Guess what came knocking on our door of our new house in our 2nd week? And infected poor Jax, and made our household very sick? The big bad virus. The Hand Foot Mouth virus. Boooo. We hate it. Not sure where Jax picked up this virus..... could have been anywhere I guess because his pediatrician told us its "peak" season for this common children's virus. We mistook it for teething as Jax developed a fever the saturday night we went out with our Bemus Crew. That whole night and next day, Jax continued running a fever, was very fussy, couldn't nap, or eat solids. He only nursed and wanted to be held. Our poor baby was miserable. Then late Sunday afternoon he all of a sudden developed a rash that spread over his cheeks and hands. His fever spiked to 102, and we rushed him to the ER. Jax's first time in the emergency room in New York! The ER was great, we were first priority since our baby was sick and right away they detected the problem, it was the HFM disease caused by the virus. The awful thing is that there is no medicine or treatment for this. You can give Ibuprofen, Tylenol, and Benadryl to soothe the discomfort, but the virus has to ride its course.
Once the rash appeared and spread to Jax's legs and feet, his fever completely disappeared, and he started feeling good again. Jax was back to his old self the next morning after our ER visit. He still preferred to nurse (the other symptom is blister sores in the throat, causing pain and discomfort while eating.)
The rash was the worst part of the whole virus, for Jax. It was interesting that the rest of us got a variation of the virus as well. Taj was feverish Monday evening through Wednesday (his fever even spiked to 103!) but he barely had a rash (a flew blister bumps on the soles of his feet and fingers.) On Tuesday I felt like I had the flu. As the morning went on, my symptoms progressively got worse. I had chills, cold hands and feet, felt weak and queasy, and zero appetite. I could barely stand or eat, and since Brad was fighting a cold himself and needed to catch up on work in the office, I was so grateful to my mother-in-law (Grandma Sue) and Poppa Gene for coming over and helping. They took care of the boys all afternoon and evening so I could get much needed rest. I will say, that day was the absolute worst day for me, I have never felt sicker. I don't know how I could have taken care of my babies feeling as sick as I did. I took medicine every 4 hours for 2 days straight, then it turned into the weirdest rash. My blister bumps were below my skin versus above my skin. I had a rash on the inside of the palm of my hand and soles of my feet. My hands and feet felt like they were sunburned, and it was so difficult for me to do anything with my hands (especially opening bottles, washing dishes, cooking, and giving the boys a bath.) Luckily, the boys and I had a comfortable home and backyard to recuperate in, until we were no longer contagious. We regained our strength and health, and were back to our routine the following week. We had so much support from everyone around us. That's the thing about living in a small town, word gets around very fast when someone gets sick. Our friends were checking in on us every day and offering to get us groceries at the store. Our friends Matt and Laura (who were visiting from Colorado the week we got sick) even brought over homemade chicken soup in a slow-cooker (the slow-cooker was a housewarming gift from them.) It was so thoughtful, and the soup was the prefect remedy. Now that we are healthy again, so glad all of this is behind us...... where did our August go? Geez, we spent a big chunk of it being sick! I guess thats what we get for being hermits, it made us more vulnerable to catching a nasty virus the second we went out in public!
