Waiting For Pertussis Results

Saturday we took all the kids to get tested for Pertussis. (So far we only know for sure that Zoe, 13, has Whooping Cough.)

Zoe is staying with relatives until she’s no longer contagious (though it’s probably too late for that). She is doing better. Her case has been a very mild one, thankfully. This is probably due to the megadoses of Vitamin C, which are reported to reduce the coughing by 2/3.

It’s a simple swab up the nose, over with faster than a sneeze. Nobody cried, not even the baby.

The only other child who has symptoms is Caleb, 14. He is quite fine and feeling well during the day, but coughs at night. The day he backed off the Vitamin C (because it gave him runny stool), his cough got worse that night. Proof enough for me that it’s doing its job!

My husband is coughing, but we’re pretty certain that it’s his seasonal allergies. It’s been very warm here lately and he always coughs this time of year.

When we went to the urgent care facility on Saturday, I had everyone wear a mask. The staff thanked me later for this and said that if we hadn’t been properly masked, they would have had to notify everyone in the building at the time that there was Pertussis exposure (assuming the tests come back positive of course).

It was really annoying that a boy was walking around the waiting area coughing his lungs up with no mask. ARGH. His mother seemed totally nonplussed. Finally a nurse came over and put a mask on him.

I’m thankful that, unlike my husband’s experience last Thursday, this Doctor was actually respectful and we had a nice dialogue about vaccination.

The conversation went like this:

Doc: “Is your decision on vaccinations due to religious belief?”

Me: “In part, yes.”

(I answered this way because some vaccines contain aborted fetal tissue.)

Doc: “You might want to think about vaccinating the older kids. The little ones are fine (I’m assuming they’re not in daycare?)”

Me: “That’s correct.  And these children are homeschooled.”

Doc: “…but the older ones will be going into high school and college and they’ll be exposed to all sorts of things. You could skip Chicken Pox, HIB, and the HPV vaccine. You could even skip DPT since we never see Diphtheria or Tetanus anymore, but I would recommend the MMR.”

Me: “Thank you. It’s not a decision we revisit regularly as we continue researching vaccines.”

Anyway, I was glad the staff didn’t make a stressful situation worse by chastising us.

I’ll update when I know test results, which hopefully will come back today. Meanwhile Caleb is confined to his room (his brother has moved out for a bit), and everyone is in quarantine. We haven’t gone anywhere except to urgent care and the hospital.

Right now I’m staying at my parent’s house with the baby until we have more info.