Kid Quotes

AJ: "I have ideas storming through my brain. [A few minutes later:] Ideas are flashing through my brain like a slide show!"

M&M: "Grandpa likes basketball. Hey! Basketball is a compound word! Basket-ball. It's two words put together to make one word. That's a compound word. My ears are always listening for compound words lately. Grandpa is a compound word, too. So is Grandma. Compound words!"



Me: "Ebee, what was your favorite thing you did today?"

Ebee: "No hitting. I didn't hit anybody."

(This was particularly funny, because she hasn't had real issues with hitting since she was two.)

Good News

My mom got her Epstein-Barr Virus titers back today, and she's immune. That means she must have had it without ever knowing it as a child, the way most people get it. (Something like 95% of the population has had it before age 35). So her doctors will allow her to spend time with me. Hooray!

We're having Thanksgiving here at our house. I'm excited about that. The cleaner is coming on Wednesday and my new household helper is coming Monday and Tuesday, so we should have no trouble getting ready.

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The old family friend who is going to be my home helper came yesterday. She, the kids and the dog all liked each other. We talked scheduling, salary and tasks. I think she will be a big help even if we can only have her come for 5 hours a week. She's going to come twice a week until I don't need her or we find some live-in help.

I can already tell she's going to mother me a bit--not surprising since she has kids my age and has known me since I was a child. She has already decided that one of her responsibilities will be making sure I drink enough water. :)

Mira went to the last session of the homeschool co-op with us today. I thought that, since it was a casual craft day and would be shorter and less formal, with fewer people, it would be a good introduction for her to the environment there.

I didn't quite account for the fact that, since it wasn't a regular class day and everyone was milling around in one room, it would be quite a bit noisier and more chaotic than a normal class day.

When we walked in, one of the leaders of the group took one look at us and said, "Oh, no. I don't think this is a good idea. There are a lot of kids here. I'm worried it's going to be too much for you having the dog here."

She offered to let me and the dog hang out in a quiet room down the hall while someone else helped my kids make crafts, but I didn't really want to do that. I did accept some help getting the kids to their stations, though, because with my cane, the dog, our coats, three kids, and the bag of photos we brought for one of the crafts, it was a bit much to handle.

I had been expecting the crafts to be set up at stations with chairs around the tables, but they weren't. Most of them were set up so that you had to be standing while working on them. So I wasn't able to do the crafts I had signed up for or help my kids as much as I had envisioned.

The parents who were helping with the crafts were happy to help my kids when they needed help, so I just sat with Mira and watched from a little distance most of the time. Everyone is so kind.

Mira was a little bit stressed at first. She was pulling on the leash a bit (we still need to work on that) and doing lots of panting, scratching, yawning and that sort of stress indicators. So I took her outside a couple of times to see if she needed to go to the bathroom and to give her a breather. I thought about sitting in the car with her for a few minutes, but then remembered that of course we didn't have the van there, since DH dropped us off and would be picking us up later.

When we went back in, I found a place to sit down near where my kids were doing crafts, and put Mira in a down-stay. She stayed there and watched everything with great interest, getting more relaxed as the minutes passed. She really wanted to go and play with all the kids, but she stayed with me. Toward the end, some kids were running around and even ran past within inches of her (I was worried she would get stepped on) and she just stayed where I had put her and watched them go.

She did get antsy after a while and really wanted something to do, so I had her fetch some things and practiced some obedience commands with her. The kids got a kick out of seeing her sit, lay down, sit up and beg, speak, roll over, bring me things I pointed to, etc. It gave her a chance to stretch her muscles and burn off a tiny bit of energy, and then she was ready to lie down quietly next to me for the rest of the time.

Mira did great whenever I was sitting down relaxing, but whenever I got up and walked around she kept alerting. Apparently she thought I should be resting, not walking around in a busy, milling crowd that might (she thought) be dangerous to me.

I told another mom that Mira thought I should be sitting down resting instead of walking around in the crowd, and she said, "Well, she's probably right! She's taking good care of you."

Near the end, the person who had been worried about having her there came over and said, "She's doing really well. I'm so impressed. I thought it would be too much for you trying to control her around a group of kids this big, but she's doing great!" That sort of thing always makes my day. :)

Toward the end, I was able to walk around for a few minutes and visit with people without Mira getting too upset about it and trying to make me sit down again. I dropped my cane at one point, and Mira drew gasps of amazement and some oohs and aahs when she picked it up and handed it to me. By the time she had also handed me my keys and a pen I dropped, she had an admiring circle of fans.

The kids really had a good time, DH was happy to do the driving, and with my cane and Mira it wasn't too terribly taxing for me.

I'm glad we went. And I'm doubly glad I didn't end up having to lie down in a storage closet and then have other families inconvenienced trying to help us get home, like happened last week.

Trying to find solutions

Tomorrow I have my appointment with the fibromyalgia specialist (well, he's an internist or something like that, really, but he's supposed to be one of the best fibro doctors there is). I'm really hoping he'll be able to offer some kind of help or solutions to try. The pain, fatigue, disorientation/brain fog, etc. has been pretty bad lately.

In the afternoon tomorrow, an old friend/acquaintance is coming over. I'll most likely be hiring her a couple of afternoons a week to help with light housekeeping, childcare, and general tasks. With DH's recent raise, we think we can hire her for 5 hours a week or a little more--maybe even 10 hours some weeks. Hopefully that will be enough to make a difference.

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Ideally we'd have someone live in who could just be here every day to help out and drive places, and let me go to bed to rest for several hours every day, but that doesn't seem manageable at this point. Unless we found someone who was interested in getting room and board as part of their salary. We've put out some feelers about that (and tried to talk one of our nieces into coming to stay with us if she decides to take a term off college), but we don't seem to have any really strong leads yet.

This afternoon I had to call DH home from work again because I got to the point where I was too ill to take care of the kids. He came home for a couple of hours and let me go to bed, and then I was able to manage again for a while. I hate having to call him and ask him to come home from work. It's been happening far too often this year. Hopefully we can find some solutions that will be more effective to help me feel better, or help us manage anyway.

Morning came and picked me up on Saturday to go and buy dog food from the pet speciality store down the street, and a few essentials at another store. I was still feeling pretty poorly even after going to bed early the night before and sleeping all morning, so I had planned to get an electric cart/wheelchair thingy. But they were all taken. So I leaned on the cart and on the stuff in the aisles, and occasionally sat down on the floor, and made it through the shopping trip.

Morning was so kind and patient with me, even doing things like dropping me off at the door and helping pull me to my feet when I bent down to look at something and my knees locked up. She didn't even mind my grabbing her arm for balance.

But after that, I decided to buy a cane.

It's a nice cane. Adjustable, with a nice good-stability rubber tip. It has a nice padded handle and even a wrist loop.

It's really quite a big help. I hadn't actually been falling down, but I had developed a habit of holding onto things or touching the wall, tables, etc. as I walked by for balance and grounding. The cane helps a lot with that. It took so much energy just trying to deal with the floaty, dizzy, disoriented feeling when I was walking. Having a cane to hold onto makes walking or standing significantly less taxing.

And, when I have to stand in line or otherwise stand still for a few minutes, I can lean on it instead of leaning on a counter or against the wall, or having to sit down on the floor quite so soon. It even works o lean on when bending over, and makes a nice reaching stick to reach things on the floor or up high.

In one way, I feel like, "Wow, canes are great! Everyone should have one! Why didn't I do this sooner?"

I can use the cane when I need it, and leave it at home or in the car when I don't (except that then I may end up without it when I suddenly need it).

What I didn't anticipate was how utterly embarrassed I would feel walking into a roomful of people, some of whom have known me for years, using a cane. We went to a gathering last night for some missonary friends who are home briefly. It was wonderful to see them and others that we know, but I was surprised at how hard it was to be there with a cane.

Not because of them--everyone was wonderful about it. But just because it's like a big neon sign saying "disabled." And I'm not disabled, really, am I? Or at least, I'm only disabled part of the time. Right? Well, I guess it depends on how you define it. I don't want to be disabled. Nobody does.

Usually I pace myself so carefully that even most of my close friends haven't seen me at the points when I'm struggling the most. Partly because usually I stay home and in bed when I'm feeling especially badly. But also because I plan around visits with friends. If I carefully rest up beforehand, I can push through a few hours of looking and sounding pretty normal, and even energetic, even if I've been feeling pretty badly. Even if I crash the moment we leave, or the moment the door closes behind the visitors. But it's been harder lately, because my good spells have been less frequent and more short-lived.

I have been telling myself that, really, you can't look much more disabled than having a service dog. But having a cane is a whole different level. I find myself hoping the need for it won't last long. But, realistically, even if things improve significantly, it's something I'll probably still want to have around for flare-ups indefinitely. And for occasions like getting dental work or chiropractic adjustments that I know will cause immediate pain, stiffness, fatigue, weakness and dizziness.

