Skip to main content

Poor Luke

At the doctor's office yesterday, the Dr. mentioned that Luke had some ulcers on the inside of his mouth. "Has he had a fever? A rash on his bottom or hands and feet? There is hand, foot and mouth disease going around." When I answered no, she said that in that case, the sores were probably just from some virus and would go away. I went away thankful that Luke didn't have hand foot and mouth disease.

Well, he woke up last night with a fever, and even after motrin this morning he still had a fever. He was sad enough to snuggle with daddy for about 10 minutes this morning (while Daddy let me sleep, since I will have to carry Luke around all day today). I think he pretty clearly has HFMD.

Now the challenge is to try to keep Amanda and Eleanor from getting this. We have instituted strict hand washing protocols, but it is difficult to keep Luke from (for example) putting his fingers in Amanda's mouth, or having them both blow raspberries on the couch, or having Amanda give Luke her stuffed toys to make him feel better...

Plus, the websites say that "after the first week, the child is less contagious..." So how long do we have to keep Amanda from tickling Luke until he giggles uncontrollably? How long do we keep them from wrestling with each other?

Sigh. We are also going on a big trip up to MN and WI in just over a week. Again from the website, "symptoms clear up after the first week" and "the symptoms show up 3-6 days after exposure..." So that means that if Amanda picks up the illness in a few days, she will be at her sickest just as we are supposed to fly up to the Midwest... we will be taking a private plane (6 seater) which is either better or worse than flying commercially, depending on your perspective. So she won't get everyone else in a commercial jet sick, but she will be miserable in the plane for longer.

Incidentally, I had never heard of hand foot and mouth disease until we had kids. (My first reaction was, "You mean like the cows get?") Did we ever get this as kids? It is possible that I was simply too young to remember, but it seems like HFMD and fifth disease are more common now.

Time to make dinner: chicken curry.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
You never never had HFMD. In fact, we didn't even know it existed! Strange new disease...or else it was never diagnosed right.

Mom
July 3, 2008 at 1:57 PM
mathmom said…
I read that HFMD was first found in Austraila in the 50s or 60s, and that by the 70s it was world wide. Unfortunately I can't find this source... It also sounds like HFMD is often misdiagnosed.

It is also very contagious, and Luke goes around all day drooling, so probably Amanda will get it, although Eleanor might not (or at least not a severe case).
July 4, 2008 at 9:44 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My hero, Helen Parr

Otherwise known as Elastigirl , a.k.a Mrs. Incredible. She is a stay at home mom ( SAHM ), she clearly feels that what she is doing is important and is willing to give up a lot to do it (remember her comment in the intro: "I'm at the top of my game! Leave saving the world to the guys? I don't think so.") But she is finding fulfillment in leading her family from day to day, in doing a hard job well. She also knows that she is very talented, and that knowledge helps her see beyond the repetitive drudgery of staying home. My favorite scene is from the deleted introduction, where she talks with a "career woman" who is of the opinion that staying home is fine for people who can't do anything else. She responds that taking care of her kid is at least as hard as saving the world, and is valuable contribution to society. The point for me is that someone has to do the job that I'm doing, and it's not something that you could pay someone to do. I see...
8 comments
Read more

Kindergarten Fashions

I was informed the other day that Eleanor wants to get a new thermos. She lost the o-ring from her purple Tinkerbell thermos, and I have so far resisted buying another one for her, on the theory that you shouldn't just replace things that are broken since it doesn't encourage being careful with one's things. I have been sending her with the sippee cups that she has been using since she was a year old, which she has resisted giving up to the point of becoming partly dehydrated when I don't let her use them at home. Here's how the conversation went. Eleanor: Anna and Jane said today at lunch, " Kindergartners don't drink from sippee cups!" Me: That's very interesting. Eleanor: They are supposed to drink from thermoses. Me: Eleanor, would you like a new thermos? Eleanor: Yes! Get the purple one, please. If there is a crayon one, that's the one I want.... Who knew that peer pressure started in kindergarten? The sippee cups are perfectly f...
4 comments
Read more

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...
Post a Comment
Read more