Clergy Family Confidential

All this steroid talk following the release of Major League Baseball’s Mitchell Report reminds me of our family’s brush with ‘roid rage. This fall, Ben came down with croup. Now I always thought croup was just for infants. We certainly had our share of late night runs to the ER for croup, ear infections, first-time parent paranoia, etc. But evidently 8-year-olds can also get it. And the accompanying cough is horrible. When Ben would get going, he sounded like a hacking, chain-smoking octogenarian.

So off we trudged to the doctor. Well, Bryna did. And when I came home from church that evening, Ben looked at me and said with great gravity, “Dad, I have something in common with Barry Bonds.” “Oh yeah, what’s that?” “We both take steroids.” Turns out the standard treatment is a non-anabolic steroid. Fortunately our pediatrician noticed Ben’s concern and eloquently described the difference between “good” steroids and “bad” steroids. Another crisis averted.