Well y’all seemed to like it last week when I bared my soul and shared some of my epic parenting fails … so here’s another one for you, that’s perhaps even worse!
It was the September school holidays and my kids were in Years 3 and 1, when my son got chicken pox.
No sooner was he back to full health than my daughter came down with it. The day she went back to school, the hubster got it, and it was NOT pretty. Both the kids had fairly mild doses, but the hubster was really sick (and not just in a man flu kind of way either, though he does have that down pat!).
The kids both seemed to take a while to pick up from the chicken pox. Miss 6 in particular, was very tired and run down. I just put it down to the after effects of the chicken pox, and nearing the end of a big school year … once we got to the school holidays, she’d be able to rest and her health and energy levels would pick up again.
Wrong.
On Christmas Day, my sister (who is a nurse) took one look at my little girl and told me that she thought I should get her to the doctor as soon as the public holidays were over, as Miss 6 just didn’t look right to her.
She doesn’t look well, does she? Was I blind?!
I trusted her expert opinion so off to the doctor we trotted … only to discover when the blood tests came back, that my poor little girl had glandular fever. And not only that, it was such a bad case she had liver damage.
How awful did I feel! That was the Bad Mummy moment to end all bad mummy moments. How could I not have realised that my girl was really sick? What sort of a Mummy was I anyway? Why didn’t I take her to the doctor earlier? BAD MUMMY!
I look at photos of my girl from that Christmas and NOW I can see it for myself – her eyes are glazed, and it’s true, she just doesn’t look right (she was always very thin, so that wasn’t a symptom!). But why couldn’t I see it at the time?!
I remember having glandular fever myself, but I was 16, not 6. It played havoc with Year 12 as I missed a lot of time off school. Surely I should have known better when I saw my baby exhibiting the same symptoms?
Glandular fever is a bit like depression – it’s gradual and sneaky. By the time you actually feel sick, and not just tired, you are REALLY sick.
The Good News
- Children’s livers repair themselves remarkably quickly.
- When my son began displaying the same symptoms, we got him diagnosed straight away, no mucking around!
- Even if my girl HAD been diagnosed earlier, there is no treatment except for rest and paracetamol for pain.
- At least my kids won’t get it later in life, when it can seriously mess up your schooling, or your job etc!
What’s YOUR worst bad mummy moment?!
Joining up with Jess and the gang as always, for I Blog On Tuesdays (IBOT)!