Everybody in the house saving yours truly has been sick of late. Even the Iron Immune System himself, Elder Son. Admittedly, for him it was two days of sore throat and one day of general tiredness and cough... whereas it knocked his brother and sister down for a week apiece. And of course, his mother has now been a sack of fertilizer for a couple days.
I hate times like that. I'd almost rather be sick myself.
Last night, as I sat up trying to work, the coughing started from Younger Son. Okay, he's not sick any more, but we suspect him of asthma. Once he gets any kind of cough, it lingers like... no, I'm in a bad mood. The simile I was considering would only get me smacked. So I'll just say this: Younger Son gets a cough, it sticks around like something deeply unwanted that simply refuses to go away.
Right. I got up, got my torch, and started the medications. A puff of this. A puff of that. Half an hour later - no effect. So it's up again, and this time he gets a dose of cough suppressant.
About the time the cough suppressant starts to work on Younger Son, the Mau-Mau starts to cry in her bedroom. Fucking great. I get up, and I start the interrogation process. The Mau-Mau is only four, and she sleeps like a brick would, if brick's weren't such goddam tetchy and irritable things. Even when she's crying, she's still asleep. But she can cry loudly, and if I don't do something she'll wake up Natalie, who is exhausted after delivering babies over the weekend and coming down with this stupid fucking cold.
After a while, the Mau-Mau reveals that she has 'aches'. Yeah, fine. Ever heard of 'growing pains'? Well, the research is long since in: they're real. I'm not interested in arguing with anyone on it, because I grew up with 'em myself, and I recall the sleepless nights. Elder Son used to get 'em something fierce, and now, apparently, the Mau-Mau is in the same boat.
I'm too tired to fuck around with placebos. She gets a dose of painkillers.
About the time the drugs start to work on the Mau-Mau, the fucking dog starts barking. Why? He never barks at night! What's up his goddam arse?
So I grab the torch and head out the back door. Oh... it's started to rain. And the goddam kids have left the poor bastard chained to the back deck for the last four hours. Better let him off the hook.
Let's see: that's Younger Son, the Mau-Mau, and the dog. Elder Son? Quiet. Natalie? Ahhh, yes.... better fetch the cough meds upstairs for her.
Plod, plod, plod.
This morning, Natalie wasn't up to much so the breakfast bullshit fell to me. Okay, fine. But of course, I'll be back down the hill to Scottsdale before eleven to collect Elder Son... we've got a day of home learning to do. And meanwhile, the Mau-Mau is stretched out on the couch, coughing wetly.
Plod, plod, plod.
i got crook just prior and then during my holidays and of course the wife copped it as well. I hate being sick but feel worse when i inflict it on someone else.
ReplyDelete*bleah* Sounds like you're unwinding some serious karma there. I shall be thinking get-healthy-soon thoughts in the general direction of your household.
ReplyDeleteEh. It's the slow, boring nature of the struggle, not just the illness-of-family. Frankly, what I'm really tired of is the day-to-day crap... the bits where you repeat the same stupid words twelve or twenty times a day, and the kid goes on with the same nonsense.
ReplyDeleteNerrrgh.
My girl still gets growing pains...this restless twitchy muscular thingy which keeps them up at nights.
ReplyDeleteAt least an exposure to such antigens as to generate such strong immune responses will continue to strenghten their immunity.
ReplyDeleteFrom your "I'm not interested in arguing with anyone on it" I take it you have encountered those that claim these 'growing pains' aren't real?
ReplyDeleteHow very odd.
I would have thought the phenomenon was sufficiently documented for no one to question their existence.
I'd be curious to hear on what basis the growing pains deniers argued their case.
Growing pains deniers? Who dey?
ReplyDeleteYou put stress on something, it flexes. Growing is elongation (mostly, esp long bones). Watch how much stress needs to be engineered out of the equation when a bridge 'grows' with temp changes. And yet this would just be silently mopped up by the body without it being propagated through the nerves? Bollocks.
Admittedly the timescale is less compressed, but the forces are still as real.
ReplyDeleteIt's after 9.30pm...Dirk must be still doin' Bed duty. Think dirty thoughts lovey!
ReplyDeleteI hear you Dirk. Every, single, word.
ReplyDeleteEven with only one and her only two and a half, I feel your pain with regards the day-to-day stuff. *sigh* It just keeps on keeping on...and on...and on. I must say reading your blog makes me feel rather more reconciled to having an only child though.
ReplyDeleteWhat sucks is when your own comments get spat out by this goddam system.
ReplyDeleteThe original growing-pains denier was my wife, the doctor! But I found a few pieces of research to throw at her, and as our Elder Son continued to have occasional night-pangs without actually developing anything fatal, I believe she's come 'round. However, I figured that if a family doc had doubts... I didn't really feel like finding the research for anyone else, too!
Gotta run. I have a bunch of students grading this afternoon, and I haven't yet prepared today's Spanish for the boys...
Yep I'm with Sue and everyone else...I've got just one at home and barring something massively unforseen, that's the way it'll be. And the day to day can be tedious.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm stil getting over two weeks of pneumonia, my missus helping out her mother after she had a major accident involved fractured skull, facial damage, loss of 90% of sight in one eye. Toss in the boy being healthy but every time he gets up in the night to go to the dunny he comes into OUR bed and wriggles like mad. Once he does that I'm stuffed - 3.30am the other day and I didn't get back to sleep.
How you keep[ up FH is beyond me. Must be that fitness and martial arts hard bastardry I reckon.
And growing pains exist - lord knows I remeber mine and it hurt lots!
Look dirk i'm not going to argue with you as you'd chop me up like diced liver!
ReplyDeletehowever on a plus note you are the lynch pin to your family mate (unless of course this blog is all black propaganda) and you have my utmost respect on how you do carry on shouldering the load.
It's all swings and roundabouts. I spent a week being a burden to the household after slashing my hand open while crash tackling a wayward cat (8 stitches) - no driving, no washing up, no writing, no carrying or gardening. Only to have the situation reversed when the L keels over last week with a kidney infection.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, it all goes pear shaped when multiple offspring get crook, though I think sometimes it is harder when they go down in succession and it never seems to end.
Be of good cheer, summer is a coming in and the bullocks are farting. Sing cuckoo