Sami’s Blog: Parasites

The world is topsy turvy and a little less bright of late. Kate has cancer which is the bleakest of reminders cancer does not discriminate when it comes to age or money. It has been raining for 1978565 days on the Coast and we are all sick of soggy front yards and foggy drives to work. The dogs are looking at me as if they may never go to the beach again and bound in the sunshine.

There is a lot of pressure for glorious days when you live on The Sunshine Coast. And we have parasites in our house. Nothing quite like the P word to stop people in their tracks. Unfortunately, it is quite true that my 9 year old has 2 parasites in his tummy and he has been sick since October last year. We have seen a myriad of doctors and tried a truckload of medicines. He has had MRI’s and about a billion blood tests to rule out allergies and syndromes and viruses. Now we have gone down the naturopath track in the hope of fixing up our little guy who has constant headaches and stomach pain. But when people ask what is wrong with him and you reply quite bluntly “Oh he has parasites!” their eyes widen in fear. They do not know where to look or what to say. We will never know how he got them but my Mum swears it is from our dogs.

My husband has zero faith in my ability to raise our children. The kids and dogs have grown up sharing the floor in our home and I have always thought it boosted the kid’s immunity. The joke could be on me. The source of the stubborn little suckers could be from tank water or a public swimming pool. But we are praying to the Gods of Sick Kids to make them go away before we all go crazy with trying to find a remedy. There has been a silver lining in the parasite drama. On my search to find a cure for our boy I drove to a doctor in Maleny and found THE BEST lamingtons in the entire region. A bold but true statement. These square shaped slabs of heaven came from the bakery in the main street. The sponge is pure air and fluff covered in velvet chocolate and the perfect amount of coconut. They have the power to reduce grown adults to tears they are so divine.

So when life is tough I believe in two things: that saying “This too shall pass” and the power of a perfect lamington. I am buying more this weekend and I plan to smugly tell my husband I baked them myself.