Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Memories of illness and fear

The mystery of Cookie’s illness has been solved. I’m sure you are all waiting on the edge of your seats. (and hoping I’m not going to share too much info this time!) She has Roseola; a very common childhood illness.

Roseola (also known as sixth disease, exanthem subitum, and roseola infantum) is a viral illness in young children, most commonly affecting those between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. It is typically marked by several days of high fever, followed by a distinctive rash just as the fever breaks.

Just last night she broke out in the infamous rash and Will and I looked knowingly at each other and nodded sagely with our vast parenting wisdom. Roseola, we smugly said, now the worst is over; and it is. Cookie is back to her old chipper self and the house is slowly coming back into order. It’s always amazing to me how much damage one sick child can do on a household.

Ok, so the extent of our sage parenting wisdom is very limited, but Roseola is not something we are likely to forget anytime soon. Princess had a nasty case of it when she was 13 months old. On Sunday, had just gotten home from an extended trip to visit family and attend my best friends wedding. On Monday, my sister was married. On Tuesday, Princess woke up with a fever of 104, her first fever ever. I panicked and called my mom who asked if I was watching the TV. I wasn’t but what she had to say sent me running for the remote. It was Tuesday, September 11th, 2001.



I spend most of the day parked on the couch with a limp, nursing, child; watching events that would change the world. I remember feeling so scared, as I craddled my baby, that I had brought her into this dangerouse world. How could I protect her from such senseless violence and hate? It is a day I will never forget and Princess and her Roseola are all wrapped up in that. Thankful, Cookie’s bout with it will be much less memorable.

Well, other than the closet incident that is.

(Photo: Thomas E. Franklin's famous photograph of three dusty firefighters hoisting a tattered flag amid the rubble of the World Trade Center.)




2 comments:

Maggie said...

I don't think anyone will ever forget exactly what they were doing that day. I remember I was going into work late because I had to run an errand. I went later than planned because I couldn't tear myself away from the TV. When I finally got to the office, someone had brought in a TV and all we did was sit in front of the TV and stare in horror.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad she's feeling better. That high fever is kind of terrifying because it goes on SO LONG. I remember with Isa, they were about to catheterize her to see if she had a UTI when we noticed the rash. I was never happier to see little red bumps!