Pupletts in Sweden: Cold Weather, Chicken Pox and leaks, oh my! - Sweden is still trying to kill us (Jan 20th)

This week started normally. the temperature dropped to sit between -5 and -7 degrees C and we had a few cm of snowfall.

The harbours around my work were starting to show the effects of the cold:

Water in Vastra Hamnen

The water around the rotating (University) Bridge supports in Vastra Hamnen

Looking over the water by Malmo Central

It was pretty awesome to see them freeze over and to watch the birds walking on the surface. The water never completely froze, so the sheets of ice floated freely on top.

The week then took a turn for the worse on Tuesday morning when Alana was getting dressed for school and complained of being itchy. She lifted her shirt and she had five or six blister-like pimples on her tummy and a few more scattered around her back. Chicken-Pox, we knew straight way, but the kids had all been immunized. Both Cameron and Tomas had planned to go to friends houses Tuesday after school, but after a few spots showed up on Cameron we decided they would stay home. Kris managed to get an appointment with the doctor and I headed to work.

At the doctors, Alana had to wait outside in the car while Kris went inside to register her, so she didn't risk infecting anyone else. The doctor then came out to the car and checked her over. Yep, definitely chicken pox. Kris picked up some anti-itch cream and took the kids home to rest.

On Thursday we started to worry as Alana's rash took a turn for the worse and a secondary red rash took over most of her back. Of course being that it was 4pm we couldn't get an appointment at the doctors - (see my story about Kris' back, you can only get appointments if you call in at 8am), but were told to call the night doctor. The number for the night doctor told us to leave a message then disconnected before we could leave one. Meanwhile the rash kept spreading up her back.

Eventually I got frustrated and called the medical help line. The person we spoke to didn't speak English very well and a long and frustrating conversation ensued as I tried to explain that yes I understand that chicken pox usually comes with a rash, but this is a second and more severe rash.

"How many rash she have?"
"Two different ones."
"Rash in two places?"
"The second rash covers her back."
"So she has more rash?"
"Yes, the chicken pox spots and a second red rash."
"How many rash she have?"
"Two different ones."
"Where rash?"
"The second rash covers most of her back."
"So she has two rash?"

and so on. Eventually she got me to measure the rash and then after I finally convinced her that I wasn't just a paranoid parent she put us through to the hospital who were concerned that she had a secondary infection and rushed us in.

It was 9pm and the boys were already asleep so we had to wake them and drop them in the car. I waited with all three kids in the car while Kris went in and registered. Then she came and got Alana and they led her away from the main entrance into a small side entrance and an air-locked sealed room. The doctor checked her out and said the second rash was an allergic reaction to the chicken pox and to take anti-histamines and monitor it. They said it was good that we got it checked out.

So we stopped at the Apotek on the way home to get the prescribed anti-histamine but we'd left Alana's person number card on the table at home when we were speaking to the hospital, so we couldn't pick up the medicine. Finally we got home at 10pm, gave her some normal anti-histamines and got the kids to bed. The next day she'd made a great improvement and most of the rash was gone and the pox had scabbed up.

While this was happening we also had another problem. A water stain appeared on the roof just outside the kitchen. It went from nothing overnight to quite a big patch when we awoke:

Our water stain.

Fearing a leaking roof (we'd had plenty of snow), I climbed up into the attic and saw that the Ventilation system was leaking. We called out the recommended ventilation guy who ran said that the drainage tube was blocked and ran a pipe down it to clean it.

It worked well for a few days and then we noticed the roof was wet again. Kris then discovered why the pipe was blocking up: