My family had kind of a rough week.
It started with my youngest brother picking up a stomach bug on Saturday. This is never good since some people in my family get quite ill with that kind of thing.
On the same day, my dad began experience problems with his right eye and the right side of his face. He got several large and painful bumps and his eye became swollen and weepy.
Turns out my dad has shingles (also known as herpes zoster, the companion illness to chickenpox or varicella).
Yeah, About That Chickenpox Thing...
Now, for one reason or another none of the kids in my family ever got chickenpox. We were exposed at one point and didn't come down with it. We also didn't get the vaccine. It was brand new and my mom heard enough odd things about it that she was leery of us getting it.
This means there is the possibility of a chickenpox plague going through most of my siblings, who are all older than twelve and would therefore most likely get pretty sick.
As you can imagine, there was something of an uproar in the house as everyone tried to decide what to do next.
I have a strange position in my family. I'm the oldest and when anything important is going on, I end up on the phone or texting a lot as people hash out what to do and use me as a sounding board in the process. I think I may have done this when I was at home, but it's become more obvious now that I'm gone because it takes more effort to connect for a discussion. I spent most of yesterday researching various options for my mom since there was an intense debate going on over whether or not to have my siblings try to live somewhere else, get post-exposure vaccinations or just settle in to wait everything out and see what happens.
While all the discussing was going on, my dad was concerned about losing sight in his eye if the nerve was too affected. That did lend a certain ominous edge to the whole conversation.
All's Better Than It Sounded
After a few days, things have shaken out a bit more and to my great relief, two things became apparent today: my dad is already beginning to feel better and the stomach virus is far milder for everyone else than it was for my brother. Everyone is breathing a little easier.
This is one of the downsides - if you can call it that - of being from a large, close-knit family. If there is a weight on my parents and siblings, I feel it too. I may live ten minutes away, I may be up to my ears in the concerns of my own household, but when they are worried and scared it's hard for me not to be too.
On the upside, when they begin feeling better I experience great relief as well.
I'm very relieved that it looks as though Dad's vision is going to be just fine. I'm relieved everyone else is feeling better. I'm especially relieved no one rushed out and did anything crazy like try to get vaccinated while still ill from a GI bug (now THAT would be inviting some serious side effects!). It's often true that given time, even the most concerning things tend to find a resolution.
When Bad Things Happen, Good Things Are Still Here
The last couple of days really reminded me of this. When things we're really scared about happen, there's a temptation to just give in to the fear and let it paralyze us. But so often, even the most fearful things just need to be given some time. We adjust, we decide on a strategy to tackle the problem and life regains normalcy instead of seeming so dark and threatening. Even in the darkest moments, there is a chance to regain our footing, take a deep breath and do what needs to be done...and things get better.
7 Day Positivity Challenge!
This challenge was begun by
and I was nominated by 
. The rules are to nominate 3 people every day. I apologize if I overlap and haven't seen your posts yet! I nominate 
, 
and 
(whom I nominated before but didn't spell her name right, so I'll try again!)
Challenge Rules:
Write a post about something you have to be postive about today - this could be anything from being thankful for your current situation, someone being nice to you, being thankful for your friends and family, or even being thankful for the oppurtunity you have been given here on Steemit - just keep it positive :)
Do this for 7 days in a row if you get nominated.
Mention three people who should do this on each day.
Tag it with #7daypositivitychallenge and include these rules at the bottom of your post.
Include a picture of something positive (related to your story if possible).
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