Sunday, August 5, 2007

A little parting gift


Yesterday, while changing before Mass, I caught sight of a vision of myself in the mirror (always a terrifying sight). I had an unpleasant rash on my side, below my rib-cage. It looked like shingles and, as I have been under a little strain lately, I thought I should do something about it. As I don't have a doctor, I had to take myself to the Emergency Room, my first visit to such a place in nearly eight years in the Colonies. Well, I was told, it could be shingles - or, joy of joys, it could be flea bites! That made sense. The former incumbent of this place had a mangy old dog and, according to the web, when pet and human live together, the fleas usually just chow down on the pet but, when the host is removed, as it was here - the fleas go into a feeding frenzy when a juicy new meal appears ( yours truly). It appears that it is the mattresses, because, luckily, all the carpets were taken out - so now we have to get new mattresses. I wonder if someone has one of those little voodoo dolls of me and are, at this moment, sticking pins in it - or fleas!

4 comments:

Fr. Peter said...

Hang in there father it will all get better. I had the same problem when I moved in here and it took some time but it all worked out. I will be praying for you.

gemoftheocean said...

Yikes!!!! DUDE. You are not in the UK -- ANY doctor could have figured it out for you. I'm sure your diocese has you covered for insurance, but emergency rooms get really expensive for everybody - plus mess up triage for incoming "bones sticking out of flesh" etc. when they are overloaded with "Mrs.. Murphey's 10 year old has the common cold" and "Fr. O." ran through a patch of "leaflets three, let them be."

Now if you are writing around in acute pain, or heart symptoms, then yes, go to the emergency room. Ditto ran into a knife and severed an artery.

That said....h'mmm -- check out that sofa too and other things.

This site:
http://www.fleascontrol.com/

Seems to have a lot of good tips. IT also has a page for non-toxic methods.

Karen H. -- San Diego, Ca.

gemoftheocean said...

BTW, re: the missing alb issue....it seems so unlikely something like that should go missing for so long.... Did you have extra suitcases and maybe put "really important stuff" into that extra bag ... like maybe the trunk of your car so you'd "have it right away?" Let us know when you find it - I'm about ready to turn that statue of Anthony around myself.
Especially since he and I are such good buddies.

Did you ever see the story of WHY he is patron of lost things? Somebody borrowed a book from him, and never returned it. You didn't take it home for your mum to wash, did you? did you say Mass as chaplain for the police dept. or visit a prison and say Mass there?

Did you hang it underneath another garment like a chasuable whose color you haven't pulled out in a while?

Father John Boyle said...

I hope the bugs have had enough and moved on ... :)