Gleek is sick again. She spent the week before last laying on the couch with a fever, body aches, and a rash. Then she got better and we figured she’d had her bout with flu for the year. No one else got sick and we counted ourselves lucky. Then Halloween night Gleek spiked a fever again. She has spent the last two days laying on the couch with a high fever, sniffles, a cough, and body aches. It is the flu again, only a different strain this time.
I’ve spent the last couple of days tending to her. It has been harder this time around because we went through most of our stock of infrequently watched movies just a week ago. Also Gleek feels the cosmic unfairness of the fact that she is the only one who has been sick. Twice.
I worry that this particular cosmic unfairness is likely to be rectified. A sniffle/cough illness is harder to contain than a rash illness. I’ve been in the most contact with Gleek, so I’ve been monitoring myself all day. It isn’t always easy to determine if that sneeze and slight sniffle are allergies or if it is is the beginning of something more dire. Are those body aches, or just stiffness from sleeping on an air mattress next to a sick child? Is that a slight fatigue headache?
I feel like a swimmer in the water during one of the Jaws movies. I’m out there in the open, completely exposed and I can’t tell if that thing which just brushed my leg is a piece of harmless kelp or a monster that will swallow me whole.
I really don’t want what Gleek has. I don’t want Gleek to have what she has. But if she still has it tomorrow, we’re off to the doctor again. Whee.