I forget that my daughter with HAE can also face common illness

“I have a very serious question to ask you both,” our youngest son, whom we lovingly nicknamed Harambe, said as he entered our room.

My husband and I paused our random wind-down tasks and gave him our full attention.

“There’s a couple that’s going to a park,” Harambe began. “They have five kids, and each kid is married, and each of those couples has five kids. How many people are going to the park?”

I lightly chuckled. Our son had just presented us with his generation’s version of the “St. Ives” riddle.

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In the 18th-century poem, the narrator goes to St. Ives and meets a man with seven wives. Each wife has seven sacks, each sack contains seven cats, and each cat has seven kittens. By the end of the poem, the narrator asks how many people were traveling to the titular city.

For the traditional English rhyme, the answer is one. In my son’s rhyme, the answer is two. But the reason why it’s difficult to reach those conclusions is that both poems have a singular purpose: to distract the reader into doing complicated math. The repetition of numbers drowns out the answers, which are declared at the beginning of the riddles.

Sometimes, those riddles feel like a mirror for caring for someone with hereditary angioedema (HAE).

A complicated riddle can have a simple answer

Our oldest daughter, whom we lovingly call Ladybug, lives with HAE. Although we recently enjoyed weeks of respite from flares, subcutaneous shots, telehealth appointments, medical travel, and emergency room visits, the condition is always at the forefront of my mind.

We’ve spent the better part of seven years grappling with complex problems and feeling our way through various solutions. Now, whenever Ladybug mentions she’s not feeling well, I immediately go into HAE mode.

So when Ladybug began complaining about throat pain and fatigue toward the end of last week, my brain went into overdrive. Alarmed by slight swelling in her face, I did what I usually do in these situations: I attempted to solve the complicated HAE “riddle.” However, several days later, we discovered that HAE wasn’t the answer.

After a sick visit to her pediatrician, we discovered that Ladybug had a sinus infection. I had forgotten that it’s still possible for her to get “regular” sick. A few days after starting Z-Pak (azithromycin), a common antibiotic for this illness, Ladybug started to improve.

There are times when caregivers have to solve a loved one’s medical problems in the most complicated ways. And other times, the answer is one.

Note: Angioedema News is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Angioedema News or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to angioedema.