Monday, December 15, 2008

Sick Ain't Pretty

It's official: Katie is allergic to Ireland.

She got sick shortly after we arrived here in April and she is sick now. The first time she had a stomach bug and she was puking on me and the couch and the bed and aisle 5, but somehow even considering all that Vomitus Projectillus, this current cold/flu/upper respiratory infection is even more disgusting. The spaniards call it La Gripe and so do I.

Yesterday morning I went to get Katie out of her bed and found that she had been replaced by a mini Fuhrer. All of the snot that had escaped her nasal passages in the night had hardened and darkened into an Adolph Hitler mustache. I was repelled and intrigued at the same time. I was going to take a picture of her, looking so pathetic and yet dictatorial but, I, the girl who talks about poop at the dinner table, was so grossed out by the sight of her boogers I would not have been able to focus the camera. It was like petrified tree sap that turns into amber. I should have searched it for dinosaur DNA.

But then the question; how do I get this stuff off her face? 1) I don't want to touch it 2) if we just try to pull it off the top layer of her upper lip would have come with it. We hot compressed it with some wet washcloths, then burned said washcloths in the backyard.

This morning the nose was not so bad. However the 14 coats of mucous mascara had her eyes glued shut. We greeted the day with more warm water, permanently ruined washcloths and Katie screaming bloody murder, leading to more nose running, choking on spit and me cheerleading, "thats right baby, bring it on up" as she coughed and sputtered.

So now her eyes are goopy and puffy. Her nose is running. Her upper lip is glistening from the neosporin I have on the red chaffed skin. Her hair is matted with snot and I actually rug-burned her left cheek when I tried to wipe her clean while we wrestled this morning.

It is not pretty. But thank god she is whiny and irritable. That evens the whole thing out.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I feel bad laughing out loud but I cant help it. Get well soon Katie.

Lots of love

Clodagh and Esme xxx

Anonymous said...

Oh my, I'm practically in tears here. That's so funny. Ray says he's second-thoughting ever wanting to meet you.

:)

Poor Katie though. :(

xandra said...

You are so going to regret not saving that booger mustache.

Jared said...

I will be searching Hanna's snot for dinosaur DNA. That was classic!
Feel better soon little Katie!

Debbie said...

LOL - Ahh..poor Katie :-(

G and I gave the Monkey a little bit of the snots as well. Thank goodness it was not nearly as severe as carpet wrestling and dinosaur DNA.