(no subject)

[the_rck]

Cordelia and I both slept in this morning. We were up around 3:30 because she needed more cough medicine in order to sleep. I'm keeping an eye on the cough because we got an email yesterday about whooping cough at her school. I don't think that she's coughing enough for it to be that; mostly she coughs if she starts laughing or when she lies down. Also, she's up to date on her vaccinations, including DTaP.

Scott getting up and getting ready for work woke me, too, but I slept again afterward. I got up at 9 a.m. because, although I was still exhausted, my head was starting to hurt. The headache's gone now. I'm not sure how much was standing up for a while and how much was caffeine.

We watched Legends of Tomorrow (Monday's episode) and The Flash last night. I only stayed for The Flash because Cordelia asked me to. I've just been cranky with the show this season (and last). Also, when I'm writing Sky High fic, I keep seeing Caitlyn as grown up Layla because of being played by the same actor.

The episode of Legends was utterly ridiculous in a way that acknowledged its ridiculousness and then raised the levels to I-can't-believe-they-actually-did-that.

I still can't tell if I'm sick or just horribly stressed out or completely exhausted. Possibly, Cordelia has one of the flu strains that was actually in this year's vaccine and, because I got vaccinated, I'm only getting the edges.

I have a Blu-ray set from the library that's due on Sunday and can't be renewed. I keep wanting to watch it, and then Cordelia comes into the living room and wants to watch Gilmore Girls. If it was a DVD set, I could watch it on my laptop, but that's not an option. At this point, I'm just hoping to watch ten minutes so that I know whether or not to get back on the waitlist. In a normal week, I'd have done that on Monday.

Okay, time to persuade Cordelia to eat something other than potato chips.

Comments

[ayebydan]

An outbreak of whooping cough? Wow. I know the vaccine doesn't work for life but it seemed to be one of those illnesses that was very much put into remission years ago. Or it was here.

I hope you both start to feel better soon.

[the_rck]

The vaccine only works for about ten years, and adults often don't realize that they need a booster for it. It also tends to be much less serious for adults than for infants. The thing is that vaccination for infants comes after the most dangerous period for them relative to the disease, so having the adults around them be vaccinated is very important.

Doctors tend to follow up (with those who seen doctors regularly) about the tetanus part of the DTaP, but some of the tetanus vaccines for adults don't include the pertussis vaccine.

Whooping cough is actually pretty common among adults in the US but isn't often diagnosed as anything more than a cold because the adult doesn't get sick enough to see a doctor or even to stay home from work. This is one of the reasons that a lot of doctors recommend that parents avoid taking their newborns outside the house for the first six weeks after they're born.

[telophase]

I've got a friend who caught whooping cough a couple of years ago as an adult, and it hit her hard. I can't imagine how terrible it must be for a baby.

Best wishes for you all over this!

[the_rck]

It doesn't hit all adults hard, but it can. Babies, it pretty much always does.

The email that the school sent out said to watch for 'a cough lasting more than seven days,' and... ::shakes head:: By the time you've been coughing for seven days, you'll have infected a lot of people.

[ayebydan]

Fascinating. Here mothers get a booster that ensures their child is born with enough immunity to cover them until they are old enough to get the vaccine. We definitely don't have Docs reccing infants stay home the first six weeks. That seems very impractical too given the US's horrendous maternity leave?

[the_rck]

It's very impractical, even for parents who have leave, because it's places like grocery stores that are most dangerous.

I don't recall getting a booster when I was pregnant with Cordelia, but I'd been very careful about keeping my tetanus vaccinations up to date and had had one three years before.

[ramenkuri]

ah to be young enough to not care if one only has potato chips for sustenance :) I loooove potato chips.

Hope you feel better soon!

[the_rck]

Thanks!