Wednesday, November 08, 2006

She's so sick, she likes to party 'til the break of dawn


There are several firsts every parent looks forward to with their new child: the kid's first smile, the first time they roll over, the first time they flunk their SAT exam (wait, that's much later). The next time, though, someone says they can't wait until their kid's first cold, punch them in the face for me.

Eden's been a sad, sad little girl for three or four days now, and while she's finally on the upswing I can't say I wouldn't rather have just taken a swift sharp kick in the groin than suffer through this, Eden's first sickness. Her first real sickness, at any rate; that ITP stuff it didn't cause multiple gallons of snot to continuously drip out of her nose, therefore it doesn't really count. She had all of a cold's usual funbag--stuffy and runny nose, fever, diarrhea, and a cough that sounded like her lungs were slowly crumbling in on themselves. A normal person can just blow their nose and be done with it, at least until the mucus cisterns fill up again, but Eden had to face the Dreaded Snotsucking Bulb Of Eternal Suffering, otherwise known as. . . um. . . I'm not really sure what they're actually called, but every parent knows the thing I'm talking about. If you don't know, just search your worst nightmares. Really hard. Way back in the back of 'em. It's still lurking there. It made Eden's life miserable and I know it made yours miserable, too.

Most parents, I'm sure, just dose their sick one with NyQuil and enjoy many blissful hours of relaxation while their kid sleeps it off. We were lucky enough to get a child upon whom cold medicine has the opposite effect. We dosed her right before her bedtime Monday night; 30 minutes later she woke up and stayed up until 6:00 the next morning (ah, now the title makes sense. Okay, so maybe not). Sarah and I couldn't hang--we had to platoon it, taking 2 hour shifts during the night as Eden's pupils dilated and she twitched and quivered and generally went nuts all night long.

Needless to say, the NyQuil went in the trash the next morning.

Fortunately, she's finally on the uptick, laughing and bullying and being something close to her normal self again. Unfortunately, the cold apparently only left Eden because it found larger game; Sarah is starting to feel the chills and tingles of an impending nastiness. Hopefully I won't have to stick a snot sucker up her nose, too.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like father, like daughter. Mike, the first time you had cough syrup you stayed awake for 3 straight days. When we called the doctor in a panic all he would say is, "Well it affects some kids that way." I'm glad Eden made it through it.

Anonymous said...

You can count me in on the sickness caught from our precious girl. I have gargled, irrigated and am now consuming a gallon of Emergen-C. Let me know if you need some, Sar.

Anonymous said...

OH NOOOOOO!!! sorry to hear our little rolly polly has been so down and out!!

johanna would like eden to know that she empathizes with her disdain for the "suction" - it's not so popular around here either...but so satisfying for me!!

hope you're all feeling better soon.

nd

Anonymous said...

I can echo Mom's comments about you, Mike, and your (our) first experience with cough syrup. We found that you were a "reactor" to anything with codeine in it. Most people are sedated with codeine; you were among those few that get "wired" from codeine, so I imagine that was passed along to little Eden. Your eyes stayed dilated for 3 days, as Mom says.

Hope she (and both of you) don't have to go through it again any time soon! Wishing you all love and wellness.

Love,

Dad