I've been fighting discouragement a lot lately. But, thankfully, I haven't been struggling with real depression.

When people ask me how I'm doing lately, my answer tends to be something like this:

"Life has been challenging. I'm really struggling with my health. But my husband is amazingly wonderful and supportive, and my kids are great. Most of all, God is good, and He has been so faithful in our lives. He's taking care of us."

And He is.

Driving and Donation

I have had to miss the last couple of weeks of the kids' homeschool co-op because of being sick (DH took them). Since today was the last day of classes, I really wanted to go. And I thought I felt well enough. But I did too much this week, and then the full effect of a flare from having dental work done yesterday didn't hit me until halfway through the morning today.

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I got my kids to their classes and made it through the first class I had to help in, sort of--I'm afraid I wasn't much help to the kids or teacher in that class today. By the time it was done I was getting so disoriented from pain and fatigue (and that "floaty" spinning feeling) that I had trouble getting out into the lobby.

I did a great demonstration of my lovely wall-walking (holding onto the wall for support and balance) and then collapsed into a chair. I'm sure the kids were all very impressed with my fabulous wall-walking skills--I got quite a few stares. :)

Something about the way I was sitting or my expression must have looked a little odd even through my dark glasses, because one of the other moms came over and asked me if I had a migraine. I said, "No, I just don't feel good." Brilliant. I love the way I can come back with scintillating replies sometimes.

I realized that didn't make much sense, and then told her that I was just having a flare of my normal stuff and feeling a little dizzy, and that as soon as I felt well enough I was going to go find a place to lie down for a few minutes.

She took my arm and helped me find a storeroom I could lie down in, and decided that I shouldn't help in my next class and that she would find someone else to cover it. But, but, I protested, I just needed to lie flat for a few minutes and then I'd be OK. She sweetly pointed out that if I couldn't even walk by myself I didn't need to be helping in another class in an hour, and that I should just rest and it would be taken care of.

I was still in no shape to drive by the time the sessions ended, so someone else ended up driving me and the kids home afterwards--quite a production, it turned out, inconveniencing at least 3 different families. The person who intially volunteered herself and her husband to take us home thought it would be simple, since her husband was there. Only she didn't realize that he needed to leave for a meeting at work.

By that point most of the other families who were there with two adults in one vehicle had left. So it was a great game of musical families. One mom watched her kids and two other mom's kids, while one drove our van home and another followed in her van so she could get the one driving my van back to the church. I was so embarrassed and apologetic.

I've driven somewhere and gotten myself stranded often enough lately that I think I'm just going to have to stop trying to drive places until I'm consistently feeling better. I'm checking out bus routes and trying to arrange doctor and dentist appointments for times when either DH or someone else can take me. I'm not going to drive anywhere for the next little while unless it's a situation where I have the option to hang out for several hours or have someone drive me home without too much inconvenience.

DH and I are also praying about and looking into options, including everything from sending the kids to private school to hiring a housekeeper/nanny or seeing if we can find another homeschooling mom who would be willing to come over during the days and work with her kids and mine. I'd appreciate prayers for wisdom and the right solution. I'm so thankful for a supportive husband whose job security and recent salary raises gives us several options to choose from. We're not rich, but we aren't big spenders on non-essentials and can manage to hire some help or pay for school if it's not too expensive. I'm so grateful for that.

I do have an appointment with the fibromyalgia specialist next week, and have a lead (through my new dentist) on an MD who is also trained in naturopathy and alternative medicine, so hopefully something will start helping soon.

My mom called today, and her kidney doctors are all worried about having her around someone with mono. They took blood today to run her Epstein-Barr titers. If it comes back showing that she is already immune to it, then we won't need to worry. If not, she might not be able to be around me.

They also told her that my doctors should have run more tests and should be being more proactive about trying to treat me. I haven't been able to talk any of them into running my Epstein-Barr titers to try to tell what stage I am at in the illness and whether it's the chronic form or not, because they say the test is expensive and there's no point in knowing since it isn't treatable, anyway. The specialists that take care of my mom said that there are treatments and things that can be done, and that if there's any question that someone might have the chronic form, the titers should definitely be run. Even though it's very rare.

So, hopefully the fibromyalgia doctor or the fibro clinic at the teaching/research hospital (the same place my mom goes for her kidney stuff) will at least run the titers and find out one way or another.

