It's a stark parenting moment when you realize that the compassionate, nurturing words of advice to a sick child were wrong. Dead wrong. (Oh calm down, I didn't kill her.)
It started as a headache--*dramatic sickly voice* "Mom, I think I've got a migraine."
Mom: "Did you take some aspirin?"
Katie: "Noo-o."
Mom: "Well do it."
A couple of days went by and she still complained of the headache, and I still prescribed aspirin. On day 4, with the headache now entrenched and encompassing her eyes, jaw, and ears, I determined that she was suffering from a sinus headache. Prescription: sinus headache tablets.
Day 5 brought skin lesions. Spotty, red and raised, they showed up on her forehead. Well that's no sinus headache, so off to the doctor's we went. Diagnosis: shingles. Therapy: an antiviral and a pain killer.
It continued to progress with increasingly painful headaches and eye and jaw pain. And the lesions grew to monstrous proportions. Covering the whole right side of her head, her face became inflamed and blistered. The lesions around the eye and the angry red of the eyeball freaked out our general practitioner, so off to an ophthalmologist we went. The ophthalmologist peered into her eyeball with a very bright beam of light. Diagnosis: shingles inside the eyeball. Therapy: 2 types of eye drops 3 times a day each.
She awoke 5 days later, with greasy hair and an enlarged egg-shaped iris. Trying to seem casual after peering into that weird, bottomless eyeball, I popped into the kitchen to call the ophthalmologist again. "Oh that's ok, her iris will dilate and become misshapen." Oh. "I also told her that she won't be contagious once the lesions crust over, and once the scabs fall off wah wah wah wah." I didn't hear a word he said after that, and apparently concluded the phone call.
Immediately, "Katie, what'd you doctor tell you about once the scabs fall off?"
Katie: "I have NO idea. As soon as he said the scabs will fall off all I could think was they were gonna fall off into my mashed potatoes at dinner, or pop off when I was talking to someone, or fall down my shirt or something."
"Ick, gross. Don't get any on me."
Ewwwww...Bless her.
Posted by: Ian | June 16, 2005 at 02:22 AM
Did 'the boys' see her all scabby?
Posted by: Greavsie | June 16, 2005 at 10:31 AM
heavens no!
Posted by: em | June 16, 2005 at 11:11 AM
Scabs didn't fall in my ice cream, you guys are mean. :(
Posted by: Sam | June 16, 2005 at 03:07 PM
yes they did. and she left one on your pillow too.
Posted by: em | June 16, 2005 at 04:12 PM
EW GOD WTF.
She put one in your coffee.
Posted by: Sam | June 16, 2005 at 04:42 PM
mmmmm, a bit salty but not unpleasant. :-)
Posted by: em | June 17, 2005 at 02:07 PM
Oh, ewww, you made that horrible smiley face. Try *not* using the little long nose thing, and just keep it simple. Like :) See, you're cooler already!
Posted by: Sam | June 17, 2005 at 09:11 PM
oooooh. Shingles SUCKS! My dad had shingles and he is a big man and says he never felt anything so painful.
W/Juno's leg I am nowhere near NJ right now :(
Matybe Aug after summer school??????
Posted by: C-Bomb | June 18, 2005 at 03:56 PM
So :) is cooler than :-)? So hard to keep up with these things these days.....:-) I mean :)
Posted by: Ron | June 20, 2005 at 03:02 AM
Sam should set up a site to tell us old fogies how to keep "with it".
How about it, Sam?
Posted by: Em | June 22, 2005 at 04:20 PM