Chicken Pox

What does that word do to you?

Some people seem so freaked out by it, and I've never understood why. It's such a small deal. At least when you're a little kid, it is.

When Annika's teacher told me when we first arrived that some of the kids were coming down with "la varicelle", I just smiled, thinking "one more thing to love about France". I have spent the last few years chasing down chicken pox in my moms email groups (the natural health ones) trying to get natural (ie oral) immunity booster rather than having to resort to getting it, grown in a lab, complete with additives and preservatives straight into the bloodstream. Yes, the varicella vaccine is causing a lower incidence of natural chicken pox disease in children, but some scientists believe that this is responsible for the incidence of shingles rising. Having chicken pox used to confer lifelong immunity to varicella, but that depended on getting your yearly or bi-yearly dose of natural booster. Our miraculous immune system would be stimulated by the virus entering our system and it would reach into those antibodies we developed when we had the disease (I think the antibodies are stored somewhere in our miraculous spines), and being activated by a natural introduction of the virus, they come out and fight the virus. Meanwhile, we go through our lives not even knowing that little war was going on. It seems like a great system. But without the booster of having chicken pox circulating around so much, we are missing our annual exposure, so our antibodies are essentially getting weaker, as the theory goes. Soon we'll all be told we need shingles shots to get our boosters. Yuck.

My kids got chicken pox in 2006 from my Aunt who had shingles. She was so sorry about it but I thanked her from the bottom of my heart. And the next year, when a family at church were excessively aplolegetic about having had their kids for a day in VBS before discovering they had chicken pox, I was enthusiastic. "Oh, don't worry, I said; in fact, can my kids play with your sick kids today?" She didn't take me up on it though. Some people don't go for this theory. Our music teacher, Sharla, on the other hand, understood it, and even though she shut down her house for all lessons when her teenaged son came down with shingles (he had had a chicken pox vaccine as a child), she allowed us to come over when I explained I wanted us to have boosters.

The only required vaccine in France is the Diptheria, Tetnus, Polio, and those are all reasonable vaccines. Even the MMR is not required here though it is recommended. I do believe it could be because France's whole government, and legal system is set up to ensure that they all pay for everyone else's healthcare. One person's health or educational problem is everyone's. If one child gets injured from a vaccine, the country will pay for that person's educational and health interventions for life. Having kids have a few days of red spots is still considered a better option than the hospitalizations, pain and time off work caused by shingles later. And shingles cases have risen dramatically in the U.S. since the widespread use of varicella vaccine. Coincidence? I don't want to take that chance. Also while it's the CDC and the College of Physicians and Surgeons who recommend kids get this varicella vaccine, it's not them who pay for any bad results from it. It's private insurers if you're one of the privledged ones with private health care. Oh, and I didn't mention the Pharmaceutical companies who also have great profits from vaccines but don't pay for much of the consequences. (A small fraction of these profits easily pay google to put their misinformation on the first 1,000 returns of a search for "varicella vaccine", but for a more balanced picture, I recommend searching wikipedia, or speaking to an unbiased bio-chemist or doctor.)

Anyway, I'm ranting on here, but all this is to say that I was very happy to arrive in France and find out that this year's wave of chicken pox was currently going through the school. Then two weeks later, one of Annika's friends in class came to school, but her mom was called at lunch because her spots were showing up in an impressive and rapid display before everyone's eyes. She was in her most contagious state and she was in class that morning. And to top it off, we ran into the girl and her mom in the grocery store later. I chatted with the mom, comiserating about her having to prepare a few days' worth of oatmeal baths and movies while the girls chased each other around our legs. I kind of really wanted to drag this conversation out because, well, I like converstations genuinely, but, of course, I had an agenda as well. Well, finally it was her turn to talk to the cashier so I had to let her go.

"Okay, tell Caroline you'll see her later in the week or next week", I said, "big hugs now, gros bisous (that's it...french style, two kisses right on the those chicken pocked cheeks)".

That should take care of us for another year or two.