"Let's talk about infectious disease kids"

The kids and I have been talking about a lot of nasty diseases lately. This wasn't really by choice mind you. It all started a few weeks ago when our provincial government decided that everyone should have to hear and see endless commercials about syphilis. I would like to state for the record that I think it's good to raise awareness particularly right before the start of the Calgary Stampede. For those that are not familiar with the seedy side of this wonderful tourist spectacular I will fill you in. Most bars in or around the Stampede have a "ring check". This is like a coat check service for your wedding ring. Awesome of the bars to help you cheat on your spouse right? Yah. I've heard personal tales of people using port-a-potties for these hook-ups too. I wish I were kidding. Ewww.

So you can imagine that there is a certain demographic of people here who really need to be encouraged to get all kinds of testing done. The fewer people with syphilis or other STD's is great. However the government runs these at all times of the day...on every channel and every radio station. Besides being extremely repetitive I've hated this onslaught for one simple reason. I had to tell my kids what syphilis is. Then being the worrier that he is Andrew thought he could catch it from just about anything. I mean after all they talk about it all the time so in his mind it's everywhere. So then I had to tell the kids how most people catch syphilis. I think it's safe to say that my dream that my children won't have sex until they are 30 just might come true now.

So as if that wasn't enough infectious disease talk already two days ago Andrew develops what I think must be his first pimple. Right there on his nose. Then by morning it had blistered and was looking pretty sore. Then another small cluster of red spots turned into blisters. Hmmm. It was starting to look bad by dinner. I brought him to the walk-in clinic and guess what? It's impetigo and it's highly contagious. Oh goody. At least we figured it out early before it spread. I'm not totally new to this lovely face eating disease. Well it doesn't really eat your face but it looks terrible. Camryn had it when she was a toddler and it's a nasty one. It's been about 6 years since then and we've avoided it up until now. Sigh.

Drew's red blistered nose

So poor Drew is highly contagious and a little sensitive about it all. Probably doesn't help that everyone is staying away from him and using Lysol Wipes on everything he touches. It was just one of those tear filled days. He is normally very cuddly and it's been hard for him to be kept at an arms length. But today during one of his many tear filled moments he needed a cuddle badly. So imagine me with a gangly (almost) 12 year old on my lap. Tears streaming down his face and over what is now his raw sores. Me cuddling him in what could be described as a mothers loving embrace....and all I could think of was how soon I could get to the antiseptic hand wipes and sanitize myself. What's wrong with me? Ugh.