I've been exposed to...

EJonesey

Fifth's Disease. I am waiting on a call back from the nurse as to how I should proceed, it is a student at one of my schools who I have not been in direct contact with, however I have been checking my blood sugar in the nurses office. Anyone else had to talk to their Dr. about this?

I also found out my aunt has Shingles (Can I be around her?) and my cousin who I spent time with this weekend has pink eye!

UGH...I just can't win...

Sorry I have been MIA lately, the holiday season and end of the school grading period have kept me pretty busy. I hope to get caught up on the Bump of winter break.

kathymarie

I was exposed to 5ths last week. I contacted my OB, who had me come in for a blood test to check my immunity. As it turns out, I am immune to it due to past exposure. Go figure. Call your OB. That's what the nurse is going to tell you to do.  

sophiemarie18

Hey! I think we are labor buddies, and I didn't realize that you were a teacher too! Glad to see you on here! Regarding the Fifth's disease, there is a test that your dr. can do to make sure that you have the antibodies against it. Most likely, you already do, and there is no reason to worry.  Also, it is more dangerous to the baby earlier on in pregnancy (I had a teacher friend lose her baby to this early on and she was told that if she had been farther along, she would have been fine), so hopefully it is not going to be a big deal at this point.

As far as the shingles go, if you have had the chicken pox, you are safe. Even if you haven't had the chicken pox, you may be immune to the virus since it is the same one that causes both (your ob can test for this as well). I had shingles from weeks 25-29 during this pregnancy (it was awful), but I learned that shingles presents very little risk to the baby at all, and shingles itself isn't actually contagious.  If you've had chicken pox, the virus is in your body already, and you can get shingles at any time during your life if the virus chooses to reactivate (not a fun surprise). You cannot actually catch shingles, but you can catch the virus, and if you haven't had the chicken pox, you'll get that instead.  They say that chicken pox poses more risk to baby, but that is mostly early on, or if you go into labor while having it the baby can catch it at birth. 

If you're worried, call your ob and have them test for antibodies for both, but since both viruses are pretty common in childhood, you most likely are safe.  Hopefully that info helps and doesn't make you more worried.  Enjoy your winter break, and keep us updated!