The only thing hindering our joy at reaching Bear Lake was the fact that Claire had woken up that morning at Dave’s sister’s house (back here) with the left side of her neck swollen up to the size of a watermelon.

Ok, maybe not a watermelon, but pictures can’t do the swelling justice. It was huge.

Carol Lynn was pretty sure that it must be an allergic reaction to her cat and gave Claire some allergy medication, but to me it looked strangely familiar…

It brought to mind a picture of Dave as a toddler with a neck swollen up with the mumps:

(Yes that really is Dave and not some guy born in the turn of the century…wow these pictures are getting old!  And apparently having the mumps makes you drool a lot…)

But Claire had been vaccinated so I brushed that image right out of my mind.

The swelling sure didn’t get any better with the allergy medication.

So as soon as we arrived at Bear Lake and gave everyone hugs (we were one of the last families to get there) we headed into town to see what our favorite family doctor friend would say about that mysterious lump.
The only problem was that en route to town my tire light started flashing. 
I got out to find this beauty:
We were pretty lucky about two things:
1) My sister is pretty much an expert at car problems after her British car adventures (here) and knew to consult the car owner manual like a Bible.
2) The nicest couple ever came to the rescue to help us out. I wish I had a good picture of them both…wow, they spent a LOT of time helping us figure out how to get that new-fangled contraption under our car to let us get the spare tire free.
When we finally made it into town and had a little visit with our doctor friend we found out that Claire did indeed have the mumps.
Yes, you heard that right…she had the MUMPS.
All those tears after shots when she was little were wasted on the mumps one I guess…I though she’d never have to ever deal with that pesky sickness. 
I’m chalking it up to the fact that her immune system is a little weaker after all her antibiotics from her continual UTIs she used to have.  She gets the strangest things…huge cold sores too, poor girl. 
So we got her all squared away and luckily her swelling went away within the next couple days…just in time for Dave to arrive for our family reunion to play some tennis…
…and twist his foot in a crazy enough way we decided to take him into town to the hospital. 
…so we could get the diagnosis that he had a broken foot.
(Which resulted in his having to wear the below beauty all over India…and having to stay out of a lot of other summer stuff, darn it!)

After that little series of bad news we crossed our fingers that bad things really do come in threes.

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16 Comments

  1. Shawni, I just got a new calling… one you had not too long ago ;)… and was hoping you could throw out your best advice. I would love any ideas for a thank you gift for the outgoing presidency. I wasn't sure how else to contact you, so I'm hoping you see this. My email is andrea.stratton@hotmail.com. Feel free to delete this comment once you see it πŸ˜‰

  2. As soon as I saw the first pic of Claire's face, I knew it was mumps! I was also vaccinated (twice) against it and still managed to get the mumps while in the Peace Corps-Malawi. I also had the chicken pox twice; I hope she's not as "lucky" as me!

  3. My little 6 yr. old woke up with the same swollen neck just a few days before school started two weeks ago. After visits to the Dr. and blood work (mumps titer, among other tests) they determined it wasn't the mumps but something called para-mumps. I think it's related to the mumps and the symptoms are the same. Very traumatic having blood drawn at 6 yrs. old.
    I love your blog and read it daily. I met your aunt and uncle on a recent cruise in the Mediterranean and I know Valerie through my sister, who I believe you know as well.

  4. From experience…I know that it does come in threes when I experienced my uncle getting sick, a garage fire and my dog dying. Just be careful what you wish for, however–or it could become of the thing that comes in threes πŸ™‚ Hope you all stay well…

  5. I had chicken pox 3 TIMES. And had been vaccinated twice. Once i got into college, my microbio prof told me that my antibodies were "lazy" and it took 3 times for them to build up immunity.
    Seriously so lame! I'm glad shes feeling better, the poor thing!


    and i know your good luck went past three because of the little beauty salon they had up there…hope it wasnt too much past that though!

  6. Poor girl (and Dave). My son also gets cold sores bad, to the point that we have to have them removed. Is there anything along the way that has helped Claire? Btw, I got mumps when I was her age. I still remember going to the doctor and seeing the look on my moms face when the doctor told her my prognoses.

  7. so this is totally random…but i twisted my ankle today. how do you know when to check out a twisted ankle? its sore but i can move around on it….was dave able to move around on his sore foot or was it so painful he couldn't and you just knew?!
    i love reading your blog and some of your mothers books. you have helped me have better perspectives some days πŸ™‚

  8. Oh Shawni, what a bummer to have all of that happen while on vacation. It's scary to that poor Claire had the mumps πŸ™ Poor thing. I'm glad you all recovered and are back on the mend.

    That picture of Dave is hilarious! It totally doesn't look like him. How does he feel about you posting old pics of him? My hubby would not go for it! He doesn't like it when I post pictures of him on the blog. He actually needs to review a picture first before I post it. My blog is a cooking blog, so I really don't post to many pictures of him anyway.

    Jackie πŸ™‚

  9. Andrea and Mom, I'm not going to count the "three-year-old-hair-cutting-beauty-salon" incident as bad luck since I actually really like Lu's hair short πŸ™‚

    As far as Claire's cold sores go, we give her a little bit of Valtrex and that seems to do the trick if we catch it soon enough.

  10. Oh and Jackie, Dave doesn't care about old pictures. He just mostly doesn't want me to post mushy gushy stuff about him and give him lots of attention. Boo is what I have to say about that.

  11. I had Mumps when I was a child about age 7 then I got them again 2 years ago at the age of 39. I woke up in a lot on pain at 3am and took myself off to the emergency room to get checked out. We were going camping the next morning so hubby took our 4 kids on holiday and I stayed home – not fun… but I did get spoiled by my Mum!

  12. Greatest picture of Dave! He looks horrible. Sometimes it's good to have all the bad happen at once and get it over with so you can enjoy your normal life. Love you blog it's becoming one of my favorites.

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