That Time My Kid Had Leprosy

Just kidding.  No one had leprosy over here.  Close enough, though.  All last week, we battled the dreaded Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.  And let me be the first to say that it suuucked.  Never heard of it?  Never suffered from it {or had a kid who suffered with it}?  Here's a picture of Gerry's arm on the very first day with HFM.  By day 3, he was covered head to toe in this awful, pus-filled, blistery rash.  The only place...literally, the only place...on his body that wasn't covered in the disgusting mess was his forehead and the tops of his cheeks.  No joke.  There were blisters between his fingers and toes, in his ears, his mouth, the bottoms of his feet. 

***WARNING: GROSS PICTURES AHEAD***

Saturday night, I was out of town and Scott and Gerry were at home.  My parents had taken Bailey to the beach for the weekend, so I drove down Saturday afternoon to pick her up and then spent the night into Sunday before heading home.  Scott texted me around 11:15 Saturday night...

"G not sleeping.  What should I do?"  Thinking he was just fussy because I hadn't been there to put him to bed, I gave Scott a few tips to try with Gerry.  Nothing worked, and they were both up most of the night.  So I was prepared to come home to a sick kid...but I was not prepared to come home to a sick leper. 

Sunday was spent alternating between this:

 And this:

 To say he was miserable would be a huge understatement.  It felt like every morning he woke up with more blisters {he limped around for two solid days because of the sores on the bottoms of his feet} and he didn't eat for three days.  It was a 6-day-long cycle of wake, cry, sleep for a few minutes, wake, cry, sleep...

Not being able to do anything for him was the worst part {for me}.  I gave him Tylenol to keep him comfortable and because the sores in his throat were hurting but, beyond that, there's nothing to do for HFM but sit back, ride it out, and sanitize the hell out of your house.  We kept Bailey and Gerry as separated as humanly possible. and just did our best to keep Gerry as comfortable as possible while he dealt with the worst of it.  By Wednesday afternoon, he'd started eating a bit here and there.  By Thursday, he was sleeping better at night.  And by Friday, he was just about back to his normal, happy, smiley self. 

It's been more than a week, and he still has blisters on his arms and legs.  He had such a bad case that I expect those blisters to stick around for quite awhile {luckily, he's no longer contagious}.  But, other than that, he's back to giggling and causing mischief wherever he goes.  So far, Bailey seems to have come through completely unscathed {knock on wood!}

And, on the bright side, I've got enough cleaner in my house now to last quite a while!