Because of my own kidney issues and coming from a family of physicians I like to think of myself as something of an amateur internist.  Give me a sympton and Google and I will diagnose.  Since Fifth's Disease was going around her school and Ava had some of the symptoms, like a red rash (but not on her cheeks which is typical) I assumed that's what she had.  Since she has had bouts with kidney problems like me and since Fifth's Disease comes from the Parvovirus and that virus can trigger some serious kidney problems according to some studies that I had not only read but one I was also in, I was in full fledge panic mode.   The problem was my Columbia insurance wouldn't let me take her to a specialist (pediatric nephrologist) before seeing her primary care physician and her amazing pediatrician was out of network.  So I ran around trying to find another pediatrician who would see us that day  to allow us to see a pediatric kidney doc right away. 

I found one who was actually next to the kids's school but no pediatrician was available, only a nurse.  She came in, took a quick look and asked Ava to take off her shirt.  She said it might be Fifth's but it's probably strep.  She poked that long q-tip down Ava's throat and said by the look and the smell her twenty years nursing it's almost definitely strep. Then she left to test it and returned ten minutes later and said it was definitely strep.  Oh and she checked Ava's kidneys and they were perfect.  That's especially good news because strep can attack the kidneys as well.  And did you know that the red rash from strep, "Scarlatina," is just another name for "Scarlet Fever."  I think they just changed the name so we parents would freak out a little less.

The thing about Fifth's is that your kid just lives with it, strep, of course gets treated with antibiotics.  So she's been out of school for the last two days so the meds can kick in and she's no longer contagious.  She's feeling pretty fine and it's actually been lovely having here with me while I write in one room and she works on her own book in the other.  It's a mystery, she tells me. She's addicted to Nancy Drew and the Babysitter's Club.

This morning she finally went back to school. It's lovely here in New York City today. Perhaps the first real day of Spring.   I took this picture last weekend on an outing in Central Park with the kids.