Our little Beth

After all the traveling we did last month, we started the new year with a healthy dose of reality. Too real if you ask me.

For those of you who are fans of the book "Little Women", you will recall that Beth dies tragically after contracting scarlet fever from a neighbor's baby. If you're like me, you would think that in the year 2009, scarlet fever doesn't exist. But I'm hear to tell you that apparently it's alive and well in Switzerland and our little Ruby managed to get it.

It started out simply enough. She woke up Monday morning (the first day back to school) and said her throat hurt. She didn't eat much breakfast and I assumed this was a ploy to stay home from school. Surprisingly, she practically begged me to go to school. I figured she couldn't be that sick and sent her. This pattern continued through Wednesday, with mild fevers cropping up here and there, and a few doses of Tylenol and Motrin.

Things changed a little bit when she woke up on Thursday with red, rosy cheeks. I was a little concerned but again she said she was fine and so I sent her to school. When she came home for lunch, her cheeks were even more red. Wondering if she was having some sort of allergic reaction, I decided to have a look at the rest of her body. Much to my surprise, her whole torso was covered with a red rash that was really rough feeing, kind of like sandpaper.

This was the point when I began to do google searches using "sore throat" and "rash" combinations. The answer that kept popping up, scarlet fever. Thinking I must be the most dramatic parent ever, I called Pete and my dad for some sound advice. They both told me the same thing, call the doctor.

Long story short, I took her in and yes, she did have scarlet fever. In fact, as soon as the doctor came into the room and took one look at her he knew. He said she looked like the perfect textbook case for scarlet fever. Apparently scarlet fever starts out with strep throat followed by an allergic reaction that the body can have to an edotoxin that is released from the strep. The doctor put her on penicillin for 10 days and she is fine. Thank goodness for modern medicine and a happy ending for our little woman.

One of the craziest symptoms of scarlet fever was her tongue. On the day I discovered her rash, I also found that her tongue was covered with bumps (they looked like strawberry seeds) and a thick, white film (sorry if you are grossed out). After being on the antibiotic for 24 hours the white went away and her tongue was bright red, still with the little strawberry seed-like bumps. The picture above does not really do it justice.