Summer Fun?

So, if you are a frequent reader of my blog you may remember the entry I wrote about our rocky start to summer. All of my kids were sick in one way or another at the same time in late May & early June. So, everyone has been doing a lot better except for Mark. It seems that he has had one thing after another since then. He hasn't had any major ailments, but enough to make me wonder why he's not having a full recovery. I mean, isn't winter the time to get sickness after sickness while summer is supposedly a relatively healthy time for kids?

The story I'm getting to is the latest thing with Mark. He woke up yesterday morning complaining about his ear hurting. I could tell he was really in pain & that he wasn't faking it. The kids have been swimming a lot, but Mark is still a little gunshy when it comes to the water. He'll play in it for 10 or 15 minutes and then he's done. So it's possible he got some water in his ear while swimming, but not for sure. At any rate, I gave him some pain reliever & he didn't complain about his ear again the rest of the day.

This morning, he told me he felt like there was something in his ear so I got a Q-tip to clean his ear out, but what came out wasn't normal earwax. (I'll spare you the details of what it was like in case there are any queasy people reading this.) I called the doctor & after having him checked out he said Mark's eardrum ruptured. So, we have one more thing to add to our list of ailments. Poor Mark has spent at least half of his summer in quarantine in the house. I really hope he can make a full recovery & get on the road to some real summer fun before the summer is over!