Being Sick in Our Family

Hopefully you'll never be with our family when we're sick. I wish I never had to be with my family when they're sick either. But sometimes it happens, and when it does, there is only one thing to be done. And that one thing is to blog. So here goeth.

It starts when one of the little kids -- say Joanna -- starts blowing her nose and lying around more than usual. These are indications that a Sickness is coming. As more children fall ill, the chances of the older kids (namely, Jessica and yours truly) getting sick is greater. Finally, if it's a really bad sickness, we all get it.

There are pros and cons of getting a mass sickness or your own solitary one. If you are sick with 5 or 8 other people in your family, you will get no sympathy. Fevers of 98.7 will be scorned. Fevers of 100 are likewise denigrated. The only way to get pity is to LIMP. (I haven't gotten that desperate yet.)

Getting sick all by your lonesome means that you have more of a chance to get pitied, if you play it right. BUT, compassion in this instance takes longer to receive. See, when you stagger downstairs and announce weakly to the family (who is happily munching their Cinnamon Squares at the breakfast table) that you are sick and don't expect to live past 3 PM, their reaction is indicative of the loving, caring nature of their generous souls. "GET AWAY FROM ME!!" they shout, leaping up, and rushing past you far, far away. They hold their breaths, lest a lethal germ should enter their breathing system and thereby endanger them. Then, for the rest of the day, they sidle warily past you, turning blue from a germophobic asphyxiation as they hasten to do any urgent business they might have. Then they hurry away, leaving a safe radius of, say, four miles, between themselves and the hacking, coughing you.

And then, horror of horrors, if another sibling should come down with the same illness, that member is shunned like a Hindu priest does a beggar. Discussions are held amongst the well ones as they try to recall how exactly the new sick member got sick. Then they avoid anything that person had previously done. Consultations and updates are held with frequency as the kids who are not sick try desperately to remain so. Then, as another child gets sick, the process repeats itself. Or, no one else gets sick and life goes on.

Either way, life eventually returns back to normal, and siblings stop monitoring each other for unusual things which could point to a succumbing to sickness. Then someone gets sick again, and the whole process repeats.

As you might have guessed, our family is going through a mass cold. It's an annoying, lingering one, and its existence is the reason that I am home blogging instead of at Cadet Leadership School like I have anticipated for the last year. Have you ever heard the term "her fever broke," and wondered how a fever breaks? I have, and I found out a couple nights ago. It just stops. I was in bed, awake, feeling shivery like you do when you have a fever, and it suddenly went away. And I went back to sleep. But last night, I had a fever, and it went away somewhat gradually, so I guess I'm not sure. I thought it was cool though.

That was an update on my life. What about yours?