Illness and Discouragement

It looks like this may be one of those years where my family stays sick all year long. I just hate that.

The kids and my husband have been sick on and off since August. I've had a couple of things too, but not nearly as ill as they have been.

DH has been really sick for 3 weeks with something we all had 3 weeks ago, but the rest of us recovered. Now his has turned in to pneumonia and he's been extremely sick this week. :(

Monkey5 [1yo] has been sick with a terrible croupy-type thing for the last 2 days and then last night Gemma started running a fever and is sick for the first time [it only held off this long due to breastfeeding I am certain].

We have already missed many things we wanted to do this fall because of sickness - not the least of which was praying at the cemetery Sunday.

I also get so very frustrated [and at times angry] with other people.

Certain people seem to think it is fine to take extremely ill children out into public where they will be in close contact with tons of other kids. I really don't understand this - it is *cruel* in my opinion.

3 weeks ago, when Gemma was 6 weeks old, we took her to Mass for the first time. I went into the ladies bathroom off the Sanctuary with Gemma in a sling, and my 1yo and 3yo with me [we were having some behavior problems that had to be addressed].

When we walked into the ladies room, there was a woman there with her son, who was probably about 2 years old, stripped down to his diaper *standing* on the counter by the sinks. She had strewn his clothing all over the counter from one end to the other and he was standing right between the two sinks.

I assumed he'd had a "blow out" diaper and I made a commiserating comment about those type of diapers and she said "No, actually, he just threw up all over himself. He got vomit on all his clothes and everything". [The clothes that were vomit covered and laying all over the counter so that ANY person who came to wash their hands after using the rest room would come into contact with contaminated counter space].

Then she proceeded to pick him up and bring him over and shove him into Gemma's face [right in the sling!] and say "Oh, look at the little baby Johnny" [name changed to protect the guilty].

I was just appalled! It was all I could do not to recoil in disgust and punch the idiot woman. Who puts a desperately ill toddler into a newborn's face? How dangerous and inconsiderate is that?

Then she proceeds to pack up his clothes, take him back into the Narthex of the Church [where all the parents of unruly toddlers and babies are watching Mass from the glass doors and windows so as to not disturb Mass in the Sanctuary] and she proceeds to stay till the end of Mass, with this child in nothing but his diaper, touching everything around him and messing with the other children in the Narthex - ALL of whom probably had a violent stomach virus that they caught from him within 48 hours. Not only did she not take the sick child home [which would have been the compassionate thing to do both for her own sick son AND for the other children she exposed] but she took no precautions to keep him from touching, slobbering on, and contaminating everything and everyone around them.

I just thought it was awful. How could anyone be so thoughtless and unconcerned about the health of other people - and especially the health of the very young children and very elderly people at Mass, both of whom could end up desperately ill and in the hospital from an infection like the one she was so freely passing around... ugh.

As a result, we have not taken Gemma to Mass since - we are going in shifts. In fact, I am trying not to take her out of the house at all because, working as I do with pregnant women and infants, I am *very* aware of how dangerous and deadly RSV can be to a newborn, especially a preemie. Monkey4 and Monkey5 both has RSV [and Monkey4 developed pneumonia from it] last year - I do NOT want my infant preemie catching it this year.

I know this type of careless people are one reason we stay so sick in cold and flu season. I am always *extremely* conscientious to keep my children home when they are ill [and it means we miss a LOT of good stuff we want to do, but we do NOT want to make others sick], but I see mothers out with VERY sick children all the time - children who are running fevers or vomiting or coughing a terrible croupy cough...

Anyway, that is my vent for today. I wish people would have concern for others around them in so many ways, including staying home to rest and recover when they or their children are extremely sick. :(