Above average

Jambeans is still poorly, so I took her to the doctor's today. Apparently the average frequency of illness for a child aged 0-5 is once every 6 weeks. I reckon Jasmine gets sick about every 4 weeks. What the GP wasn't able to tell me was whether the duration (ages) or severity (high) of her illnesses were something to worry about or take further. I have no basis for judging how ill she is at any given time - something in me is blind to it, and I always assume she'll be ok. I've always been like that - ignoring the signs and assuming they will go away (like when I was sick for 2 days when pregnant but it was actually premature labour, or when I was puking for weeks before I went to hospital with acute pancreatitis - both times other people had to intervene to get me to a hospital) but both my mum and the bf say she's close to critically ill when she's sick, so I figure they must know what they're talking about.

Apparently the important thing to look for is whether she gets better in between illnesses, which Jambeans certainly does. These little words of GP wisdom helped. I feel less guilty for not taking Jambeans to the doctor every time she gets sick, but for waiting for her to ride it out.

The GP also sympathised with how wearing it is for a parent to care for a child who is ill so frequently, demonstrating to me that medics are actually human beings too. I asked for a referral letter to Jambeans' peadiatrician anyway. He's very good, and I think a visit to him, if only just to chat, may help the bf stop worriyng about Jambeans which in turn may help me stop worrying about the bf worrying.

It's tough when she's not well - it's tiring and we get scratchy with each other. We talked about it last night. I said "we always seem to argue when Jasmine is ill." He turned to me and said simply "Because it's stressful." Never a truer word...