When Not to make a Joke

My father is a funny man. I will give him that. He can make almost anyone laugh and is always the life of the party, but sometimes he just goes to far and has awful timing. Last Wednesday would be a perfect example.

I am dealing with a pretty severe case of mono and Wednesday has probably been the worst day of it. My dad had to pick me up and take me back to the doctor because I was having trouble breathing due to my extremely swollen tonsils (I know its disgusting). He took one look at me and told me I looked pretty rough and I would have to agree. I had the chills and was shivering the whole way to the doctors office. I felt like crap and just wanted to lie down. I thought that I was going to pass out so I made my dad go get me some water while we waited for the nurse to call my name.

Somehow I managed to make it through the appointment. The doctor gave me codeine and Prednisone which is some kind of steroid that they don't really like to give people especially for long periods of time. It was supposed to be a miracle drug that would reduce the swelling back to normal in 12 hours, which it has yet to do 48 hours later. The doctor warned me that the prednisone could cause some swelling in my hands and feet, which was honestly the least of my concern.

On our way out of the doctors office I managed to throw up all of the orange juice and water that I could handle swallowing. I was so pissed. It took me a damn long time to make sure that I wasn't going to get dehydrated not to mention the pain of swallowing. I couldn't believe all that work was completely gone in two seconds. I felt so defeated.

Dad drove me to Walgreen’s and went in to get my prescription while I napped in the car. He came back twenty minutes later with water, vitamins and my meds. As we started to drive dad was telling me about all of the side effects that the pharmacist had explained to him. Dad decided to through in one of his own and told me that in addition to the possible swelling in my hands and feet that it was possible for my face and forehead to swell. He said, "Nik, that will be so funny. You'll look just like Crowe Magnum Man." I started to cry and told him that it wasn't funny. He said that he was sorry and that he was just kidding.

What the hell was running through his head. He already knew that my usually good sense of humor was temporarily gone and that I felt like shit. He couldn't have picked a worse time to piss me off. I think under normal circumstances I would have figured out that he was kidding, but I seemed like such a cruel time to make a joke that it didn't even cross my mind.