strange blood found

We headed up for bed last night. I walk into the bathroom and see blood on the toilet seat and a tissue with blood floating in the water. I call out who had blood? I walk over to the sinks. In Tom's side is more bloody tissue. In the sink is a damp pool of red blood. The tissue is crumpled up like it had been stuffed in the nose.





Riley walks in. He says it isn't his. Trevor says it isn't his. Tom and I look at each other. No one is claiming a bloody nose? Since it was also in the toilet I look at Trevor and ask again, in case he was injured during football practice, blood in the urine and all that. I say no one is in trouble. We just need to know where it came from. Still denials all around. I wonder if it could be a friend's. No, I kind of think it is Trevor's. He had been using our bathroom after football both the toilet and the bath. But why would he not want to say it was his bloody tissue? It's no big deal.





Tom gets on the boys about lying to us. The boys leave the room. I clean up the bloody tissue still curious as to its owner, suspecting Trevor. Trevor has headed down stairs to finish up his math for the tutor that is coming in the morning. I join him at the dining room table and ask again if it was his bloody nose. He says maybe, he isn't sure. He may have wiped his nose and not noticed. What? Maybe? I let it go and headed back upstairs to Tom.





I tell him I suspect the blood is Trevor's. It was fresh and he was the last to use our bathroom. He had been in the bathroom for an hour. Toms mind begins to churn. Why would Trevor feel the need to lie about the blood? When Trevor comes back upstairs, Tom asks him why he lied. Trevor vacillates. It may be his blood, he is not sure. I say again its not a big deal I just need to know where it came from. Was he injured in football? Was it from his nose or his bowels. A mom always worries about the worst, especially in this house hold at this time.





Tom tells Trevor the worst thing he can be is a liar and its a really bad thing that we don't believe him. I tell Trevor I was not mad at him about the bike being stolen, why would he not want to tell us about the blood. The light bulb goes on for Tom.





"Are you afraid you might have what Riley has? Are you afraid you might get pulled from football?"





"Well, yeah. Mom threatened to take me to the doctor."





I said "That was for the viral rash that you have." Riley's rash is now on Trevor. The doctor looked at it on Riley and said it just needed to run its course. I am just letting it run its course now on Trevor, but its pretty extensive, a bigger rash than Riley had, full torso. A rash on Riley is what alerted the doctors in February to his condition. Raising children is sometimes just one doctor's visit after another, even for the healthy ones. Trevor has always been the one that had the weird things happen, until Riley got sick.





I had not realised how effected Trevor was by Riley's illness. All we wanted to know really was that someone claim the bloody nose. That no one, especially Riley, had tried to hide it from us. When no one would claim the blood, then it became an issue. To find out Trevor was afraid we would pull him from football if he had blood, am I getting that paranoid? Is that the impression the boys are getting from me? Trevor wouldn't tell his father either so that makes me feel a little better.





But to think that denial makes an illness go away is bad. If Trevor ever does get sick, he needs to be able to deal with it. Not pretend it doesn't exist and it will just go away. I can see future conversations ahead with that boy. A bloody nose is just a bloody nose. No big deal. Thank goodness he is such a slob to leave his bloody tissues lying around. We caught this issue and can deal with it. I would hate for Trevor to try and hide a broken rib or something else serious.





Tom was concerned about the lying. When I said it had to be Trevor's blood, Tom said he thought about what would make Trevor deny it was his. It was a guy thing. He realized that Trevor is really loving football and that under the circumstances Trevor might have a fear that he might be sick also or that we would pull him for a bloody nose. It was right after football season or perhaps during the season that Riley caught whatever virus that made him sick. Its been a topic of conversation, as you can imagine, what made Riley sick.



I do try to take precautions with Riley. Today unloading the dishwasher, which is Riley's chore, Riley found a broken wine glass. He called me to come clean up the glass. I just figure why take the chance on his cutting himself on broken glass. You have to reach in and fish around for the pieces. If anyone is going to get cut, I would rather it be me and not Riley. He still has to unload all the other pieces, which he does without complaint. I admit to insulating him a bit. It is one of the reasons we are considering BMT, so we can stop being careful all the time. Riley may look normal. As Tom said in our discussion last night, Riley is 20 times better. But he is still 4 times less than where he needs to be.



I had just not realized the backlash that was occurring with Trevor. I thought we were doing so well with normality, only to find Trevor is paranoid in the other direction. He is afraid to admit to illness in case he becomes a shut in also.



Riley is quite content with his life. He has his computer and geeky computer friends. They can play Spore for hours, lined up in a row on the bed, comparing aliens. Their computer screens reflecting on their faces. If you ask if he is depressed, he whines "Why does everyone think I am depressed? I am not depressed!!"



Trevor came downstairs this weekend with a couple of his playmates. They ask if I can tell the children who are still upstairs, including Riley, to play outside. He asks me to shut down the computer games for a while. There lies the difference. Trevor wants to run around and play, ride bikes and use squirt guns. Riley has always been more of a book worm.



I can't wait for the boys to start school and I start my new job. I think we all need a change of environment. A step back from all this worry, a distraction. Trevor was so afraid we would deny him football, he would not fess up to a bloody nose. Thank goodness Tom understands how the male mind works better than me.