October 10, 2006 02:32 PM
Who Have You Been Kissing?
As my daughter sits at her computer, she receives a message and lets out a sigh and rolls her eyes. For about the tenth time this week, one of her friends has asked her the question: "So...who have you been kissing?"
It's not that my daughter's moral character is suddenly being called into question by her peers. It's just that she has mono, and almost every time she tells one of her friends, they respond by asking her who she got it from, and who she's been kissing. Well the truth is, she's only been kissing one boy for the past two months, and he doesn't appear to have the disease (At least, not yet.) When she informs her friends that her boyfriend is still mono-free, they typically, although jokingly, add, "then who did you get it from?"
According to the MayoClinic.com:
Infectious mononucleosis (mono), or glandular fever, is often called the kissing disease. The label is only partly true. The virus that causes this disease is transmitted through saliva, so kissing can spread the virus, but so can coughing, sneezing, or sharing a glass or food utensil.
My poor kid is tired, sick, and really doesn't want to hear the question anymore. The truth is that like the common cold she had last month, she has no idea where she picked up that nasty little mono virus. She does work at a drugstore, and is regularly sneezed on, coughed on, and in general contact with sick people each time she goes to work. Her friends just aren't buying the story. And they're really starting to get on my nerves.
Anyway, this week has been draining for all of us here in my house. I moved my son's belongings out of the bathroom he shares with his big sister, because I sure don't want two kids with mono on my hands. I've been e-mailing teachers, talking to high school administrators, and trying to find some way to return to my own normal routine, which doesn't include so many doctors visits and pharmacy visits and spraying Lysol all over everything my oldest child has touched in a week.
So maybe life will get back to normal soon. And all those pesky teenagers will stop asking my daughter about her kissing habits.
Comments
Why do her friends need to know who she's been kissing. Its none of their business and they just have to leave her alone. If they don't then she should say "If you don't leave me alone then I'll cough on you." And then see what happenes. If they get mono then she can ask them "Who have they been kissing." Everything will get back to normal and they will forget.
Posted by: Shelby Case at December 19, 2006 12:11 PM
