HFM disease

Hey guys. Samuel here. Just wanted to let you know that I have HFM disease.

HAND,

FOOT,

and MOUTH disease.

Okay, it's Samuel's mom again. Yes, Samuel is right. He has Hand Food and Mouth Disease. His siblings should be safe according to the doc who said it's mostly for kids under 4 to get. That's not what the link says though...

I think this is pay back for thinking this viral infection could not traverse the United States from Alabama to South Dakota like I read and shuttered about over here on Noah's mom's blog. This diagnosis comes after I boasted that this virus was too far away to catch. Pshaw! I was so wrong. When in fact this virus is everywhere - all of my friends say so: Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Omaha, Alabama and even Guam. Yes that's right. It's a worldwide epidemic. Silly mother of me.

At first I thought Samuel's leg rashes were somehow breakthrough chicken pox, since he's had the vaccine. Even the PA had to ask for a second opinion if they were indeed HFM disease rashes vs chicken pox rashes! These began on Saturday and keep getting ickier every day. We were given some antibiotic cream for these ones but otherwise it just has to run it's course.

It wasn't until this morning when his feet developed these funny splotches on them that I grew suspect of something besides chicken pox. These splotches are the tell tale sign of HFM disease - that and mouth ulcers.

Samuel luckily only has/had one ulcer thingy in his throat. Hopefully it will stay like that since those are the really badly painful ones. And he's really not doing too bad aside from being extra clingy and whiny - he never even had a bad fever. But poor cousin Grace has it worse. She's had a fever and vomiting the last couple days and just found out tonight that she has HFM disease as well, which makes sense since we were with her all last week and it's very contagious. She's got spots like Samuel, only all over her bottom :( . Hopefully Samuel and Grace and all the little babies out there get well soon.