Day : Sickness

Now I know any Mothers who read this will say, `well big deal, thats happened to me... several times, maybe once a month circumstances similar.  It happens, its life.`  In other words, you wanna play the part, then get to know the show.  And Dads who stay home with their kids more will say, `well, duh, of course`.  

Im not asking for sympathy, not even empathy, all I will say is this is what happened to me.  Im a Dad and I pulled it all off.  OK, Im over dramatizing.  It wasnt even a biggie.  Lets get to it, it happened just this last week.

So its winter time and despite all the big bad snow and storms and coldest winter in two decades across the US, where I am at, we have a really mild winter.  Kind of springish.  Does that stop people from getting the flu and sicknesses?  For some reason it does not.  I dont understand it.  You d think with a mild winter you d have less sickness, kind of like using less heating gas in a mild winter.  Its not happening that way.  Our family is on our third round of sicknesses as of this writing in February, and that seems to be par for the course for the past three years.  

I started off this round with a painful painful sore throat one night.  It was the kind which hurt to breathe.  The pain was circular.  The pain would flare up every ten seconds like a gas meter going around.  That went to a cough and then a stuffed nose and combination thereof and then pretty much gone at the end of three weeks.  My youngest daughter got it from me and she gets the coughing bad.  You want dry?  The desert doesnt get any dryer and she hacks like a seasoned smoker.  It sounds terrible when you know its coming from a two year old.   I feel helpless even sitting beside her.  And its not like she wants to stay in bed.  She wants to do all her regular stuff.  Plus her older sister was sick home from school, so she wanted to play with her too, listen to the Beatles, run around the table, have Daddy do the metal monster and chase them.  You really cant get kids to slow down, even for a sickness, unless it wipes them out.  Then its real sad.  It was about to get sad.  Im sure you know all this already.  

Since the night before, she had started to hold one ear.  Now getting close to lunchtime she started complaining about a pain in her ear.  She started to cry.  I had been charged with getting a pizza today for lunch.  The shop is just half way down the block.  My older girl wanted to go with me so I couldnt leave the younger girl alone in the house.  Pizza is a class act even with toddlers, but the youngest girl, she just did not want to go outside and started crying for her life about putting on her boots and coat.  Back track.  I cant take her out like this.  Off with the coat and boots and then she voluntarily went to bed.  I sat by her bed as she held her ear and cried hard.  Finally I had to get the pizza delivered even from half a block which was a big heart breaker for my older girl who was all ready to go out and get the pizza with me.  But now she was hungry so I had to get it.  The younger girl was half sleeping, half set upon by pain in her ear.  I think the pain was circular in her ear just like my gas meter and it came around pounding.  She wasnt interested in the pizza when it came.  Bad sign.  I sat by the bed and tried to get her to blow her nose thinking if we got the mucous out it would relieve the pressure on her ear.  I thought it was just a stuffed head problem.  She finally fell asleep and I was able to eat my lunch and go to the bathroom.  

But her pain woke her up.  All I could do was try to quiet her down and hold her hand.  It worked a bit, but like I said, I think the pain was circular and she would fall asleep for ten minutes and then wake up crying as the pain came around again.  It was starting to break me.  OK,  I called our kids Doctor, but they were finishing for the day and said anyway, its an ear problem I would have to go to the ear doctor.  

It was now after three pm and this had been going on for three hours and I knew that a bad cold can get into the ear and then it can be bad news and do damage.  I wasnt panicking, but I felt I should do something more.  So, I called up my wife who was doing research and told her the situation and she said she would run home and I should go to the ear doctor.  The ear doctor closed at 4.00 today, but they were just a couple blocks away, I figured a twenty minute run.   My wife made it home from the library by 4 and I was out of there with the little girl who I had had to wake up from a sleep she had finally achieved. I always hate to do that.  But I thought I didnt want my girl going deaf as a result of my irresponsibility.  I was riding like the witch from the East, she was the good witch wasnt she?  Maybe West?  

We live in the city so it is beautiful how close everything is.  Man, you wouldnt believe that strollers can actually move pretty quickly.  Im mowing down the blocks,  I may be contradicting my earlier Post on the dangers of male testosterone in taking care of children, but maybe it came in handy this time.  The fight or flight instinct had pumped so much adrenaline into my body I dont think even Usain Bolt could have gone faster.  Course I mean relatively faster AND while pushing a stroller.  Mr. Bolt, to the best of my knowledge, has never run a race pushing a stroller, so Im one up on him.  Yeap, "in the 5 block running event while pushing a stroller, we have Maxddaddy...", its going to be an event in the 2025 Olympics.

 The Mrs. Doctor said she would wait til 4.15 for me and I got to the door of where the doctor was at 4.20.  Oh please please still be at work.  Please please be there.  What was the name of the doctor, I dont see it on the list of businesses in the building?  Called them up and they were still there.  But I was at the wrong house. Next one over.  Agh.  Foom.  Please no damage to the ear.  Why did I wait so long? Why am I so irresponsible? Oh Im a terrible parent.  NOW I was panicking. 

I couldnt believe how nice the Doctor was and her nurse too.  But I was on Adrenaline OD and I wanted to cry when the Doctor told me that it wasnt bad at all, less than twenty per cent chance of the ear drum bursting and even that isnt a bad thing as then all the built pressure is released.  Then it was just the usual, here is an order to get some ear drops and nose drops and you should give her this for kids to help her sleep in the night and if the drum breaks call me tomorrow or Friday and.... but the sound had stopped penetrating into my brain.  My legs felt like Id been water skiing all day, like rubber or a slinky, whrehherhherh.  And now I was overdosed, MY adrenaline had popped and I think it was running down my leg.  Oh, or that was something else.   

It seems I havent contradicted myself and testosterone is dangerous no matter what when combined with Fatherhood.  If its not inciting you to violence or impatience then its exploding all over the place and giving you a sticky situation. 

I pushed my little girl home in the stroller at the pace of a normal casual walk.  I was whistling some tune.  I asked her if her ear hurt, "No", she said.  She seemed to be in a good mood now too.  Good thing its Winter.  There werent many people on the street.  I was shaking my leg about trying to get the wind to dry my pants out before I got home.  Its OK.  Absolutely no problemo whatsoever.  Everything is going to be all right.