Beetles on the Brain

After his gift of Dragon Naturally Speaking Software failed to improve my production rate, my hubby—undaunted and forever the optimist--hired a three sister housekeeping team for us. He reasoned that if I didn’t have to do house work, I could write longer, sell more, and he could retire earlier than scheduled.

The gals—Marie, Elsa, and Rita--are great, regular dynamos with a dust cloth and mop, cleaning places I never thought to clean. The problem: only one of them speaks English and then not very much of it. A problem clearly demonstrated by my difficulty in having them understand that I only wanted them to come once every two weeks, not every week…which they did for three weeks running, having driven 45 minutes to get here. (Ca-ching, ca-ching.) Ugh.

So last night I get a call from Elsa, the middle sister. She tells me that only two of them will be coming today, because Maria’s 4 yr old son is in the hospital.

I responded, “Oh no. What’s wrong?”

Elsa tells me, “He has beetles in brain.”

Beetles?!?

Earwigs were the only things that came to mind, but how would a 4 yr old get earwigs in Dallas? “Beetles?” say I.

“Si, beetles…bugs! He has headache and bleeding nose.”

Ah! “Bacteria?”

“Si!” she tells me, “Bacteria.”

After a thirty minute struggle I finally deduced that the child had been sick for 4 days with a high fever before being rushed into Children’s Hospital where the doctor “stuck needle in back.”

Meningitis. No question, and not good. After commiserating with her, I told Elsa I’d keep the boy in my prayers and to give Maria a hug for me. That they shouldn’t come to the house tomorrow if their sister needed them. That I would understand and would wait for their call to reschedule.

I was therefore surprised this morning when Elsa and Rita arrived at the stroke of 9:00. Happily they said that the child was doing much better today. That the doctors would be sending the boy home soon with medicine. Their only concern stemmed from the doctor’s talk going from “He’ll be fine,” to “We need to follow him closely,” but the women were pleased that as far as the doctors could tell the boy hadn’t suffered any hearing or “thinking” loss. All good news! But made me wonder if insurance--or lack thereof…

So if anyone ever tells you that they or someone they love has “beetles in the brain,” you now know.

And www.Sandyblair.net is getting a new look today…I think…I hope.

posted by MJFredrick @ 8:27 PM