I'm waiting for cattle disease to hit

I think we've been beset by plagues of a near-biblical proportion. Insect infestations. Incurable boils. I even saw a frog in the house the other day. Let's just hope the Angel of Death decides to forego our house, otherwise Zeke may be in trouble.

It started a couple of months ago with the ticks. Kathleen and Michele were visiting, and we started noticing hundreds and hundreds of teeny tiny black bugs climbing the dog and the walls. They were unlike ticks I had ever seen, but I googled and sure enough, they were ticks. We couldn't get rid of them. They grew bigger and bigger, infested the house and the dog, and completely grossed us out. Jason and I would sit with the dog and a pair of tweezers for hours at a time, pulling hundreds of ticks off of him in a single go. We couldn't figure out where they were coming from, and it took two months of vigilantly spraying the house, the yard and the dog, multiple times, over and over, to get rid of them.

Around after we first saw the ticks, Zeke developed this monstrous sore on his stomach. I thought it was a tick bite and completely freaked out. It was huge and red and horribly painful to the touch. At first I couldn't figure out why, when I tried to carry him, he would put his knees up so that I didn't come into contact with his belly. Then I looked at his belly and rushed him to the emergency room. The doctor diagnosed cellulitis and put him on a really strong antibiotic....

which destroyed his innards, gave him horrible diarrhea, and then resulted in the ugliest, most raw, painful diaper rash I have ever seen or heard of. I slathered him with industrial-strength diaper rash cream, manuka oil from New Zealand recommended by my dad, and everything else I could think of. Diaper changes were torture. Bath time went from being a source of fun to a source of incredible stress.

Eventually, everything seemed to heal.

But then he got another big sore on his leg. A giant, painful boil that wouldn't heal. Then two more on his belly.

The ticks were gone at this point, and when I did some research and talked to Kathleen for advice, it started looking more and more like MRSA.

Which it was. While I was in Denver, Jason took Zeke to the doctor, got the diagnosis, and got him on medication that didn't destroy his digestive system. He had to have the boils lanced and drained -- it took 3 people to hold the little guy down while they did this, because it was so painful. I'm really sorry Jason had to deal with it by himself, but at the same time, I'm glad I didn't have to witness it.

In the meantime, I got a boil on my stomach. That refused to heal. That was gross and painful to the touch. And filled with pus.

And now I think there's another one in my nose. At first, the inside of my left nostril started to tickle and become kind of irritated, like there was a little zit inside. Which is annoying, but they go away.

But this isn't going away. And it's so enflamed and painful that my entire left eye socket throbs. It feels like I've been stabbed in the face.

So I'm off to the doctor's office. And trying to remember if, in my spare time, and without realizing it, I somehow managed to imprison and oppress a nation of chosen people, and now God is punishing me.