W and the case of the evil eye
So I guess when I said I was back, it was sort of a relative term. I have been insanely busy lately with mommying and work and my freelance gig, which I hope to write more about soon. When I have the odd free minute (like now that W is taking a nap), I always find something to do, whether it's work or Words with Friends (hey, a girl needs some leisure) or reading Sweet Valley Confidential, which I am both embarrassed and happy to say I finally found and bought.
One thing that kept me quite busy last month was W being sick. He is fine, and he never needed to be hospitalized or anything, but there were ER and doctor visits and tests and antibiotics and not-antibiotics and stuff.
It all started one Friday night when he had a fever that just wouldn't go down. He had been feverish for a few days, but I figured it was teething and we kept it under control with Tylenol. But that Friday night (of course, a Friday night), he was up to 104 and wouldn't budge. My mom was in town, which was great, and we took him to the ER. They gave him a cold bath, more fever-reducing stuff (by a more direct route, eep) and prescribed antibiotics. Over the next few days he seemed better and worse and better and worse. One day he was just really suffering — crying, feverish and I could tell he was in pain.
That's when things got weird and the nanny delivered the diagnosis. "Mal de ojo," she said — the evil eye. Someone had looked at him with evil or envy or covetousness or some other bad energy. In fact, she even knew who it was — one of our neighbors saying how cute he was. (The evil eye is not always "evil" — it can be completely unintentional.) And she could cure this by rubbing a raw, unopened egg over his body and then cracking it in a glass. She also told me she had told my husband this same thing and he didn't believe her, but we could just do this thing and he'd never know.
Now, this was all fun and games and I was ready to dismiss it, but then she started telling me about her cousin's baby who had died of the evil eye, and her own baby who was terribly sick with the evil eye and the doctors couldn't do anything until she was cured with the egg ritual. It sounds crazy, but when your own baby is sick, it's a bad time to try the boundaries of your disbelief.
So, that kind of scared me, but I stood firm. I told her that kind of thing was "forbidden in my religion." She never brought it up again, W got back on antibiotics (it turned out to be a virus/infection combo) and all was well again in a few days. A small part of me wonders if she did the egg thing behind my back and is now adding another to her list of scary mal de ojo stories.
It was a bad time — poor baby was so miserable, and we were all so confused about what was wrong. The doctor even had him tested for typhoid at one point, to give you an idea of how bad it was. (Apparently there is no test for mal de ojo.) Baby was forced to give blood, stool and urine samples (if you are interested in the awful mechanics of this I will explain sometime) which was not pretty. Finally once all that took place he got on the right medicine and got better, and I thank God for that! (Not some egg!!)
One thing that kept me quite busy last month was W being sick. He is fine, and he never needed to be hospitalized or anything, but there were ER and doctor visits and tests and antibiotics and not-antibiotics and stuff.
Cracking up in the ER after he started feeling slightly better
It all started one Friday night when he had a fever that just wouldn't go down. He had been feverish for a few days, but I figured it was teething and we kept it under control with Tylenol. But that Friday night (of course, a Friday night), he was up to 104 and wouldn't budge. My mom was in town, which was great, and we took him to the ER. They gave him a cold bath, more fever-reducing stuff (by a more direct route, eep) and prescribed antibiotics. Over the next few days he seemed better and worse and better and worse. One day he was just really suffering — crying, feverish and I could tell he was in pain.
That's when things got weird and the nanny delivered the diagnosis. "Mal de ojo," she said — the evil eye. Someone had looked at him with evil or envy or covetousness or some other bad energy. In fact, she even knew who it was — one of our neighbors saying how cute he was. (The evil eye is not always "evil" — it can be completely unintentional.) And she could cure this by rubbing a raw, unopened egg over his body and then cracking it in a glass. She also told me she had told my husband this same thing and he didn't believe her, but we could just do this thing and he'd never know.
Now, this was all fun and games and I was ready to dismiss it, but then she started telling me about her cousin's baby who had died of the evil eye, and her own baby who was terribly sick with the evil eye and the doctors couldn't do anything until she was cured with the egg ritual. It sounds crazy, but when your own baby is sick, it's a bad time to try the boundaries of your disbelief.
So, that kind of scared me, but I stood firm. I told her that kind of thing was "forbidden in my religion." She never brought it up again, W got back on antibiotics (it turned out to be a virus/infection combo) and all was well again in a few days. A small part of me wonders if she did the egg thing behind my back and is now adding another to her list of scary mal de ojo stories.
It was a bad time — poor baby was so miserable, and we were all so confused about what was wrong. The doctor even had him tested for typhoid at one point, to give you an idea of how bad it was. (Apparently there is no test for mal de ojo.) Baby was forced to give blood, stool and urine samples (if you are interested in the awful mechanics of this I will explain sometime) which was not pretty. Finally once all that took place he got on the right medicine and got better, and I thank God for that! (Not some egg!!)
Posted by Sloane and Puffy at 11/28/2011 6:48 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: baby health child care
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: baby health child care
No disrespect at all to your nanny, I do understand that other people have beliefs that seem unusual to us, but congrats to you for standing up for your Christian faith and trusting in the power of God.
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