Hand, Foot, and Mouth

We drove home from Utah on Tuesday, July 15th. Dean woke up screaming at 11:45. That very, very rarely happens, so we went it to check what was wrong. He was still kind of asleep, but tossing and turning and crying. I just rubbed him back for a minute and he calmed right down and went back to sleep. Then he woke up screaming again at 12:45. That time when I went in, he was burning up! He had also pooped. So, I changed his diaper and gave him ibuprofen and he slept just fine the rest of the night. In the morning, Trevor got him up and he was again burning up and he was touching his ears. His temperature was 102. I called the doctor and they said, "How quick can you get here?" So we went in at 9:30 that morning. One ear looked a little inflamed and his throat looked red. They asked about his appetite. He'd eaten breakfast just fine. The doctor, who I hadn't seen before since his normal pediatrician was out of the office, prescribed amoxicillin and explained that if the infection was actually caused by a virus instead of a bacteria, the amoxicillin wouldn't work and he would get a rash. Well, later that day, Dean started getting a rash and he quit eating. By the next morning, the rash was looking pretty bad. I called the doctor's office again. I tried describing the rash to the nurse saying that I didn't want to stop the amoxicillin if it wasn't the "amoxicillin rash" but also wondered if it might be an allergic reaction or a heat rash. The rash showed up that morning on his cheek, but only on the side of his face he sleeps on, and in the knee and ankle creases on his legs. I didn't know if it was somehow sweat related. Of course, it's impossible to diagnose a rash over the phone, so back into the doctor it was on Thursday morning. His usual pediatrician, Dr. Martinez, was in that day so we were able to see her. She took one look at the rash and was able to say it wasn't the normal amoxicillin rash. She looked in his ears, and the one that was red the day before was clear but the other one was slightly inflamed. Then she looked in his mouth, and what had been a slightly red throat had developed sores all over. That explained the lack of appetite. Luckily, he would still take sips through a straw. She was able to say that it wasn't an ear infection after all, it was hand, foot, and mouth. Dean was full blown miserable on Wednesday and Thursday. Finally on Friday afternoon, he took a bottle, and later at dinner even ate some green beans. After that, he felt just fine, but the rash still was terrible. It didn't bother him though, which is surprising to me because the rash was red bumps and even blisters all over his legs. Here are some pathetic pictures.

 I took this two days ago. It looks so much better! And now it looks even better!

The three days he felt so bad were some of the most emotional days of my life. I couldn't stand seeing him in pain. I just kept thinking about how hard it must have been for Heavenly Father to watch Christ suffer physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It must have been agony for him. Watching Dean, I felt so helpless, and that was miserable. I can't even imagine the struggle of having all the power to release his pain and choosing NOT to do it. Heavenly Father and Jesus could have stopped the suffering at any point, but it would have meant stopping the Atonement, and They were never going to do that. We must be loved a whole, whole, whole lot for someone to be willing to suffer and parents to watch that suffering to benefit us.

Then I got hand, foot, and mouth from Dean. I had a pretty bad fever last Sunday and was absolutely freezing all day. That's not normally people's problem right now in the Phoenix area. And my throat hurt really bad. My fever only lasted Sunday and I didn't have any rash, but Monday night I braved looking at my throat in the mirror, and it looked BAD. My heart broke a little more as I thought, "THAT is what Dean was dealing with?! Poor kid!" On around Tuesday or Wednesday, I finally got fed up with being stuck in the house and we went on walks in the morning and then I even braved going to the store. By that point, Dean was definitely suffering cabin fever and we were ready to be out and about again. Overall, hand, foot, and mouth sucked. Try not to get it.