Wednesday, November 17, 2010

4 or 40?

Over the years I have found that my milestone birthdays are marked with sickness.  I recall my 18th birthday sitting in a chair with my tonsils so swollen with tonsillitis they were touching while my family was trying to be cheerful and celebrate around me.  I recall that although I wasn't specifically sick on my 21st birthday I had walking pneumonia most of that year. My 30th birthday present was a trip to the doctor because I couldn't get rid of a cough and worried as I prepared for a visit to my sister and her one year old daughter that I might have strep.  I was about to walk out the door after they said it wasn't strep but the doctor insisted on testing me for mono.  I was laughing at the thought until the test came back positive.

So I guess it should be no surprise that with my 40th birthday looming some medical disaster was on the horizon for me.

The funny thing is that I seem to be aging backward with my illnesses.  Tonsillitis and mono are illnesses you get as a kid not an adult.  One of my girlfriends husbands, who is only a year or 2 older than me, is having hip replacement surgery on my birthday.  It isn't uncommon for people to experience pre-mature aging.  To have illnesses that would typically be seen in much older adults.  I have known a 20 something who had a stroke.  Heart disease is on the rise in younger and younger people.  A neighbor in her 40's had a mild heart attack last year.  It is unfortunate when it happens but not totally un-heard of.  I, on the other hand, am like Benjamin Button who was born an old man and aged backward dying as an infant. My illnesses seem to originate in a younger and younger crowd as I go from milestone to milestone.

And so here we are 5 days from my 40th birthday and I am waiting for my husband to return home with lice treatment.  That is right.  I have lice.  Yuck. 

And the funny thing about all these sicknesses.  I never had any of them as kid.  Although I had large tonsils as a kid I never had tonsillitis,  my sister had mono but I didn't and not once did we ever have lice in our home.  Until now.

I wonder what it will be for my 50th birthday.  Cradle cap?  Thrush?  Ear infection?  croup?  Maybe I should just start planning to have the big celebration at 49 instead.

Since this seems like a childhood problem I did what any child would do, I called my mommy.  She is on her way to help me comb through all my hair with a little comb, seek and destroy all the eggs on my head.  What would we do without moms?

2 comments:

  1. So she wasn't just making it up? And the itchy crawlies you were feeling weren't made up either! That is crazy! I'm sorry to hear you have lice just in time for your birthday :(

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  2. oh that is a good post...love the thought of you having thrush or cradle cap for your 50th! haha

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