Just a part of life

We're having tough times around here.

Kid A has a nasty staph infection that started off, of course, with a couple small blisters that we tried to treat at home for a couple of days. He was also sick with a sore throat, and he had a fever.

After three days of treating him and watching it spread and the fever not go away, we took him to the little local hospital, where they hooked him up to intravenous antibiotics. He's been going four times a day. Yesterday was the second day and we have two more days and one more morning.

The last time we had staph we treated it with MMS, which was the only thing that seemed to get the infections to go and stay gone. (You can google it, but beware, there is a whole lot of hokey around it. It is very useful though, and we always travel with it and use it for many things.)

We are always reluctant to use antibiotics. However, it was obvious that this one was out of our control.

This is one of the darker sides of traveling with kids. It can be quite common in India, I hadn't expected it here, but Kid A has excema, and is more vulnerable to it.

One redeeming thing is the way he's handling it. The IV hurts him, but he keeps heading off to the hospital with one of us, cheerful and prepared. When it's hurting, he says, "Ow ow ow," under his breath, or grimaces. He cheerfully analyzes a bleeding IV. "The blood's going all the way back into the tube!"

They had to switch spots because one wasn't good anymore. He handled it. When they put it in, he said, "If you come to the hospital, you have to expect a little bit of pain."

This is the same kid who, last summer, when he got the dog bite, was so wild and terrified about the thought of an anasthesia shot, that the hospital had to send their largest male nurse in to sit on him. Really. I mean, he was large, and he had to sit on Kid A.

This kid now says, "You have to expect some pain. Pain's a part of life." And other such maxims, which are almost a direct parrot of his father.

It's an amazing thing to see someone so admire someone else. Kid A would love to be just like his dad.

And oh, I love the both of them.

I'm off to the hospital with my son!

PS. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Anyone who googles "Staph infection," and then clicks "Images," is asking for it. Don't do it.