On another note, my mom had a phone call from one of her relatives who is in end-stage renal failure from the family hereditary kidney disease (the same thing my mom has), and has found out some appalling things about the health system. You see, she doesn't have health insurance. And her doctors in small-town midwest aren't willing to treat her kidney disease because of that. If you have any idea how expensive dialysis is, you would know there's no way she can afford it on her own.

Medicare covers treatment for renal failure. BUT, only if you're already on dialysis. And she can't get on dialysis because it's too expensive and she doesn't have insurance. And I'm pretty sure she can't get on a transplant list before she's on dialysis.

So, basically, the only way my relative can get medicare coverage for her acute renal failure to be treated is if she ends up in the hospital needing emergency dialysis to save her life. Then, if she's on hemodialysis in a hospital or clinic, Medicare takes about 3 months to kick in. But if she does home dialysis with peritoneal dialysis, the coverage kicks in almost immediately. Then she can get on a transplant list.

Something is wrong with this system.

Kidney failure is very treatable. Especially the kind my mom's family gets, which is just unexplained, non-cystic renal failure with no other symptoms or serious complications. It's so very treatable. Without that treatment, you die. With dialysis, there are many extra years of life expectancy. With a transplant, the life expectancy and quality of life is even better.

My mom was on dialysis for several years. When it quit working very well, we thought we might lose her because the waiting list for a transplant was so long. But then a donor kidney came available that was such a perfect match for Mom that she got bumped to the top of the list. Such a good match that it started working before she even got off the operating table, and she's had no rejection issues in the 7 years since.

Mom got her kidney 3 weeks before AJ was born. We consider that our family was given two new lives that month. My kids get to grow up knowing their grandma, and I get to see my mom strong and happy for many more years, because the family of a young car accident victim made the choice for organ donation. We think of and pray for that young woman and her family often, and we appreciate so much the gift given to us in her death.

Please consider organ donation. And, if you do want to be a donor, please make sure your family knows and that you have it marked on your driver's license. Because if the time ever comes when they have to make that decision, they should know that you want to give the gift of life to others.

I hope my mom's relative can get that chance at life.

Better

Finally, after 3 and 1/2 weeks, I seem to be getting over this cold. Everyone else in the family had it too, but they were all only sick for a couple of days or so. I've actually felt like I had a bit of energy yesterday and today.

I finally found a denist that I think is a good fit for me. Today he fixed several problem fillings that previous dentists had done poorly, and also some other issues. I was really impressed with his chairside manner, his demeanor, his knowledge about both traditional and alternative approaches to dental health, the thoroughness and goodwill with which he answered all my questions, and the good quality of his work.

My front teeth look so much better now--I'm no longer embarrassed to smile. And my back teeth in one quadrant of my mouth are fixed so that they're smooth, pain-free, and no longer have gaps and shelves under and between fillings that serve as food and floss traps. I'm very pleased.

The one bad thing was that I had to have so much anesthetic to have 4 different teeth worked on. It made my lip swell up visibly huge, and numbed my face all the way up to my eyes. Apparently the eye nerves were affected by the anesthetic, because it actually messed up my vision for a few hours. And I think there was enough of it spread through my system that it sort of made all my muscles relaxed. That made walking a bit of a challenge when I got done. :)

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After the appointment I was so dizzy, tired, weak and having trouble seeing (because of the anesthetic affecting my eyes) that I didn't feel I could safely drive. So I hung out at Trader Joe's, leaning on a cart for balance and trying to walk it off for as long as I could before I had to go get the kids from the sitter so she could pick up her daughter for school.

I still don't feel quite normal (wait a minute--what's normal?), but I'm sure it will have worn off completely by tomorrow. These sorts of things always affect me more and take longer to wear off than for most people.

I'm sitting on the sofa with the laptop right now, relaxing while Mira picks up all the kids' toys, the remote control and any other random objects she finds and brings them to me, hoping I'll give her a treat.

Mira is doing so well with her training. She is getting quite good at picking up shoes and toys and putting them away in their respective bins. She's learning how to turn lights on and off. If I give her something and ask her to take it to DH, she'll find him and give it to him even if he's in another part of the house. Then she'll deliver something back to me if he asks her to. She finds my phone and brings it to me when it rings. She picks up things I drop (or anything I point to) and hands them to me to save me from having to bend over. She can even pick up a dropped credit card on a hard floor--quite a feat for a dog. And, if I hand her money or a credit card she will hand it to the person I indicate, even if she has to do "paws up" on a counter to hand it to a cashier.

