It's the COmputer Chair

Finally, after months of itching and misery. After too many doses of
prednisone to keep the itch at bay. After at least three visits to my PCP.
And lots of various remedies rubbed into skin that didn't want me to sleep
at night.

Middle grandson had a rash first. After many moons his mom finally got him
to the doctor who gave him medicine and he got better. Initial requests for
information from grandson were useless and from daughter weren't much
better. I had thought perhaps grandson had Scabies or something similar,
but daughter said no it wasn't that.

Last week I finally found out that the doctor said he had scabies and the
doctor treated him for scabies and he got better. And that a bunch of the
teens around town are suffering from "similar problems" . Really red itchy
what looks like mosquito bites and really itchy rash. It seems we have an
epidemic. Older grandson is also afflicted. As are lots of their
"friends".

Karen AKA Kajikit...

Ouch... I'm itching just thinking about it! I hope that now you've got
the proper medicine it'll take care of it tout sweet... I can't STAND
bugs!

Jo Firey...

I'm all better. All the kids/teens I'm aware of have been treated.

Charlie's teeth are even doing pretty well for now.

All in all we are having a nice quiet evening.

Well, in my doctor's rather flimsy defense, I'm not exactly a prime
candidate for this nasty parasite. Unless you know that we have a really
nice upholstered desk chair at the computer. One that we share. One that
we have been known to use while wearing not much more than underwear. Not
at all unusual for the chair to still be warm from the prior occupant when
someone sits down to check their email, etc.

I figured it out all on my own last Friday once I had all the facts. Went
into the weekend clinic Saturday and got medicine, and spent Sunday doing a
LOT of laundry and cleaning.

The nice office chair has been banished to the very hot outdoor storage shed
till it can sterilize itself. And we are reduced to using a folding chair
at the computer. And to wearing a more complete wardrobe at the computer.

Too much information. I know, But this is supposed to be a problem in day
care centers and nursing homes. If it is running the rounds of the teens
and young adults and those who know them, people need to know that.
Especially if their doctors don't seem to be up to speed.

Tanada...

I think I'll start carrying a towel to cover chairs with me when I go
back to school next month. Can a towel protect from Scabies? HOWARD?

Jo Firey...

They really shouldn't be that contageous. I'd likely have been fine if I
didn't have such thin skin from years of prednisone use for asthma. Or if I
didn't make a habit of chasing the sweaty kids away from the computer to
check my email. Or if all of us were better about wearing more clothes at
the computer. Or if the chair had been a smooth surface instead of
upholstery.

And then they wouldn't have been so awful if I'd know right off what it was

MaryL...

Unfortunately, I caught scabies when I was only 12 years old, and I
definitely did not have "thin" skin then. On the other hand, we do believe
it was person-to-person contact. I sat next to a child on the school bus,
and we later learned that he had scabies. So, it did not take particularly
close contact for this to occur. At the same time, I have never heard of
massive "outbreaks" except in institutions such as nursing homes.

and been treated.

Pam S. grossed out by scabies

sriddles...

Speaking of gross-out child-spead diseases and assorted
afflictions---do you remember something called "trenchmouth"?? I have
never figured out what it actually was; but you could tell the kids who
had it because their mouths were purple with medicine. My mother put

William Hamblen...

Vincent's Angina was the illness and Gentian Violet was the remedy.
Trench Mouth is caused by a spirochete. Nowadays they give
antibiotics for it. It got the name "Trench Mouth" because it was
common in the generally unsanitary conditions of the trenches on the
Western Front of the First World War.

the fear of God into me about drinking from the water fountain at
school. I am *still* creeped out about public water fountains. Goes to
show how much Mom-influence we still carry with us, whether we admit it
or not!!

MaryL...

I never knew anyone with trench mouth, but a skin disease known as
"impetego" used to be common. Actually, I think I had every childhood
disease except measles -- scarlet fever, mumps, chicken pox, etc. My father
and his brother both had polio when they were children, so we were not
permitted to go to crowded areas during the hottest part of the summer until
after polio vaccine was available. We were taken first for oral vaccine and
then for immunization on the very first day it was available in our
community because my parents had such a fear of it. Tragically, a friend of
my father's refused to take his children because he did not want them to
stand in line. His son developed polio and died a short time later. I
suspect that he had contracted it *before* he could have acquired any
immunity, but his father had terrible feeling of guilt for the rest of his

Jo Firey...

Some of the best parts of my childhood summers were in retrospect due to
fear of polio. Kids were warned away from swimming pools and lakes and
ponds. And crowds.

I spent a lot of summer time at my grandparents house way out in the
country. I still plant moss rose every year because Grandma loved it. And
baby my tomato plants because Grandpa would expect me to.

life.

sriddles...

I remember an outbreak of scabies here many years ago. We had a small
women's clothing shop at the time, it was said that it spead by teen
girls trying on clothes. Don't know if that's factual or not. But I do
remember a lot of girls getting it. It must be very contagious.

Adrian A...

I'm glad you now know the cause and it's easily remedied.