In Search of a Grip

I don't think that anyone is really cut out to parent a sick kid, but some people are better at it than others. Certainly they're better at it than me. Not that I don't attend to my kid when he's under the weather, actually I think I'm great at doing whatever needs to be done in the throes of illness. It helps me for me to have a task, medicine to fetch, messes to clean up, a snuggle spot for a feverish napper, but the waiting and watching and feeling out of control, JFC. The mental part is where I'm all disarray, I mean, just the suggestion of a fever and I'm a wreck until full health is restored and I know this is due to personal trauma and the occupational hazard of seeing worst-case scenarios every day. Now that my almost-teenager-baby seems to have recovered from the worst of this weekend's stomach bug (as if he could afford to lose a single calorie as we try to solve the mystery of his latest growth plateau), I'm feeling more calm and in full acknowledgement of my issues. I'm also immeasurably thankful that I have Mike share the caretaking, which includes tempering my neuroses. I have no idea how anyone gets through a single day with a seriously ill child, how my parents did it, or, my god, how single people find the strength to deal. I know that they somehow do, because when you love someone on a cellular level, you just do it. (Or, you don't and I've seen that too in my time but it's another story.)

 

 

Anyway, we had a rough weekend, which also included the loss of my parents' pup Auggie. She was a pain in the ass and we loved her, but nobody loved her more than Gram and vice versa. 

 

Goodbye little Auggie (gone the same week as my cat-nephew Bert, who I didn't get to know but was well loved and much missed by his parents) and here's to some mental and physical recuperation and weekend do-overs for us all.  

Comments

[Daniel Jakes]

Poor Harrison! I hope he feels better soon!

[Dawn]

Thanks Dan, he's on the mend!