Hand Foot and Mouth Disease...Oh My!

Craig is about two weeks into his healing and doing great!  He is still very sore around the sinuses and was really miserable last night after spending a very chilly two hours waiting in line for early voting yesterday outside our public library.  I guess the cold made his wounds irritated!  Poor thing!  But he couldn't believe how many people were out for early voting on a Saturday!  He estimated over 200 people in front of him and it wasn't even 9am yet!

I'll be out on November 6th since the kids are getting over a nasty virus called Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.  Brendan got sick first.  We assume he caught it at Sunday school where they had just celebrated with ice cream party for bringing in their homework and their bibles each Sunday.  On Friday last week he called me (ok screamed for me which Praise God he rarely does anymore because it wakes the dead) and when I checked him his cheeks looked really red and I assumed he had a fever.  It was 4am and still groggy I decided to wait a couple hours so that I could check his temperature and give him some motrin.  When I checked it later than morning it was 103.6.  Whoa!  He never ever gets fevers and this really freaks me out!  So started him on motrin and he complained his throat was really hurting so I got out the popsicles.  Praise God we had a ton in the freezer that the kids had gotten tired of over the summer!  Yeah!  We put on the movies and his fever finally went down to 97.5 by Sunday evening.  But Monday morning he screamed for me again and said he was hurting all over his feet.  This was also around 4am so again really groggy from not sleeping (he screams when he's sick at night) I checked his feet and saw they were red but it was difficult to see why so I told him to rest and in a couple hours we would check them in the light.

Around 7am I had inspected his feet and hands and he had blisters all over his toes, hands, and feet.  I checked his mouth and there were some up his nose (huge blisters now I know why he kept saying he was stuffy) and all over the back of his throat and tonsils.  So I call Craig at work and ask him if he has a clue as to what these blisters are from.  He does a quick search for me and finds out Brendan has Hand Foot and Mouth Disease which is really just a very contagious virus that causes painful blisters after high fever all over the mouth, hands and feet (and in the buttocks, groin, nose, etc.)  Poor Brendan kept itching these things and they spread to his face, ears, elbows, and stomach.  Then Tuesday Annaliese was sick with fever and sore throat.  Same deal-high fever and today she has blisters on his fingertips and toes.  Trinity was sick within a few hours of Annaliese and although she has blisters in her throat like the other two, I don't see any as of yet on her hands or feet.  Although they have no fever they are still extremely fatigued and very contagious so no Sunday school this morning.  We will start school again tomorrow morning, God willing, and go back to Sunday school next week.

All I can say is here comes winter!  The joy of holidays and many sick days.   And for anyone who has more than one child is it crazy the amount of time we end of sick as a family as the virus spreads to each person?  Unreal!!