These Things Happen

It's been a while since I last wrote but for a very good reason that may need some explaining. About a month ago, Maya started breaking out in a bright red rash. At first, I thought it was from all the mosquitoes that we encountered while sitting outside with Jen and Steve at their house in Chicago. Like her dad, when Maya gets bitten by a mosquito she doesn't get a red bump, she gets a welt. Knowing this, when I saw lots of red welts on her legs I didn't think much of it. It went away for a while and I thought we had seen the last of it. Then, mysteriously it showed up again a week later. This time, I thought she was reacting to some blue Irish Spring soap that she had apparently vigorously rubbed on her legs (and into the lingering mosquito bites) in an effort to, as she said, "make herself blue like a bluebird." I attributed the rash recurring in this instance to my familial heritage of being highly allergic to anything remotely resembling soap. Last Wednesday though, I finally realized that this rash was not you're everyday eczema.

Maya had been home sick with a cold and fever. Late in the afternoon she came up to me and said "Look, mommy! My rash is back!" I looked at her legs and they were almost entirely covered in the red splotchy rash. Then I looked at her feet and they were swollen to almost twice their size. After about 20 minutes of monitoring and trying to figure out if the rash and the cold were related we were off to the hospital for emergency treatment. We now know that the rash wasn't mosquitoes or soap. It's actually the main symptom of a form of vasculitis called Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. It's believed to be an auto-immune condition in which something triggers her immune system to go into overdrive and eventually begin attack the small blood vessels in her legs. The result is the "rash" we were seeing. Thankfully, it will eventually go away on its own with no long term effects, but it can last for up to 12 weeks! Because of some of the issues HSP can cause besides the rash, like joint pain, Maya will most likely be on bed rest for most of the next month (Yikes!). So, that is why I have been so aloof lately.

Now, you may be wondering why I explained all of this to you. After all, who really wants to hear about someone else's weird rash. Well, while we were waiting in the hospital we realized we had never really thought about this issue, a medical emergency, in terms of traveling. What would we have done if, while on travel, we realized we were in an emergency situation and needed to get her help right away? What would we do if we were in a foreign country and needed a doctor? What if something happened and Maya, or one of us, had to be on bed rest for the rest of the trip? For most, these questions are enough to make them not want to travel. I'll admit it, the what ifs can seem overwhelming sometimes but it's really important to look past that when planning travel. We realized that no matter where we are there will always be the potential for an emergency situation. In the end, where you are is often less important than whether or not you have prepared yourself for that situation. This is why it's helpful to do things like finding out where your embassy is and making sure you can say emergency words like "I need help," "I need a doctor," "I need a hospital." It's also helpful if someone has emergency training in First Aid and CPR (I am certified in both) because that kind of training teaches you how to keep a cool head when everything else is going crazy. One thing I've learned over the years is that if you are prepared and if you have asked yourself "What would I do if this happened?" then you can handle most situations, even the really high stress ones like medical emergencies. You can't let the fear of what might happen keep you from going someplace because things will happen no matter where you are. In the end if you choose not to go somewhere because of what "might" happen you are only denying yourself what may end up being a wonderfully fabulous experience without so much as a paper cut.