed a quarantine on her and we have been on the phone several times retracing our steps for the last 3 weeks. Apparently pertussis is one of the MOST contagious diseases, and they want to make sure that Mackenzie doesn't start an epidemic. It has been a very scary and crazy time. The whole family has been put on antibiotics, as well as my entire extended family, and my neighbors, whose kids we play with regularly. Here's the thing, because Mackenzie wasn't acting sick, and seemed to be feeling fine (except for the cough, of course) we went about our regular business. We have been all over Charleston and Edisto Beach with this child thinking she had an URI, or at worst bronchitis. I think we're all pretty shocked at what's happened, and from what I've read, she has at least 3 more weeks of coughing until she starts getting better.