The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Twenty-One

Uh-Oh: Full Stop!

Well.  Day Twenty-One has brought an unexpected Christmas Surprise.  

For the past week or so I have had some allergy-type drippy nose.  Last evening, my throat started being a nuisance.  When I looked at it last night, it looked like there could be a little spot of strep.  I mentioned it to Marvelous Mark and we decided that with the holidays coming and everything closing down, I might as well go to the Doc-In-A-Box to get checked out and get some antibiotics if necessary.  So this morning I trundled down to town to the place we go when we need a doctor NOW.  

I saw the nurse practitioner and we had a nice visit.  She agreed that my throat looked a little strep-y and did a swab and a blood test.  The swab came back negative, but the white count came back elevated.  Since my normal white count is lower than average, that was fairly significant.  They decided to culture the swab for 24-48 hours and see what grew out but in the meantime go ahead and give me an antibiotic that would cover anything.  Great.  Start antibiotics, that will cover whatever, I will feel fine in a day or so, and Christmas as usual, right?  Not so fast.

I have been exposed to mono.  So I asked them to go ahead and run a mono test.  Having mono will not change how I treat this, but it would be good to know whether or not it is safe to have the extended family to our home for lunch on Sunday.  Who wants to go have dinner in a home where the cook has mono, right?

Guess what?  Yup.  Auntie 'Ginia has mono.  HUGE sigh.  Remember all that time I have had lately lovin' on my great-nieces and nephews?  Mm-hmm.  Now I have exposed them to this nastiness.  HUGE sigh.  No more time lovin' on them while they are back here; it will just have to wait until they come back for another visit or I save up my pennies and travel to Utah.  No big Christmas dinner with my sweet sister and her family.  In fact, as I look down the road of the next couple of months or so, I am thinking that my plans to swim at the Y will have to be put on hold for at least a few months.  Honestly, would you want to swim in a pool if you knew someone had been there before you who had mono??

So it's time to really think about applying all the things I have been telling you over the past Twenty-One days of getting ready for Christmas.  Do I really understand in my heart what Christmas is all about?  Or am I getting side-tracked by the cultural trappings?  As I put myself under quarantine for the next little while, and realize that I can not push myself but have to get more rest, will we be able to celebrate Christmas as a family without all the "stuff"?  Did I mean it when I said that this is a season of celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour and His imminent return?  Or is the fact that I can not finish the big house work, cook a lot of stuff, do a little more shopping for my boys, and generally play Santa going to spoil our time?

As I sat in the car a little while ago processing all of this, I knew that this was where it was going to come down to practicing what I have been preaching here.  I have to make a choice now.  Yesterday I had an unexpected visit with a nun at Walmart.  I asked her how I might pray for her and we had a nice conversation about her Christmas plans and wishes with her sisters at the convent.  Then she asked how she might pray for me.  I asked her to please pray that I could keep my focus on Jesus and not get distracted by peripheral nonsense.  Later in the day my oldest brother dropped by for a visit (that is always a special treat!).  Again, we talked about how we could pray for each other over the next week and again, I asked that he pray that I would keep my focus on Jesus and not be distracted by the peripheral "stuff".  God is answering my prayer.  May my eyes be so filled with His presence, His glory and His joy that the other stuff fades away into meaningless background!

And please pray that my babies do not get sick!