?otw

via Lisa, who found it at Snarkland:

Chickenpox? Mumps? Malaria? What’s the worst time you were sick? Were you, or are you now, able to see any humor in it?

In terms of contagious illness, probably the sickest I've been with something diagnosed, is when I had "walking pneumonia" as a child. I was on at least two kinds of meds, one with codeine, and all I remember doing was sleep 15 hours a day. We had company, and I was on a rollaway in the playroom in the basement, and Gerald Ford was president; I remember one of my foggy evenings he was making a Very Important Speech. I listened to it from the front porch; or, rather, I could hear him talking while I wandered out to the front porch and back in. I was a complete flake. That's probably why I have no real interest in doping up on narcotics; it was a truly bizarre feeling.

I also had chicken pox when I was in Kindergarten, the week the entire town lost power for a day or two because of a terrible snowstorm. I just remember being under a very itchy blanket (or five!), while trying not to scratch. Even as sick as I was, I wasn't allowed to stay in bed; no matter what, in my house, if you were awake, you had to be out of your bedroom. Lying on the couch was fine, but NO GOING BACK TO BED and lazing around. I was too little, at 6, to store much of the hassle of chicken pox in my long-term, retrievable memory.

I do remember that after I recovered from the chicken pox I developed some sort of weird skin thing on my feet. My parents had to strip off dead skin with nail scissors every couple of nights for a week or so. It didn't hurt, but it was strange watching my feet peel off like snakeskin. I've never had anything like this again. Thank God!!