Health Scares

First news is that I have chosen to take another week off!  Said I would and I now have a plan.  My birthday is at the end of February, so I will take that week to coddle myself – a novel notion.  The very idea makes me smile.  Why have I taken so long to realize I need to do this?  Other info.  Last week my youngest grandson had diarrhea and a fever of almost 103 for over four days.  We all began to worry that something was seriously wrong.  My daughter took him to the doctor several times, but he didn’t even have his typical ear infection.  I went on line, and the stuff I found was terrifying.  Another visit to Urgent Care on Friday, and then by Sunday, he was behaving so oddly – sleeping fitfully for twenty minutes, awake for twenty, crying – that the doc told Leah to take him to pediatric urgent care to rule out a few serious possibilities.  Reassuring news! We waited for hours, first for the place to open, and then to hear from my daughter.  It’s amazing where the mind goes, but I admit to being a worrier.  Not quite as bad as my father, but not good.  The doc there thought he had a rotavirus, and  the little cutey seems to be  getting better. We drove down here yesterday, and watched him toddle all over the house.  His fever had broken.  Holding him has never felt as sweet.  Playing with his older brother was a real treat.  I look at my daughter and have to hold back tears.  When she and her sister were little I sometimes wished I could keep them inside always so they would be safe, and nothing horrible could happen to either of them.  Now I want to corral both daughters, their husbands, my grandsons, my partner Wonono’s daughters, and his grand daughter.  Of course I can’t.  I tell myself worrying about their safety is a big waste of time, which it is, and mostly I don’t even think about possible dangers.  But something like this brings up all the old anxiety,  the downside of all this love in my extended family.  Today I am grateful for them all, every last one.  A wondrous thing, health.