Pick ‘N’ Mix
Why is it that when you know an adult has some nasty virus you do everything you possibly can to avoid getting it, yet when your child is ill you desperately will them to give it to you, ten times as bad if necessary, if it meant they wouldn’t have it anymore?
Our three year old (you know, the one with huge brown eyes, gorgeous dimples and a startling temper?) has got some horrible infection that has made those same eyes glazed and heavy, has left the dimples nowhere to be seen and the startling temper more of a feeble whimpering.
I thought the last one would be a silver lining but this quiet, obedient reticence is the most worrying symptom of all and perversely I would give anything for a spectacular tantrum if it meant he was feeling better.
He was quiet all day yesterday but we knew all was not right at about half six last night when he threw up into his bag of Pick ‘N’ Mix, which he found particularly upsetting (well, who wouldn’t?).
The floodgates had well and truly opened and after having a bath and going to bed he proceeded to throw up in his bed, on the floor, in our bed, in the toilet (or its general vicinity) and on several pairs of everyone’s pyjamas at varying points throughout the night.
We gave him water and Calpol (I’d say other paracetamol suspensions are available, but let’s face it, they may as well not be) and then he eventually fell into a shivery, feverish sleep in our bed.
Apart from the fact that he was taking up rather a lot of room and was wrapped around me with limbs at impossible angles and breathing hot ‘poorly’ breath in my face (another thing that never bothers you with your own children), I found myself unable to go to sleep for worrying about him, so just lay and watched him obsessively, waking with a start every time I nodded off.
When he woke this morning, looking awful and complaining of a sore neck, with the little devil sitting on my shoulder whispering ‘meningitis, meningitis’, I decided I couldn’t settle until a doctor had examined him. It turns out he has tonsillitis and possibly scarlet fever which I never thought I’d feel so relieved about but compared to the alternative it’s positively good news.
We went to the pharmacy to pick up antibiotics at which point he promptly puked all over himself and the chair he was sitting on. Then after cleaning it up and carrying him outside, both of us stinking of sick, I found a parking ticket on my car because I’d parked on a side street instead of the car park which is reduced in size due to building work and was full.
I’ll leave it to your imaginations to guess what I’ve told the authorities to do with their penalty charge notice 🙂