Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Contented Days

As I sit at our kitchen bench, with Charlie on my lap, tapping this out on my laptop and listening to the spring rain gently falling, I feel content.

Very, very overwhelmingly tired but also content.

Recent events have made me stop and notice all the things I have to be thankful for. Uppermost in my mind right now is thankfulness that Charlie has come through his terrible ordeal with glandular fever and a horrific reaction to penicillin. I know that the recovery period can be long but I am thankful he is in the recovery phase.


The rash resulting from a reaction to amoxicillin. This rash turned out to be worse than the glandular fever - causing horrific itching, pain and bruising all over his body.

It has been such a harrowing experience for all of us these last 6 weeks.When seeing the doctor the other day for a check up, he said that he was glad to see us come in, as he had been very concerned and made the comment that "not knowing if Charlie was lying in hospital still or dead had been difficult". That made me stop still. Dead? That certainly helps put things into perspective.

But we are on the other side now, we can move on with our lives, and this period will become just a terrible memory of Charlie's childhood.


Repeated bathing in Pinetarsol (made from pine tree sap) helped relieve the itching temporarily. But many sleepless nights were had. His skin become so sensitive that to cuddle him caused pain and bruising.

I'm a firm believer that the things that happen in our lives happen for a reason. And this recent experience is no different. It can sometimes take a little thought to figure out the reason.

Did it open a new door in our life? Or close one?

Did it confirm we are on the right path, or the wrong one?

Did it make us stronger, softer, more patient?

Or perhaps we can just learn and grow from it.

After thinking on things as I held my ill little boy in my arms, as he itched and cried, said he was in pain, I could take from this trying time, that it's just confirming my need to learn to focus only on the now.

I've blogged about this before, my need to learn this lesson. Focussing on the now, on what is happening right this second, will ensure I don't borrow stress from what is to come, or from what has been.

I want to be able to enjoy every second of this life, to feel contentment and peace. No more rushing and stress.

But, like most people, my life is busy and rushed. And quite often stressed. So I forget and fall back into old habits.

I'm a work in progress, I guess.

But I'm ok with that. I'm overwhelmingly happy with my life, my family, my home. That's not to say I won't have bad days. But I'm content enough within myself to get through them.

And so I think I'm now ready to come back into the blogging world again, sharing little tidbits of my eccentric and wonderful life. Some bits interesting, some funny, some deep and meaningful.

And quite a few superficial and trivial ones. (Fashionable Friday, anyone?)

4 comments:

  1. Poor little guy! It breaks my heart to read that he's in so much pain and how horrible that rash is. I'm glad to hear he's in the recovery phase. I've been wondering how you and your family were doing and hoping the worst was over. I hope his recovery is quick and that this horrible experience can be put in the past.

    I also find it hard to be "in the moment" in my life. I always get caught up with worrying about tomorrow and what I can do now to make things better or what problems things in the past are going to cause for me later. I think people get ike that from seeing their parents do it most of their life. And that worrying all the time is somehow perceived as being a "responsible adult" as opposed to being "immature" when you try to enjoy life. I think I have definitely followed that line of thought for way too long...

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  2. Oh my goodness... this brought me to tears! To have a doctor say this to me about my child would have been crippling... thank goodness is twas AFTER the ordeal.

    Happiness is a mood-- not a destination. Live in it.

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  3. Wow, only now I am making time to catch up and this was my first stop. I can't believe how crazy and terrifying things have been for you. I had to keep reading before I could come here to comment, just to see that Charlie was better, poor little guy. Was there another GF diagnoses or was Kaiden just a little off before exams?

    Anyway, glad to see that by the end of my reading that you all look to be fit and health not to mention far too organised - finished Christmas shopping, I don't even know where to start!

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  4. It was certainly a harrowing time and I'm so glad it's all over and everyone is healthy again. Turns out Kaiden didn't have GF but the blood tests showed that he had already had it at some stage. Unfortunately it doesn't say how long ago, could of been only weeks ago or years! He did have some virus that he later told me some of his friends had had also. Nothing major just enough to keep him home for a few days. He perked up again before exams and has had pleasing results from the ones he's heard back on so far.

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