One Day at a Time

I have to warn you this post is more for me and my self-pity than for entertainment value, so it may be a bit heavier than my normal fare. I just felt it was important for me to record because this blog was meant to be a sort of account of what happens around here on a daily basis and the truth is life is not always as rosy as it is painted on a blog. It all started with a small splinter that Lucy had in her foot. It was to small to tweeze out and she didn't want us to dig so we figured it would push its own way out after a few days. Well a few days came and went and she even ran a few races on it but eventually it swelled to the size of an eye and running on it was no longer an option, let alone walking on it. Not only did it look like an eye it was starting to look a bit like a jaundiced eye and I decided to rush her to after hours care for a lancing. The doctor said it would push its way out on its own or just dissolve or pop in a fountain of puss glory and be right in a few weeks or we could traumatize her and lance it and it would come right in a week. "Hmm, yeah...I think I am going to have to go for the trauma and lance please." I got ready to hold her down and let him have at it but he was too wussy and I went home with a prescription for antibitiotics, "just in case it takes a turn for the worst" he says. Oh sure and in the meantime I am supposed to do what with my 7 year old that can't walk? Mark got home, I held her down and we lanced away all our woes. You know what? No trauma. She was glad we did it. Stupid doctor. Glad to have that stress removed I consented to have Aida's ears pierced.
Off we went with two of the neighbor kids, Aida, a hobbling Lucy, Ed in the pack and a whining Maya to the chemist to have the lobes pierced. All was going okay but I could not be there by Aida's side to hold her hand because I was distracted. When I looked down at Lucy I saw a SWARM, yes SWARM is that what you call a large gathering of lice? All piled up together like ants. For those of you that wonder if it is hard to see adult lice, no it is not. Especially when you let them go rampant for what turned out to be like 4 weeks. They were all over, I would say maybe 4 generations at least and some of them were beetle sized. Disgusting. I was a little annoyed at having to spend a couple of hours a day diligently combing through Lucy's hair which was tricky because I couldn't just shower her due to her large bloody crater on her foot from her blister. I got through it only to realize that yes indeed, the loving mother that I am that gave her cuddles only the day before also had nits. I wasn't going to admit this but it is true. I was grossed out and seriously debated shaving my head. It wouldn't take long to grow back and I could conceal my bald dome under a winter hat. Then I thought of church and away went all my hopes The nits were starting to get under control when Lucy showed us yet another "itchy spot" on her leg. She has these often so we weren't prepared to see a huge pussing wound. She had scratched what we thought at the time to be a sandfly bite, raw. It was infected and would need antibiotics. Poor Lucy we thought Her tummy hurt from the medicine, she was still limping but her head was itching a little less so we thought we would make it. Just a few days later Aida complained about something hurting her when she sat down. Turns out she had a large infected looking boil the size of a baseball on her bum. More medicine while we anxiously wait for it to pop and we had flashbacks back to Lucy's jaundiced foot eye. The time passed quickly as we realized that Aida also had nits. YEAH! A few days later we noticed that Ed had chicken pox. OHHHHHHH so Lucy didn't have infected sand fly bites they must have been infected pox. Great. Luckily Ed's pox weren't bad and he wasn't too upset. Aida's boil popped only to spread the the surrounding area and 3 new ones popped up. Still cleaning the newly pierced ears and watching all the other infections, the boils were really starting to get my goat. Drizzled in between we had our usual spurts of colds come and go but the boils are consistent. As soon as one popped there would be three to replace it much like a pot of boiling water-no pun intended. It really was like that. Maya returned from kindi and I looked down at her and surprise! A huge nit having a picnic in her fringe. Great! I am loving life at this point and it has been 6 weeks since Lucy's foot and it has been non stop ailments. I kid you not all of these were in complete succession. So at present Aida's boils have spread to her tummy and I have strep throat. BUT we mustn't forget about the lovely random allergic reaction I had that was so bad I thought that someone had stuck a horse in the air filter of my heat pump. I had taken so much sudafed that I could hardly stay awake but I couldn't waste my 150 dollar epi-pen on my eyes. So what if my breathing was laboured. I was nearly in shock. Just for fun I decided to repeat the whole thing the following day on my hands. They swelled up and I was minutes away from cutting them off. Really. I am just lucky that mark came home just before I was about to do the deed. Oh and somewhere in between nit combings and aida's twice a day showing and bandaging, I consented to have Lucy's ears pierced so I could clean those as well. To be fair I may have been on my painkillers at the time... After throwing up my birthday dinner, I feel much better today. Much better. My throat still really hurts and I am tired but the good news is that after so long, we decided to give Aida a blessing. Her boils finally look like they are diminishing in number and I think after her tummy they will be gone. It has been a rough road but I think there is a light shining somewhere and I just hope that I will be able to bask in the rays of good fortune soon. So there you have it.