HFM

Beautiful, spotted birthday girl

In my opinion, Hand Foot and Mouth should be renamed... "extremely-high-fever-followed-a-day-later-with-nasty-painful-bumps-all-over-body-coinciding-with-extra-crankiness-then-followed-by-multiplying-rash-yet-endearing-temperament," or "EHFFADLWNPBAOBCWECTFBMRYET" (...for short...)

Hand Foot and Mouth had been going around like crazy all summer, and we had done well to avoid it in our house... until last week. C woke up with a fever on Monday which quickly escalated well over 104. With no other symptoms, we were at a loss as to what she had. She was eating and drinking normally. She wanted to play. She would just get very tired and lay down, fall asleep for about an hour and then wake up ready to go. As her temperature fluctuated all day, we decided to take her to the walk in hours at the doctor. 

As there we no other symptoms, the doctor recommended testing for a uti. Apparently they are pretty common and very serious if not caught right away. I'm just hoping she doesn't remember what they had to do to determine that she did not in fact have a uti. I promised her french fries as a reward for the trauma she was going through. French fries are her favorite reward. 

The next day her fever had come down and we thought she was on the mend... We were wrong. Toward the afternoon she was complaining about her mouth and she started to break out into spots on her face. They soon spread to her hands, arms, legs and diaper area. She started getting incredibly cranky and clingy. By then it was obvious what she had. 

The strange thing about HFM, at least for C, is that as the rash has gotten worse, her temperament has gotten better. The past few days, she has been such a joy to be around. She smiles and chats and wants cuddles. She doesn't act uncomfortable (except for diaper changes). If she wasn't covered in spots, I would never know she was sick.

It has been quite a chore keeping her away from E, but so far he seems to have avoided it. We are still not out of the woods yet in terms of contagiousness, but hopefully he will stay healthy. 

The spots around her mouth seem faint now, compared to what they were. 

This is not the way that I would have had her usher in her second birthday. 

I'm so grateful that she is feeling better.