Contagiondamnation

Day 2- Little Liza walked out of her bedroom rubbing the sleep from her eyes. It was business as usual in the Fank House. Mother was drinking her coffee with milk and checking daily deals on Amazon while being kicked in the thigh by 10 month old baby Millie. This was Millie's custom while she took her morning bottle. On the floor, two ruffian man-cubs scrawled on blankets, unusually quieted by Curious George.

The high point of the day for mother was Liza's bowel movement. After more than 6 weeks of abdominal pain, diarrhea, testing and diet experimentation, Liza seemed like she had barely closed the chapter entitled, "the Christmas with all the GI problems". Alas, the euphoria from the perfectly formed, pain-free poo was short lived.

Crying over Legos began. Then crying over Word World began. Then there was a trip to Sam's Club for Larabars, Millie's post-placement report photos, and a waffle maker. The trip to Sam's ended in crying because Silas wouldn't feel how soft Liza's pants were like she wanted. It was at this point, mother began to wonder if all this crying were indicative of a deeper symptom. Having just read this blog, mother assumed the children needed more attention.

But there was schooling to be done so Silas and mother set out to memorize odd numbers. Around 12:00pm, mother noticed the dark circles under Liza's eyes had become red and puffy. A yellow goo was beginning to ooze from the corners of her eyes. Being no stranger to conjunctivitus, mother assumed her little daughter needed nothing more than antibiotic eye drops. The pediatrician was contacted and a second trip to Sam's was planned.

By 2:00pm, Liza's eyes had swollen more and further crying ensued. To mother's extreme irritability, having a reason to cry made it no more tolerable. Mother laid down beside her little daughter with warm, soft cloth and did her best to coax the lass into at least closing her eyes so that they might rest.

Liza would no more close her eyes than a salt water croc in fresh water, waiting for a Indian cow to get a drink of water. You get the idea. She didn't want to close her eyes.

It is unknowable now how long mother snoozed, but it is estimated the amount of time was somewhere between 5 minutes and 9 minutes. Around 3:30, all attempts to make Liza rest and close her eyes had been retired. Disney's "Beauty and Beast" was turned on and plans were set into motion to expedite the second Sam's trip.

Great-grandmother was gracious and kind. Mother had more than once requested her service for what had been called "a drive-by". No, not a shooting. A "drive-by" was where mother picked up Great-Grandmother and together they drove to a store, post-office, clinic or other errand type location at which mother would leave Great-grandmother in the car with all the children and mother would bop in, and bop out more quickly than if all 4 children were unloaded, carted in and out, and then reloaded.

OK- here's how the story wraps up because I'm getting tired of remembering this day: Liza got a second, oral antibiotic and by the time she was getting out of the bath and into bed, there was blood dripping from her eyes. To be continued...