being ill

I have a cousin who fell and injured his arm. While he was waiting to be x-rayed his sister pointed to a medical poster that showed half of the body with skin and the other half all of the bones and organs. She told her little brother that the x-ray would do that to him. Apparently, it took many people to x-ray his arm. I don't think he will ever be the same.

Robin

At the tender age of five life was a world of amazement. Cellotape (sticky tape) came under this catagory, I remember asking my mom if the doctors could cellotape your head back on if it was chopped off, she re-assured me that they could.

David

I used to tell everyone that I was allergic to concrete - because when I fell on it, it hurt. I have since learned that it's an allergy that has afflicted 100% of the population

Janette

As a child I was diagnosed with Rheumatic Fever. I proudly went around telling everyone that I had Romantic Fever.

Anon

I used to believe that if you got a splinter it would fossilize and adhere to your bones making them stronger. Furthermore when my mother tried to tell me I was wrong about this I told her that I knew I was right .... because I knew all about George Washington.

TheAmber

Ok, when I was 6 or 7 my Uncle got lung cancer. I remember coming into the kitchen and seeing my mum upset, and she told me that he had cancer on his lungs. At least I assume that's what she said, I now know that's what he had, but at the time I must have misheard, aside from the fact that I didn't know what cancer was, because I vividly recall having a mental image of a pair of lungs with ANTS crawling all over them! I was horrified at the thought of such a disease!!!

Me!

When I was little and I laid on my mother's bed with the thermometer in my tushy, I used to picture little men inside me pushing the mercury up according to how much temperature I had.

Julie

When I was little I thought that EVERYBODY's mom took their temperature in their tush. It was only when I started watching TV - the Brady Bunch and the like -- did I realize that some people got their temperature taken in their mouth.

Andrea

I used to think that when my mother took my temperature, and dipped the thermometer in vaseline, she was giving me medicine. I thought that the vaseilne was what made me better.

Benjamin

Once my mom had to use crutches because she'd 'twisted her ankle.' I got down on the floor and tried to untwist it, thinking that if I just fixed it she'd be fine. (She screamed.)

queeneve

The first time I remember vomiting, I had just eaten a bowl of Smurf shaped spaghetti-o's. For a long time I believed the Smurfs were mad at me for trying to eat them and made me vomit them back up. I haven't eaten spaghetti-o's since either.

Jade

One time I would not cooperate with my mohter when she was trying to take my temperature, so she told me that the little robotic voice that announced my temperature on the thermometer was my father's voice. For the next several illnesses, until I wised up, when she walked in with the thermometer and the vaseline she always said, in a very cheery voice, "you want to hear daddy?" My dad always backed her up on that.

Rachel

When I was about 4 or 5, we went on holiday with a family we were friends with. Later on in the holiday, my mum informed me I had Athlete's Foot. I misheard her and thought she had said "Ashley's Foot", and therefore went up to the dad of the other family, who was called Ashley or Ash, and announced to him "Would you like your foot back now?" I could see he was extremely confused by this.

Christie, but with Ashley's foot

When I was about 7 my sister's friend told me that, when you were sick, if your temperature got to 105 you would die. I remember lying on my mom's bed getting my temperature taken, terrified that I would have 105. I found out my answer one time when I had pneumonia and my mom took my temperature in the middle of the night. She let out a huge gasp after she took the thermometer out of my tushy, and when she collected herself she reassured me that I wasn't "going to die."

Jennifer

I used to think that, when my mom told me to lay on the bed because she wanted to "take" my temperature, that she was actually taking something from my tush. When I heard the beeps, it was all out of me.

Jessica

When I was a little girl I got sick and had temperature for about a week. For some reason, just to say something, my mom would make a comment after she took the thermometer out of my tushy along the lines of "Now you've done it again, 104!" or "I don;t know what we're going to do with you, it's still 103 and a half!" I really thought that I had done something wrong and told my dad that mommy was mad at me.

Julia

I used to think that, when I got sick, it was my tushy where the illness was, since my mom took my temperature there several times a day and always announced how high it was and seemed so concerned with what was going on "back there."

Jennifer

When I was a child I used to believe that doctors wore those face masks incase they threw up.

Nicole

I used to think that only girls got their temperatures taken rectally because girls (ie, moms) were allowed to see other girls' tushies but not boys' tushies. I was the youngest of three girls and their were no boys in the house. One time, I saw my friend's brother with a thermometer on top of a jar of vaseline in his room when he was sick, and she told me that both boys and girls got their temperatures taken in their tushies.

Stephanie

my mom told me that if i didnt rinse the soap from my underarms completly, that i would get a fever, so I would put soap under my arms hoping i would, so that i wouldnt have to go to school the next day. i still think about it when im taking a shower.

Anon