Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Get the T-Shirt!
On the ferry back from Tangier, I was able to get a very brief wireless connection (because that is how it works over here. Type fast!) and a text message from Vonn pops up that I should call him on his Italian Google phone number. So I turn on cell service (hurray for thinking to add a global plan for $25!) and call my kid, who exclaims "Thank God" at his end and proceeds to tell me he is in a hospital in Venice and they think he has the measles.
Several not-fit-for-a-family-blog words proceeded to fly back and forth. Seriously, who the hell gets the measles as an adult and when they had their childhood vaccines and all that?
The kid who got chicken pox a few years after his chicken pox vaccine, that's who.
And it gets worse. When he called, he was in the tropical and infectious diseases wing and they wouldn't know any test results until Tuesday. And because they think it is measles, they can't release him because he is infectious, plus there could be complications when you get measles as an adult. The good news is that he doesn't have a fever, and doesn't feel especially sick.
Naturally, by the time they know anything Tuesday, it won't matter - if it's measles, he'll be past the contagious stage. Meanwhile, everyone who comes into his room has to suit up and wear a mask. And all his friends - and his professors - had to leave him in Venice because they had spring break plans that couldn't be changed.
Meanwhile I am checking flights to Venice and back to Barcelona, except we're on the southern coast of Spain, between a couple of very small and very expensive airports. So even though I am closer than I would be if we were back in the States, it's still kind of a "can't get there from here" deal.
Of course, not too many people can say they have had a five day stay in a tropical and infectious diseases ward, so there is that...
Several not-fit-for-a-family-blog words proceeded to fly back and forth. Seriously, who the hell gets the measles as an adult and when they had their childhood vaccines and all that?
The kid who got chicken pox a few years after his chicken pox vaccine, that's who.
And it gets worse. When he called, he was in the tropical and infectious diseases wing and they wouldn't know any test results until Tuesday. And because they think it is measles, they can't release him because he is infectious, plus there could be complications when you get measles as an adult. The good news is that he doesn't have a fever, and doesn't feel especially sick.
Naturally, by the time they know anything Tuesday, it won't matter - if it's measles, he'll be past the contagious stage. Meanwhile, everyone who comes into his room has to suit up and wear a mask. And all his friends - and his professors - had to leave him in Venice because they had spring break plans that couldn't be changed.
Meanwhile I am checking flights to Venice and back to Barcelona, except we're on the southern coast of Spain, between a couple of very small and very expensive airports. So even though I am closer than I would be if we were back in the States, it's still kind of a "can't get there from here" deal.
Of course, not too many people can say they have had a five day stay in a tropical and infectious diseases ward, so there is that...