Yesterday I started introducing her to the electric shopping carts at a grocery store. It will take a little bit of practice to get her used to working with one, but I think that will help so much in conserving energy on shopping trips if I really need to go shopping on a day that the pain and fatigue are especially bad. Right now she thinks the cart is some strenge beast that's trying to steal me away, I think. :)

I'm working with Mira with a laser pointer, too, so that eventually I'll be able to indicate a specific item on the floor, on a shelf or across the room for her to get and bring to me. She's pretty good at telling when I'm getting toward the end of my energy or am about to have a migraine or a "crash" and alerting for me, too.

Mira loves to jog on the treadmill the SIL The Mentor and Biology Teacher BIL gave to us, and that helps a lot on the days I don't feel up to walking her much.

She has been doing marvelously well in being more comfortable around both people and other dogs, so much that I've been able to start working with her regularly in non-dog-friendly places like stores.

On another note, the kids and I are adjusting to a new homeschool schedule. We added some new subjects, and my mom helped make schedules for the layout of the day and for what the kids need to do in each subject per day. It's so helpful to have that more organized, with times built in for breaks and periods where I can relax a bit while the kids work on things they can do idependently or have recess, in between the more teacher-intensive subjects.

Even Ebee has some educational things and Montessori activities to do while the older girls are doing school. The goal is to get everything done between 9 and 2, but we're still working on that part.

DH's job is going really well, and as always he is a huge help to me. And now, I'm going to go spend some time with him while the kids are gone at AWANA. :)

Strength Needed

The lab called and said that, although my doctor ordered a CBC test and they drew blood for it, somehow they missed running that test. So I'll have to go in and have another blood draw whenever DH can drive me over there.

The PA talked to the infectious disease specialist, who was unconcerned about my monospot being positive again 7.5 months after the first--she said it can take months to get over mono anyway, so there's no point in ever retesting it.

I'm still feeling really sick . . . having a cold, a sinus infection (I think), AF, a vitamin D deficiency, and mono (or at least still trying to recover from mono) all at the same time on top of the chronic health issues just has really knocked me flat.

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I slept from 6PM to almost 9AM last night (thank you, DH), and still all I want to do is crawl back into bed. I'm still weak, dizzy, in pain (as usual, of course) and excessively tired. Yesterday a friend who came by was telling me that I was "as white as a sheet", and this morning I looked in the mirror and thought that stranger looked really wierd with no color in her face, even down to white lips.

I'm really struggling to have any level of concentration, clarity of thought and energy right now. Especially in being patient with my kids and connecting with them. Or even completing a line of thought, or figuring out what the kids are trying to say to me. It's like my brain is short-circuiting.

I'm trying to help the kids with their schoolwork, answer their questions, respond to their chatter, think of activities for them, and help them work through their scuffles. But my body and brain are constantly interrupting: "Don't try to THINK about anything, for goodness sakes. Don't turn on the light--it hurts our eyes. Just get off your feet and into bed, woman! Sleep!"

But I can't afford to do that. I have to be up and functional for my kids. There's no substitute mother I can call in when I'm sick. And even if there was, I couldn't call in sick for months at a time.

My kids need me to be more than just functional--they need me to be the creative, loving, energetic, engaged mother and teacher they deserve.

I'm really working hard to try not to be short and grumpy with the kids when I feel so miserable. And to pull out of my fog and really engage with them, rather than just meeting their basic needs.

But I'm not doing so well at it today.

Please pray for me that I could somehow find just a little bit more strength, kindness, concentration, energy, and patience . . . and maybe even a smile down there somewhere. And that I would lean on God even more than I'm already doing.

Neh. 8:10 "The joy of the LORD is your strength."

More on mono

I've found a few pages that say the monospot test can stay positive for up to 12 months after infection in up to 30-40% of patients. Other pages say it's rare after 4 months. So, anyway, a postitive monospot alone certainly isn't enough to assume chronic EVB infection.

I think it's time to stop consulting Dr. Google and just wait to see what the infectious disease specialist has to say.

Election Day, USA

Don't forget to vote. Please.

And I want to mention that I am voting NO on our assisted suicide bill.

One big reason is that in Oregon, virtually the same bill has in some cases become more the "duty to die" law than anything about a "right to death with dignity". Some people with terminal illnesses are now getting letters from the state health plan saying that their treatment (basically any treatment that has less than a 5% chance patient survival after 5 years) will not be covered by health insurance, but that the state WILL cover their assisted suicide. Hint, hint.

