I am sick

Wednesday evening 22 October 2008

I have not been on lately since I have been sick. Monday afternoon I came home from school with a splitting migraine. I get headaches from eye strain or from sleeping too long, but never like this. Well-- not quite never. Once I had one so bad it made me nauseous and that led to... the inevitable there. My cramps have been no worse than usual-- which is to say they are hardly bad at all. Today it got so bad I could not keep on my glasses and in the car I felt like I would be sick all over my sister. As soon as I got home I went right up to bed but my rest did not last long and then I was throwing up into my potty with my hands on the bowl and my toes in the corner and the rest of me arced up in the middle. It was that awful.

I went to bed and stayed there till Jessy came in to wake me for school-- yes, meaning I slept for about fourteen hours. I woke up feeling horrible but weak and dehydrated. Jessy brought me two glasses of orange juice-- one for now and one for later-- kissed my good-bye and left. Daddy came up to check on me at around 8.00. 'What's up with you?'

I shook my head. 'I don't know. I just had to sleep.'

He sat on the edge of the bed and laid the back of his hand to my forehead and neck and chest like he used to when I was about seven. 'You're not warm... but you feel clammy.'

'I need a shower,' I said. 'I was going to have a bath.'

He nodded at me. 'Have one then,' he said. 'Have a nice hot one and burn this out of you. Do I need to call the school or anything?'

I shook my head. 'They don't do that here,' I said. They did at our old school.

So he went out and I ran a warm bath for myself and soaked in there for about an hour, and I felt well enough when I got out to play with J.J. Mother got me to watch him while she went out to the food market and J.J. and I sat and watched a DVD of 'Blue's Clues' and then made things out of Legos. By the time Jessy got home I was doing much better.

Then this morning I awoke with really bad cramps, and part of a headache, not quite as bad, so I went in to the bathroom and threw up again. This time it was worse because I had so little in me. Jessy came in at like 7.10 when we had to leave and said she thought I had been having a shower, but the sound of the water running was only me flushing like three times. In the course of all the disorientation Daddy came up, heard about how sick I felt, and made me get back into bed and stay home again. After Jessy left he interrogated me about the intensity of my cramps and then scolded me for letting something like this keep me from facing up to something important, like school.

'You have to be the princess,' he said. 'Stiff upper lip and all that. Never let them see you bleed.'

I nodded, squeezing back tears because the Advil had not kicked in yet. 'I'm sorry, Daddy,' I said.

He only nodded but then stopped at the door and came back to lay his hand on my cheek like yesterday. 'Are you sure it's only the cramps?'

I shook my head. 'It's my tummy,' I said.

'Right,' he said. 'Well, if it's like this tomorrow you go to the doctor's.'

I nodded. 'Okay, Daddy.'

He went round the bed tucking in the covers and then bent over and kissed my head. 'I'll bring you up some juice when you feel a little better.'

'Thank you, Daddy.'

He made a kissy-face at me as he went out and shut the door.

It's midnight now and I feel a lot better. Only now I can't seem to fall asleep!

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