The Sick Little Boy

My little boy is sick.. very sick.

It started with Pink Eye.

Fever.

Ear infection.

Summer cold.

We brought home medicine and started treating the Pink eye and the Ear infection. But then Joshua was requesting we put medicine on his feet.

Weird? Yea.. but I knew he wasn't feeling well, so I obliged and rubbed lotion on his feet.

Only.. a few minutes later he was bugging me again to put medicine on his feet again.

This time.. Daddy went to get the lotion.

The sound I hear next was John, obviously upset.. "Oh My God! Oh My God Jayme, have you seen his feet?"

I run to look...

His feet are red.. splotchy looking.

He is screaming that they are itching.

I run and get the cortizone to rub on his feet, but it doesn't help.

I thought he might be having a reaction to the eye drops because he had never taken it before, so I called the on call doctor. She said that eye drops would not cause his feet to splotch and swell.... well duh!! But.. what was it? She didn't have a answer, but to monitor him overnight and if the rash spreads we were told to take him to the ER.

I rubbed Joshua's feet until he fell asleep. Poor baby. All night long he screamed out and told us .. "his feet hurt."

The next day, the rash was raised, and we continued the cortizone treatment.

Until, it spread to his hands. My mom, who was watching him called the doctor. His appointment was at 4pm. I came home as soon as I could.

When I got home, he was sleeping. I let him sleep until about 15 minutes before his doctor appointment.

When he woke up.. the rash was now around his mouth. Ugh.

We loaded up and went to the doctor. She looked him over, told us he weighed 36lbs.. and then announced.. "He has Hand, Foot and Mouth disease."

What?

She explained:

HFMD usually affects infants and children, and is quite common. It is moderately contagious and is spread through direct contact with the mucus, saliva, or feces of an infected person. It typically occurs in small epidemics in nursery schools or kindergartens, usually during the summer and autumn months. The usual incubation period is 3–7 days.

There is no specific treatment for hand, foot and mouth disease. Individual symptoms, such as fever and pain from the sores, may be eased with the use of medication. HFMD is a viral disease that has to run its course; many doctors do not issue medicine for this illness, unless the infection is severe.

(ok so I got that from Wiki, but you get the idea)

So now.. no medicine.. nothing to ease the pain but Tylenol, benadryl and creams to ease the rash...

We are just waiting around for it to go away, and my poor poor baby.. looks like this...

Ok.. that Orange stuff on his mouth is Skittles.... to him.. Skittles makes everything better.