Sickness Strikes

Saturday morning, neither Buba nor Tiny was up when the moon changed into a sun (at 6:35am) on their Good Nite Lite. This is very, very unusual. Buba’s normal wake up time is between 6 and 6:30am. I think Tiny would sleep later, but once Buba is up she tends to wake up shortly after. T and I didn’t think much of the few extra minutes of sleep. Perhaps it was the beginning of a transition to sleeping later in the morning. One can only hope so, right?

By midmorning, I was beginning to see the sleeping in as a symptom that something unpleasant was headed our way. Buba was pretty lethargic as we attempted to run a few errands after breakfast, and even began to cry and request going home while we picked up new books at the library (something he loves to do!). Not good. He barely ate any lunch and fell right asleep when I put him down for a nap, without his usual routine of bouncing and singing in his crib. He cried a bit in the middle of his nap, but managed to fall back to sleep and got in the full two hours. But he was a complete grump when he woke up. Also not good. By that time, he felt warm to me, so I took his temperature- 102.6! I gave him a does of generic Tylenol and within an hour he seemed like his normal, happy self. I decided to give him another dose before bedtime, to make sure he’d be comfortable for sleeping, and hoped we were dealing with some sort of 24 hour bug.

Saturday morning, Buba was screaming for me at 5:45am. Very unusual. I went right in and he was hot. I gave him another dose of the medicine and asked him if he still wanted to rest since the sun was not glowing yet. He agreed to rest quietly (and did!), and I went back to bed. But Saturday wasn’t a great day either. Buba was cranky and still not eating much. At bedtime, I took his temperature again (he was due for another does of medicine), and it was a whopping 103.1! Not good at all. After taking the medicine, he slept from about 7:30 until 11:00 when he woke up crying for me. He still felt warm and it had been four hours, so I gave him another dose of the sweet smelling, purple stuff and hoped he’d make it until the morning.

Buba woke up at 5:20 this morning, and I went in immediately. He didn’t feel as warm, so I asked him to just rest until he saw the sunshine. I wanted to take his temperature before giving him any generic Tylenol, but knew that Tiny would stir if I took him out of his crib. He rested quietly (maybe even went back to sleep) and was up calling for me the second the Good Nite Lite changed. Finally some typical behavior was back. And he seemed to be in good spirits. I hoped that we were through with whatever bug he had caught. I checked his temp and it was down to 100.1. Not great, but better.

I asked Buba what he would like for breakfast and he requested raisins and a strawberry breakfast bar. He was standing at his high chair saying, “Eat! Eat!” so I put him right in and threw some raisin on the tray. Buba stuffed several into his mouth and then started to cry. One by one, he pulled them out and threw them on the floor. Not good. Tiny joined him, and I handed them both a plate containing a cereal bar, some yogurt, and some cut up frozen strawberries. Buba ate most of the cereal bar, a few bites of yogurt and all of his strawberries. Things were looking good. Until I went to brush his teeth.

I know Buba is getting at least one of his second molars, so I brushed very, very lightly, but he screamed and started swatting at the toothbrush. Never before has this happened. I removed the toothbrush, and found it lightly covered with blood. I didn’t waste anytime getting myself and the kids ready and out the door to our pediatrician’s office. Fortunately it was still early enough for us to be seen as a walk-in. We waited forever, but once he was seen, it didn’t talk long for the nurse practitioner to conclude that Buba has Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (so far, with no rash). Very common for a kid his age, very painful, and no real treatment.

So now we just do what we can to help make him more comfortable. I’m alternating generic Tylenol and generic Motrin, but he’s still noticeably miserable at times and not sleeping well (which means I’m not sleeping well). He hates the Motrin and vomited the first dose I gave him, which is not good since that’s the one that will help with the pain. Thus far, Tiny is showing no symptoms, but it could be just a matter of time. And wouldn’t you know it- this is the one week of the summer that T is teaching an enrichment class for his school district.

I know we’ll get through this. We’re certainly not the first family to be hit with this nasty virus. Still if you’ve been through this already, any tips you have to offer or words of encouragement would be appreciated.

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I realize I’ve been quite wordy lately. Thanks for reading all the way to the end.