Hand-Foot-Mouth

I can't believe that the year is half way over!!! This year has not been very kind to us. Usually we go with your regular run-of-the-mill medical insurance. It seems when the end of the year comes we are always trying to burn through our flex money before we lose it. We do not actually put that much into our flex, but we have always been very health and just rarely end up using it. It has been that way for about the last seven years. So this year we decided to go with the high deductible plan.

 The "crap" hit the fan. A lot of ear infections, and a couple surgeries later this is our stack of medical bills from the last few month. That is right months, not year, just months. You'd think maybe I did not believe my children should wash their hands or something like that. Nope we are constantly washing our hands and disinfecting.

We were starting to think that we had paid our dues for the year and all should be well but our luck just keeps coming. We all caught the stomach flu (again) the beginning of June (minus Ian). Thankfully that does not require any doctor visits. Then last week on Wednesday night both the boys started with fevers of 104.3 degrees with no other symptoms. They were miserable and did not enjoy cool baths. Thankfully the "magic" bags were awesome (washcloth with ice bag inside) that Aaron is holding.

Both Ian and Aaron were on medicine around the clock (Tylenol and Ibuprofen). On the second day they were still having fevers of 102-103 while on the medicine. I called the doctors office to see what was going around and if this sounded familiar to them. The nurse sighed and said that hand-foot-mouth disease has been going around the last few months and it tends to start with a high fever and no other symptoms. Then about 2-4 days into the fever they start to get canker/blister like bumps all over the back of their throat and mouth. They asked that if Aaron still had that high of a fever another day to bring him in for a check up to see if it was possibly strep (it was also going around).  So we ended up going to the doctors office and discovered that it was not strep, or an ear infection, and that Aaron's throat was red but that was about it. If his Aaron's fever had not broke by day six we would need to come in and he would most likely need to be hospitalized.

After I had talked with the nurse the first time I immediately started having the boys swish and gargle salt water while taking a bath. I did not know if they had hand-foot-mouth, but I figured that it could not hurt.

Wouldn't you know on day 4 -they both had white blister like bumps in their mouths and back of their throats. Ian's were very mild, but Aaron looked almost bloody and very painful. They spent most of their time watching movie, after movie, after movie, after movie. Usually Ian would pick a show and then we would watch Baby Einstein: MacDonald after for Aaron. You would think that at least I could get a lot of cleaning/organizing done but nope. Both boys wanted me right by their side all day long. The air quality outside wasn't the best because of all of the wildfires here in the west (I'll post about later) so I did not feel too bad having to stay inside day after day. 

While they both have ice packs all over them they still had to have their blankets on as well.

As of day six Ian was great! Aaron still had a low fever but it was slowly coming down (100.0 on medication). We knew that if his fever did not break soon we would have no choice but to take him back in. Thankfully the next morning he woke up with no fever!!! Hurray -the stack of bills does not need to grow.

As of now Aaron is doing much better! Neither of the kids broke out with a rash on their hands or feet but the doctor said that was common in what they had seen going around. They were both getting oatmeal baths and washing their mouths out twice a day. Not to mention Aaron eczema has nearly disappear with two oatmeal baths a day and a lot of aquaphor lotion. 

So we are once again healthy! Here's to hoping that it will actually last!!! 

Below are a couple videos of Aaron playing. I am not sure why he found this so entertaining but I loved watching him count and then quietly say "go." 

He also discovered a new trick in the tub! He had way too much fun suctioning the boat to his face. Don't worry the water is not dirty it is just oatmeal :)