Wednesday 21 September 2011

Mumps

I seem to have come down with mumps. My face is swollen and puffy; other than that I feel a bit ill, but am obviously not *too* ill as I am already bored and grumpy. You see, mumps is highly infectious, and I am confined to the house now for FIVE DAYS. FIVE DAYS. Can I tell you what makes it worse? I was going to change my library books at lunchtime so I don't have very much to read. I guess it's time for some cross stitch or something, but as always with being ill, I don't feel like doing very much apart from moan.

Apart from feeling sore and chipmunk like, I do feel like a character out of a children's book. With the exception of my Mum who managed to get it when I was 8, I don't know anyone else apart from Enid Blyton school girls who have had it. It seems that although there is a vaccination programme, you need to be vaccinated several times and I only got done once by a quirk of my age. It also puts me in mind of Nancy in Arthur Ransome's Winter Holiday; does anyone else rememmber the fantastic illustration of Nancy looking out of her bedroom window with a circle where her face should be, with words along the lines of "it would be too cruel to draw Nancy's face". If my Dad had had mumps, I would get him to bring his copy of the book around to me!

Apologies for tetchiness on the blog - I shall try to find some gentle, restful activities to occupy myself; Mr W is working out on site this week and won't be home until late each night, so comments and chat much appreciated!

(I won't post a picture of my face for similar reasons to Arthur Ransome...)

9 comments:

  1. Oh no! Time for a gentle re-read of some well-loved classics, I think!

    I've had mumps, but ONLY ON ONE SIDE so I am always slightly in fear of catching the other side! On the good side, I don't think you end up feeling that unwell with them, so you'll be able to read and stitch. You might want to have some honey and lemon for your throat, though.

    Oh - and I nearly went mad when I had swine flu a couple of years ago and felt FINE, but was confined to the house. Argh!

    Take care and get well soon!

    Liz x

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  2. I hope you feel better soon, Verity! I had mumps when I was little, but I was too young to remember much about it. I do remember I managed to give it to my poor father, though, who must have felt much like you're feeling now. I hope the next five days won't be too frustrating.

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  3. I'm kind of intrigued as to what a mumps-afflicted face looks like, but I will defer to Mr Ransome's good judgement.

    Am always on twitter for some Russian hashtags :)

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  4. I had mumps in my second year at university and I was exactly the same as you - I'd only had the vaccination once and was due to go and have a top-up one the day I came down with mumps! I did also think of Nancy Blackett (my favourite Swallows and Amazons character!) when I had them! It wasn't great to have them in the middle of a term, though it did cause my friends great amusement!

    Hope you feel much better soon and enjoy the excuse to do very little!

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  5. Gentle hugs, Verity. I had mumps when I was 8 or so. Is Mr W immune as it can be problematic for males?

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  6. I had mumps when I was at infant school, so that would have been in the latter half of the 1950s.

    My mother caught it from me, she had a much worse case of it than I did. I remember having crushed up junior Asprin in a spoonful of sugar to help the pills go down.

    Sing along time "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down . . ."

    Did the Chalet School pupils ever have mumps? Can't remember off the top of my head. I know they had a few epidemics.

    Love Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series.

    Hope you are soon feeling a lot better and that Ken doesn't catch the mumps from you. Has he had the jabs?

    I've been doing some cross stitch this week. Son of my only male cousin is getting married on 1st October. I'm stitching the same card design that I made for you and Ken. Doing the flowers in shades of lilac this time.

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  7. Verity wishing you well, and I do not know anyone who had mumps at school apart from in Enid Blyton as well. I did not know you can catch it later on in life.

    Anyway, moan to your hearts content when you feel like it. I hope you recover soon and take it easy because if you are like me you will feel like you are wasting your time being stuck indoors!

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  8. I've never had mumps, so won't give you a get better hug!

    I can't recall any bookish characters other than Famous Five. We do have same reading lists, as I loved the Swallows and Amazons books and in fact have got most of them, having given away a few unfavourite ones.

    I think Winter Holiday was my favourite Ransome book after I got past the Swallows and Amazons. Certainly the most exciting.

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  9. What rotten luck: hope you find an upside with some forced time abed with books and other small pleasures. I don't remember the Arthur Ransome scene (it wasn't one of my favourite series), but I did always think it would be fun to catch the measles, thanks to a bizarre addiction to the Mark and Mandy story about it! Feel better!

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