Oh great, whooping cough now

Last night we got an email from the University of Washington informing us that a student just diagnosed with whooping cough had been traipsing all over campus on finals week. While neither Dad nor I were in any of the buildings this kid reported to be in, he obviously had to get the disease from somewhere. So paralyzed by mommy panic, I spent the morning not working but surfing WebMD and whatnot to learn more about whooping cough. I recalled that this is the P in the DTaP vaccine, but I didn't know what the symptoms actually were. It starts out as a 1-2 week "cold", with a runny nose, enormous congestion, a sore throat, and maybe a little cough, but no fever. Hm. Sound familiar? These are the EXACT symptoms I had. Of course I can't tell if Ike was congested or if he had a sore throat, but one can only assume he felt like I did. After the "cold" part resolves, then the dangerous coughing begins in earnest. This coughing comes in horrible fits that can consume all the oxygen in your lungs and cause you to pass out, but such fits are interspersed by long periods of looking and feeling normal, and the coughing stuff is most common at night. Like how Isaac wakes himself up three times each night coughing his brains out. Great. So we are going BACK to the pediatrician's office tomorrow to get a nose culture for Isaac and see if he has the bug.

Academically interesting but emotionally horrifying for me, however, is that regardless of whether or not Isaac has whooping cough, there is probably nothing that can be done for it now. The "cold" part is caused by a bacterial infection, which can be treated by antibiotics. But the coughing part starts up after the bacteria have all died, and have left behind a fun little protein toxin present to mess up your lungs. This toxin is actually very closely related, and operates in almost the exact same way, as the toxin that I am studying for my dissertation research. There is nothing you can do medicine-wise to stop the effects of the toxin, and only time and a cool-mist humidifier will make things better.

Now, you must realize that both Isaac and I have been vaccinated (though my protection from my immunizations is probably long-expired), so it is highly unlikely that this is what we have. Even if it is, neither of us would likely need medical attention since Isaac is older and we both have healthy immune systems. But because I am a new mom and my baby has an awful cough that will not go away and he is incubated in daycare with eight other little germ factories every day, I am a little freaked. Wouldn't you be?