Another Family Milestone-Mononucleosis

by Kori Rodley Irons | More from this Blogger

03 Jan 2007 02:23 PM

Well, we've been through chicken pox and braces and myriad other childhood rites of passage. There've been birthday parties (sleepovers and mixed-sex parties), school changes, friend changes, personality changes, and now-with one telephone call from the nurse, we can finally check the first case of teenage "mono" off the list of family milestones. Yep, instead of heading back to school after winter break-one of my teens is still in bed with a nasty case of what used to be called "the kissing disease."

With little energy to get from the bed to the kitchen (very, very unusual, indeed) she's been sick since Christmas Eve morning-two tests for strep throat came back negative and the doctor finally drew some blood and the call came in last night after dinner-positive for Mono. Wow, I thought, I remember Mono-my best friend was out with it for nearly a month in our sophomore year of high school. "They still have that disease?" I asked the nurse. She chuckled as she gave me the list of dos and don'ts. "Now is this like Chicken Pox?" I asked her, "I have three teenagers-are we going to have one after the other get this and I'll have teens at home until Tax Day?"

She reassured me that with some general hygiene and cleanliness efforts, we shouldn't all be getting it-but that my daughter would be contagious for around a month. And, that she may not feel like going to school for at least a couple weeks. Oh, my.

The thing is, she's really sick. It's always tough to see your kids feel really yucky. As she snoozes and I keep forcing her to "drink her fluids," the world is going on around her. As if she didn't already feel anxious to be at the business of living-two weeks sounds like an eternity to a sixteen-year-old. There are boyfriends and school projects and activities and conversations-and she's missing out on all of them. Meanwhile, as the mom, I'm going about the now-familiar business of "single mom parenting sick kid while continuing to do everything else." A big hunk of me wants to stay at her beck and call and nurse her back to non-mononucleosis health. Of course, other than little spurts of wanting her mother, she's not so into that as a full time temporary occupation for me either.

Well, in the legendary words of all great moms who have gone before-this too, shall pass.

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