W e went to a chicken pox party a couple of weeks ago. This is how it works: A child has chicken pox and you invite people to bring their kids to visit so everyone will catch it. The idea is to get it now, instead of when they're older, when the disease can be much more uncomfortable and dangerous. The kids all played together and had a great time. Meanwhile we adults went out to a nice restaurant. We played together and had a great time too, at least until the check arrived. For the next couple weeks, Shayna, our 7-year-old, was expecting to "get the chickens", as she put it. She got it. Friday night she was a little itchy and showed us a small, reddish, slightly raised spot behind her shoulder. The next morning she had a couple more. "Not much of a disease," I thought. The next day a few more appeared here and there. She was in pretty good spirits, a little fever, more pox kept appearing on her chest and back. 1 called a friend who has six children. "My daughter had maybe a few pox marks. It was nothing for her." "This'll be a breeze," I thought. She'll be in school on Monday. Then came the 3 rd day. Shayna's trunk was covered. It spread to her arms and legs and scalp. But the pox can surface on mucous membranes and be in your mouth and some other private places that can be very uncomfortable. It did. Shayna was not happy; she was miserable and whiny. This was one unhappy girl. Her parents weren't too thrilled with this either. The homeopathic remedies people suggested seemed to help, as did the oatmeal baths. I told Shayna that kids often have growth spurts after they've been through a childhood disease. It's true. The diseases challenge and strengthen their neuro-immune systems and parents have often reported physical and psychological developmental leaps after a bout of measles, mumps, chicken pox, etc. That's why, in India, measles is referred to as the "Visitation of a Goddess." "I'm having a growth spurt, Daddy," she announced later that day. "Look, my arm is already longer." By the next day she was still miserable but getting a little better. Not all the pox will form blisters of pus. Those coming in later just stay as reddish blotches and then go away. It's pretty dramatic. If I didn't know about how benign it is, I would have been scared. It's interesting that, when the little blisters on the pox are analyzed, they are full of the chicken pox virus. The body is externalizing the virus. With childhood vaccinations, that is what doesn't happen. The child's nasopharynx and other mucous membranes are bypassed and the viri, bacteria, DNA and other injected chemicals go very deep, where they are not eas- ily, if ever, externalized and have better access to the internal organs. What happens to the foreign proteins and various chemicals that are injected? No one knows. Chicken pox is a mild disease. It's part of growing up. No big deal. The chances of a child actually dying from chicken pox are about the same as someone winning the lottery. But, in today's world, letting your child get sick naturally has become a political and philosophical statement. I don't remember ever getting the mumps or German measles but I did have chicken pox and measles. Don't know about any growth spurt. Maybe I need to get sick again? Intensive Care Shayna is sitting in the big chair watching TV. Her older brother, Seth, 11, knows the unwritten law that older siblings STAY UP LATER than younger ones. "Why does she get to stay up?" "She's sick and doesn't have to go to school tomorrow." "It's not fair." (That's his motto. I think he was born saying it. It's his view of life. He is right; life isn't fair. But he's not staying up just the same.) "You've got to go to school tomorrow." "Well, once, when I was sick, you made me go to bed early. It's not fair." "All disease is different. Not everyone is sick the same way. There's too much human variability to generalize sickness and disease like that." (OK, I didn't tell that to him. He didn't want to hear it. He just wanted to watch TV. I said, "Go to bed.") "It's not fair. You treat me like a baby. I'm the only one in my class who has to go to bed so early. Everyone else stays up all night..." etc., etc. Who are these parents? I'm convinced they are an amalgamation of parents. One kid's parents let him stay up later, another's parent lets his kid play more video games, another parent gives his kid every toy in the world, and another never works and just plays with his kid all day, another lets his kid drink cola, junk food, drive, kill younger siblings, etc., and you've got SUPERPARENT: "Do anything you want, kid; I'll just run out and buy you more ammunition." ^* ...frontpage 36 So, Seth is angry, goes to bed, and fifteen minutes laterjumps out over- _y joyed. He discovered what appears to be a chicken pox. "Can I watch TV now?" Now that's a political statement. So now he's getting the chickens. That means, Beth can't come to the seminar with me and I have to go alone and we lose the airfare. Damn. I wish they'd come out with a shot for this. Just kidding. Intensive therapy So we're scheduled to go away and hoping that Shayna's chicken pox will be over by then so she can sleep over at a friend's. Now Seth has the pox. "See all these bumps?" He pulls up his pajamas and on his side are reddish blotches. He's older and I've been told that the older the child is, the more painful the experience. We're in for one helluva week. The next day, Seth stays home. He undergoes an intensive therapeutic regime consisting of ten straight hours of cartoons, game boy and video games. I've got Rugrats coming out of my brains. But, he doesn't get any more spots. He's fine. The next day, he's fine and goes to school with his sister. Now we can leave for our trip. Shayna is staying at her friend Emily's house and Seth is staying over at his friend David's house. At least, that's what I thought, until Beth decided it would be a good idea to tell David's mother that Seth had, maybe had, might still get the chicken pox. Or, at least, he's possibly contagious. So she called David's mother... Can Seth sleep over? "Well, it's OK with me," said David's mother. "David had the chicken pox shot. But I'll ask his father." His father wasn't so sure. "Call the pediatrician," he told her. She did and she called us back. "The pediatrician says under no circumstances should Seth stay at our house." "But David had the chicken pox shot." "I said that to him and he said the shot is ineffective. Maybe 40% effective." So wouldn't he want David to get chicken pox naturally? If the shot is ineffective won't David be at risk for getting chicken pox when he's older and the disease is much * more dangerous? What happens to MD's brains when they ^ go to medical school? I didn't ask David's mom those questions. However, I remembered some great quotes on medical education that Dr. Harris Coulter had in Divided Legacy (Vol. 4). / was not sure the day after I entered whether I was in a prison or a kindergarten, and I still haven't made up my mind. Daniel H. Funkenstein. The doctor-scientist orientation produces a nasty side effect; it takes incoming medical students who are interested in people and transforms them into doctors interested in diseases. Michael Crichton. Students entering medical school are a very healthy bunch of young people. If they're not when thev leave, it's because we did it to them. Pearl Rosenberg. (Above quotes from Divided Legacy by Harris L. Coulter, Ph.D, Vol 1V, p. 645. North Atlantic Books: Berkeley, C A 1994) Anyhow Beth and T went away together. The kids had a great time staying at their friends' houses (Seth stayed over at another friend's house) and I'm glad the chicken pox is over with. Did Seth really get it? I dunno. One guy we know said he got chicken pox at age thirty-five and was on morphine for two weeks. Another guy we know said he got it at age sixteen and was sick for a few months. One chiropractor told me he got chicken pox at age thirty-five and had "maybe a couple of spots" and then it went away, while another DC told me he never got chicken pox, or measles, mumps or any childhood disease. "My kids all got it. I lived with them, slept with them, and I never got it. Guess I have immunity." Now we're back from the seminar, the kids are all right and I'd like to know if anyone has a measles party in my neighborhood. I can't wait to have this kind of fun again. | Dr. Koren writes and lectures on chiropractic and health care. He can be contacted at 215-699-7906 or dmrenJMaaLmm.