Nobody should be forced or pressured to make that choice.

Even if you think assisted suicide should be legal, the law up for vote right now has little to no safeguard against abuse as currently written, and has other major problems.

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Here's a page with quite a few links from reputable sources pointing out problems that Oregon has had with their assisted suicide law.

There are no real effective safeguards in place in this law. For instance, doctors are only required to recommend counseling for depressed or mentally ill patients ONLY if the doctor feels that the person's condition is causing "impaired judgement". There is no safeguard in place and no evaluation required to try to make sure that the person's depression isn't causing their desire for suicide.

Another thing worth pointing out is that the law up for vote in our state on this issue actually requires physicians to lie about the cause of death on the death certificate. For instance, if a person with cancer takes an overdose of barbituate, with a doctor's help, to kill themselves, the doctor is required by this law to write on the death certificate that cancer was the cause of death.

Page 7:

24 (2) The attending physician may sign the patient's death
25 certificate which shall list the underlying terminal disease as the
2 6 cause of death.

Please check out this website if you want to know more about why to vote NO on this law.

When a doctor uses the word "interesting" . . .

The physician's assistant (my new doctor) that I saw last week called today. Last week I saw him for the first time. He referred me to the sleep clinic and the fibromyalgia clinic, and gave me prescpriptions for a muscle relaxant and some sleep medication to try (not at the same time) to see if they help.

He also talked with me about the fibromyalgia research studies I've been invited to participate in over at Excellent Teaching and Research Hospital. I think we've pretty much decided to wait on taking part in something like a study for now, until we've tried some other things first.

And, he had the lab take blood to run a bunch of tests again.

Today he called and said, "Most of your test results were normal. But a couple of them were very interesting."

I always hold my breath when a doctor says something like that.

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First, he said, my Vitamin D levels were low. Very low, actually. Normal is in the range of 30-150, with 30 considered low. Mine was 11.

Secondly, my monospot test was positive. Again. Even though it's been more than 7 months since the first monospot test was positive. This particular test does not detect previous or even chronic but currently dormant mono infections; it only detects a current active infection.

Since I'm pretty sure I came down with mono at least a month or two before I was diagnosed, this means I've either had an active mono infection for about 9 months, or I'm having multiple recurrent infections. Either one would be very rare and unusual.

Either way, it's not good.

My doctor was rather stymied. He said he really didn't know what to make of it. It's extremely rare for a second monospot test to be positive that long after a first was positive. But my doctor said that he has a good friend who is an infectious disease specialist. He's going to consult with her about my case.

From what I've been reading, passing the 6-month mark is a criteria for diagnosing Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus (CAEBV). To be considered a Severe Chronic Active EBV infection (SCAEBV), it has to be found at a certain level in your tissues.

I'm assumming they'll be doing more tests to try to figure out whether this is what it is or not, the severity of it, etc.

One thing is for sure: I found out pretty quickly tonight that googling CAEBV or SCAEBV is not something I want to be doing right now. I keep coming up with results that start with sentences like, "Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection (CAEBV) is a rare disease in which previously healthy persons develop severe, life-threatening illness . . . "

Let's not go there.

Since all my other tests were normal, I'm thinking it's highly unlikely that it's the severe chronic form of the illness, even if I do have the chronic form.

The thing I'm most concerned about at the moment is that, either way, I'm most likely contagious. It's quite possible at this point that I'll be either intermittently or consistently contagious for the rest of my life.

Mono or EBV isn't something that most healthy people need to worry about. 90% of cases are asymptomatic. Almost everyone has had it by the time they're teenagers, and most people get it so mildly they never knew they had it. For most people, once they've had it as a child they are immune and will never get it again. It's generally very mild in young children. And it's not highly transmissible, although it is possible to get it by casual contact with an infected person.

It's really only immune-compromised people that need to worry about exposure. But I hang out with quite a few immune-compromised people. Including my mother, a good friend, my sisters and my father-in-law.

So I'll be asking a lot of questions about that.

Meanwhile, I'm singing this song (silently, because my sore throat and swollen glands won't allow singing at the moment):

My peace I give unto you
It's a peace that the world cannot give
It's a peace that the world cannot understand
Peace to know
Peace to live
My peace I give unto you.

It's a paraphrase of John 14:27, where Jesus says, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

Quiet

I have a nasty cold, complete with cough, so I stayed home from church while DH took the girls. Mira will probably be harrassing me to take her for a walk or exercise her on the treadmill soon, but for the moment the house is quiet.