malvasia bianca

I just got back from jogging, for the first time in about three months. Quite a three months it has been; I can’t remember whether the first cold or the massive lice invasion came first, but both started with Miranda and were passed to Liesl and me in short order. Then Miranda came down with what we thought was another cold; when Liesl got it, it seemed more serious, keeping her home from work for much of a week (and putting a dent in our lice removal activities); when I got it, it was clearly a full-blown flu. (Doubtless it was clear to Liesl earlier that she had the flu; it’s easier to tell from the inside.)

Fortunately, the lice was in remission, because I was in no shape to help with its removal (or, for that matter, to have my hair combed: staying vertical for showers didn’t sound too smart). Then I got better, then I got dramatically worse, then it turned out I had pneumonia. I missed three weeks of work, and wasn’t up to near full strength for another four weeks. During this time, we also discovered that we hadn’t gotten rid of all the lice, so we went through another couple weeks of treatments (trying different chemicals this time).

But now I feel decent – I can imagine feeling a little better, but I don’t need much imagination to know that I could be a lot worse. There’s a strange wheeze at the end of my cough that wasn’t there before; if it doesn’t go away soon, I might go back to the doctor, but I’m not too worried for the time being. I think we’ve gotten rid of all the lice; we looked over Miranda’s hair the other day and found four eggs, but our optimistic theory is that they all contain dead lice. We shall see.

The extended family has a ways to go: I really hope the doctors can find something that will help my brother, because he’s not having much fun right now.