Hand Foot and Mouth = Not Fun

As you know from my last post, Nicholas and I were both sick last week.  I had a sore throat and sinus stuff going on and we *thought* he had an ear infection.  Last Wednesday I had a late night at work and around 5:15 his teacher called to tell me N had a temp of 100.5.  Grrrrreat.  Just what I needed.  My boss was out of town, I had my 2 drs and covering for another one, plus I needed all of the vacation time I have for our vacation in a few weeks.  I got to school and he was pretty pitiful.  It appeared that he might have pink eye or a draining ear infection from his nose and eye (it has happened before).  By Thursday morning he had a full blown illness of some kind with a temp of 101.  We went to the dr at 11 and then my mom came to keep him while I went o to work for a few hours.  He was diagnosed with fluid in his ear and a stopped up tube (of course he would!).  We started an antibiotic and thought by the weekend he would be much better.  

Thursday evening when I got home around 7 he was having a lot of wheezing and coughing, so Gigi and I gave him an albuterol treatment and he soon went to bed.

 Friday he was just the happiest little thing you've ever seen (not unusual, this is the same baby that laughed his way through RSV!)  We both stayed home and he was happy with a low grade temp and I thought we were almost over the hump.

Saturday he continued to be symptom and fever free.  The only thing I noticed was a little fussiness and a lot of drooling, but contributed that to the tooth he cut on Sunday that was almost to the surface.  We had our subdivision block party that night and my boys looked so cute! (BTW, Michael dressed them!)

N played and had a great time.  I did notice that his eczema (or so I thought) sure was bad.  I spent a lot of time keeping his face clean and putting eczema cream on him Saturday.

We even shared a blow-pop!  He played with several of the neighborhood kids and overall did great.  Then came a meltdown around 8:00, so he and I went home and he felt a little feverish, but again, he had been playing hard and sweating.  I feel like such a failure of a mom for not noticing these things...especially being a nurse!  As you can see, he didn't have any obvious signs of a problem.

Sunday morning he woke up with a temperature of 101.4 and small blisters all around his bottom lip. Fabulous!  I called the oncall nurse at his pediatric office and everything I told her pointed to hand foot and mouth disease.  Did I say Fabulous yet, because that is all I could think, considering I had just exposed all of Ringgold to HFM (or so it felt!).  By bedtime he was pitiful, slept half the day, wouldn't swallow, and had a high temp.  Sunday night was one of only two times in 11 months that he woke up during the night.  He woke up at 11:35 and 1:20 screaming in pain and with a fever.  It was pitiful.  We were all tired Monday morning!

Yesterday my mom stayed home with him while I went to work and he had the worst day I think he has ever had.  He wouldn't eat anything except jello and yogurt, drank very little (but enough to keep diapers wet).  He ran around 101 all day, but spiked to 103 by 4:30.  I came home and called his pedi, she thought it was just the HFM running it's course and also called in some lidocaine to mix with his maalox/benadryl cocktail I had been fixing for him and tylenol 3.  I gave him some motrin, the new improved "cocktail" and within an hour he was back down to 101 and playing again!  He even ate some mashed potatoes and macaroni!  When I told him it was time for bed, he picked up his blankie and his paci and took off towards his room.  PRECIOUS!

I cannot get him to let me take a picture of his face, but basically he has lesions all the way around his mouth, inside his mouth, and it appears to be down his throat.  He only has a couple of lesions on his hands and feet. PTL!  He is still not eating great and a little fussy, but he slept all night last night.  He was still running 102-103 this morning, but after motrin and tylenol 3 this morning, he woke up from a nap at 97.2!  Hopefully we can keep him afebrile for another 24 hours and he can go back to school Thursday!  Also, if there is anything that I have learned since having a baby (although I already knew it, just confirmed it) I know NOTHING about pediatric nursing...and I don't want to.  I'm happy and content with my adult patients! No hand, foot, and mouth there! :-)