Posted tagged ‘Measles’

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“Adventure in life is good; consistency in coffee even better.”

July 11, 2017

When I first took Gracie out this morning, it was misting. After that it started to rain. I could hear it on the roof. But now, it seems to have stopped leaving the day still dark and chilly from the dampness. It is uninviting.

A few of the neighborhood kids were outside yesterday riding their bikes. Whatever or whoever had held them hostage has let them go. That’s the first time I’ve seen them all summer.

Today is in-house chores like watering plants and doing laundry. I’m thinking I’ll stay in my cozy clothes and take an afternoon nap. Gracie is already napping.

My sisters and I always have the small print reaction to drugs and such. If only 3% of people get a rash, we’ll each have a rash. Yesterday I had a follow-up check for the laser procedure I had on my eyes, the laser iridotomy.  The doctor checked and then explained that for 1% of those who have the procedure, it doesn’t work; of course, I am among that 1%. That means another, more intricate procedure to safeguard my eyes by releasing the pressure as they do for people with glaucoma. I called my sister and told her about the 1% and she said of course you would be among them. My other sister said the same thing in the same words. It’s a family thing.

When I was a kid, I caught all the kid diseases. I remember lying in bed in my dark room when I had the measles and being bored to death doing nothing. The only things I remember about chicken pox are they have nothing to do with chickens and you can’t scratch or you’ll get scars. Mumps made it difficult to chew and my face was swollen in places. My mother took everything in stride despite the fact that over time we passed the illnesses to one another, and she was our nurse going up and down the stairs whenever we needed her or thought we did. Luckily, when we were all done being sick, we were none the worse, not even a scar.

According to a new study, coffee can make our lives longer. I’m thinking I’ll live to be well over 100 given how much I drink coffee.

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“Summer-induced stupidity. That was the diagnosis…”

July 12, 2015

The air conditioner is keeping the humidity at bay, but I feel a bit like a hermit. The closed windows and doors isolate me. No outside sounds, no people can be heard. Rod Serling could be standing in front of a camera on the front steps to introduce this episode of The Twilight Zone. I can hear him now,”Inside this house Kathleen Ryan sits in isolation, comfortable and cool and totally unaware that the world outside her walls has changed, but soon enough she’ll know she has entered The Twilight Zone.”

The morning is sunny with a slight breeze, but I can already feel the heat when I open the door to let Gracie in and out. According to the weather in the paper, the humidity will start to lessen tomorrow.

I don’t remember the weather being such a complicated topic when I was a kid. It was hot or cold or comfortable. There were no ten-day forecasts or drawings of cold fronts sweeping down from Canada. Forecasting was iffy at best, and the weatherman, always a man back then, was the target when his forecast went awry, and it went awry often. The best way to check the weather was to walk outside.

We seldom got sick when I was growing up. I think it had to do with the world being far less sanitized than it is now. We did get measles, mumps and chicken pox, but those were expected and there was nothing you could do about them. The worst was the itch from chicken pox. My mother went crazy making sure we didn’t scratch, “Do you want scars all over your face?” Then there was the possibility of blindness from measles. My mother kept the shades down and muted the light from the lamp by covering the shade. I couldn’t read or watch TV so lying in bed doing nothing made having measles seem interminable. The only thing I remember about the mumps is how huge my face and neck felt. I don’t know who brought home the mumps first but all four if us got sick at just about the same time. All I can think of is my poor mother!

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“What is the world coming to when girls allow their hands to be kissed without gloves? That young people don’t use proper protection these days is exactly why there are always so many colds going around.”

October 21, 2013

Today is just one of those I have no ambition to do anything days. The house is already clean, the laundry done, the bird feeders filled and the dishes put away. I could make my bed, but I don’t want to and don’t care one way or the other. If I leave it unmade, it is prime for an afternoon nap. Reason enough I think.

When I was a kid, I seldom stayed home from school. The only times I did were for the big diseases like measles and mumps. I remember the room was kept dark when I had the measles so I wouldn’t go blind, one of the accepted notions in those days, and I was driven insane by lying in bed with nothing to do because I couldn’t read or watch TV. I don’t remember the mumps though we all got them from each other. I just remember my neck hurting. We must have gotten colds, but I think it would have taken pneumonia before we stayed home from school.

One of the smells I always associate with childhood and colds is Vicks Vapor Rub. My father for his whole life was a big fan. He even had a grey sweatshirt he wore every time he used Vapor Rub. It had a big greasy looking stain on the front. If we got sick, out came the Vapor Rub. We didn’t have a choice. It was the panacea for the common cold in our house. I remember how awful it smelled, but I also remember it really worked.

Nobody had pediatricians in those days. We did have a family doctor we seldom saw. His name was Dr. Devlin and his giant, beautiful house was right next to the entrance to the schoolyard. His office was on the first floor. I remember all the wood and the ornate staircase as you came in the front door. Dr. Devlin was a huge man who sat behind a huge desk. He wasn’t a fuzzy, warm doctor but he wasn’t mean either. I remember he wasn’t all that gentle. I saw him only twice during my childhood: once when I was ten and had fallen down the stairs and broken open my chin. I still have the scar. When I was twelve, the school detected a heart murmur, and my parents took me to the doctor then I went to the hospital for tests. I remember that test and being nervous because it was the hospital. Luckily, nothing ever came of it and the murmur disappeared when I got older.

I think we were seldom sick because a cold was just a cold. A cough meant cough syrup and there was always the miracle of Vapor Rub.   The doctor was for big things.

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“The most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.”

January 27, 2013

This morning I’m on the mend. My voice is still creaky and my cough fierce but I feel better. Last night I slept longer before the coughing woke me and was able to get back to sleep instead of having to come downstairs at some ungodly hour to watch garbage TV. Staying home cozy and warm and taking naps have been the best cure for this.

When I was a kid, I seldom was sick enough to stay home from school. My mother set the bar pretty high. Sniffles weren’t enough. Coughing might have done it, but the degree of coughing was the key. Once I had the measles so I had to stay home, but that was no fun because the room was kept dark, and I wasn’t allowed to read. I just stayed in bed all day and was totally bored. What a waste of staying home! I know I had mumps and German measles but I don’t remember when. I also had chicken pox, and I remember taking baking soda baths so I wouldn’t itch as much. My mother would scream if we dared scratch our faces. We were warned about the gross, ugly scars we’d have if we scratched.

Few kids were ever absent from school. One girl had surgery in the fifth grade, and it was such a singular event I still remember. Her name was Catherine. I don’t remember why she had surgery, but the nuns were really nice to her when she came back.

During high school you never wanted to miss a day. Two broken legs would mean dragging yourself to school because missing even one day meant missing tons of work which had to be made up. I used to argue with my mother that I wasn’t sick when she’d insist I needed to stay home. I did get sent home from high school once. I had the German measles which was going around. We went to school every day on the public bus so that’s how I went home, probably spreading German measles to the world. My mother didn’t drive then so the bus was it. I couldn’t stay in school. I remember it was a Friday. The reason I remember is there was a dance that night at the school, and I was stuck home. It made being sick even more miserable.

 

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