The illness that keeps on giving.

Dawn has been sick for a while. She just hasn't felt up to posting, so I'm going to substitute and tell you what she would say if she were sitting in my place.

Today Nathan demonstrated again how he is the most wonderful husband in the whole world. As he was gone to work I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming joy to have him and know in 7 short hours he'll be home...

Wait, what would she really say?

Today's adventures took us to the pediatric dentist's office. It was Jonathan's turn and he was excited. A shuttle bus took us from the parking lot to the hospital clinic. Every person he saw was greeted in his very loud voice, "I'm going to get my teeth cleaned, where are you going?" In the elevator, "I'm going to get my teeth cleaned, are you going to our floor?" He was bouncing off the walls and occasionaly off the ceilings. When it was finally his turn to hop up on the chair, his excitement vanished and he adamantly refused. There was absolutely no way that he was going to sit in that torture device. The pediatric dentist was a cheerful old man and had met his fair share of obstinate children and took it all in stride. He examined the teeth with Jonathan standing up. Nothing to it. He even reassured us that Jonathan's adamant refusal to brush his teeth using toothpaste will make no difference until he is dating and has awful breath, we'll keep him off toothpaste. We're glad that's over. Next week Emily and Kahri get to take their turns at the dentist. I get to go too, but poor, poor Nathan doesn't get to have some complete stranger put his hands in his mouth and then start talking to him about the politcal strife in central PA. He's been very depressed ever since he realized how deprived his mouth was going to be.

So, on to Dawn's illness (now I'm putting my doctor hat on). Dawn has been sick now since Christmas. Emily was the first to get sick and had a nice bout of gastroenteritis (inappropriately referred to as the flu). Dawn spent too much time near Emily (they sit next to each other at the dinner table, and I'm almost certain I saw Emily licking Dawn's plate and utensils before dinner). With such liberal sharing of germs, Dawn was soon ill. Emily quickly got better, but Dawn's weakened immune system seemed to fail the task of fighting off a simple viral infection. Sure, her symptoms improved, but she continued to be nauseated and had absolutely no energy. This persisted and persisted. Now, I'm a tolerant husband and can handle people being sick for a while, but eventually I threw my hands in the air and said "Enough is enough. You are going to see a real doctor."

Well, the clinician was equally puzzled over this strange constellation of symptoms and was concerned that the flu should never last this long. After an exhaustive personal and family history (as well as the sly "weighing" session to ensure Dawn's not being abused) they sent off a battery of blood work and decided some abdominal imaging was in order (now we're talking).

The diagnosis was a parasitic tumor growing within the uterine cavity. What??!!?? How could I have possibly missed that? Just goes to show the inadequacy of clinical diagnosis without some good old fashioned pictures. Fortunately the prognosis is favorable for a return to some semblance of normal, although not until around August for mild improvement and about 18 years after for significant improvement. We'll see.