Thursday, October 17, 2013

Down with the Sickness

I wrote in my last post that we have yet to contract a sickness of any kind and of course I curesed myself by making this statement. We had a hell of a time dealing with hand-foot-and-mouth disease over the past week. When we do anything, we go all out. Sickness included. We couldn't just have a common cold with some sniffles. Nope. We got diseased!!!

We had photos taken the first week of Oct for their one year pics (I'll post some later. LOVE how they turned out.) The photographer has 3 kids and runs a business out of her house. Yeah, she's busy, I get it. Well, there were toys all over and some not so clean carpet that the babies were roaming on. Evan puts EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING in his mouth (snails, dirt, hoses, woodchips, flowers, etc.-that's just a list from being outside yesterday for 30 min). Of course he was eating a bunch of toys and I tried to stop him, but he's a forse to be reckoned with.

Fast forward to Wednesday and sleep became interrupted for both babies (mainly Evan). Thursday he had a fever of 102.4 and had a rash on his upper legs/butt. I thought it was some kind of nasty diaper rash, but we don't get diaper rash bc of the cloth diapers so I was stumped. Rash got worse. Fever sustained. Baby was cranky. Husband was heading out of town the next day. I knew it was a virus and there was nothing we could do but treat the symptoms, but we went to the doctor anyway. One look at the rash and he was diagnosed with hand-foot-and-mouth disease. It's highly contagious. Ella probably will get it too. 

I about lost my shit Friday when I was here alone with the two of them. Ella was just coming down with the sickness and both were CRANKY! Being stuck at home with two sick cranky kids is extremely trying. Wow. By the time my husband got home that night at 8, I put myself directly to bed because I was cranky and a tad (okay very) bitchy.

No one slept...we were up from 1:30 on. Sometimes just to give meds and comfort. Sometimes with Ella screaming inconsolably. She spiked a temp of 103.5. It was awful. Ella had to sleep on one of us or she wouldn't sleep. It was exhausting. We made it through Saturday and our plans of going to the pumpkin patch were cancelled. By Sat night my husband and I were feeling achy and feverish so we went to bed at 8. Yeah, 8 on a Sat night. Exciting!

Babies were up on and off screaming all night. I started throwing up around 2 and made a few rounds into the bathroom for that experience. We both had sore throats, aches and fevers and felt like hell. Somehow we survived and made it to Sunday. I tried to help out with the babies, but honestly could not do it. Both the hubs and I felt like hell, but he took over taking care of them and I went back to bed. I got up to help get them to bed, but stayed in bed until 2. I don't remember the last time I was so sick I couldn't get out of bed....

Sunday night was more not sleeping....the husband worked from home Mon and Tue because he didn't want to get the whole office ill with this crap. Evan started feeling better by Sunday and Ella was feeling better by Monday. By Tuesday I finally had my happy playful babies back. They wouldn't eat or drink much, wouldn't play, just fussed for 6 days straight. That's enough to send you to a rubber room. 

We all had rashes of varying degrees. Evan's was mostly on his upper legs/butt. Ella's was all over her body (see pic below). Collin had it on his stomach and back. I had blisters on my feet and in between my toes (made walking comfortable). We all had blisters in our mouths/throats. Ouch. No wonder the babies have been on a hunger strike.

What a week.... Sleep deprivation is an awful horrible thing. Thankfully my husband was the rock that got us through this whole thing as usual. I can be such a mess. He is the voice of reason at times. I'm thankful for his calm demeanor. I don't give him nearly enough praise.

First sickness down. I'm sure we got it from the photographer's house. She wrote on FB that her family was sick in bed... Oh well, that's part of this whole growing up thing I guess. We got some amazing photos out of it and we survived.

I'm thankful to have healthy happy babies again. We're moving on to bigger and better things!

4 comments:

Jen said...

That sounds JUST AWFUL. I can't think of anything else to say to convey that I understand how awful it must have been, even though I have not experienced it. Knock on wood.
I'm so glad to hear everyone is on the mend. Mama needs a stiff drink!

Mrs. F said...

Soo sorry! That sounds aweful!

waiting and wishing said...

Yuck! We haven't had a sickness that has knocked us out like that yet.... It's only a matter of time I'm sure! Glad you're all feeling better!

Jules said...

YUUUCKKK I'm so sorry Amber! So glad to hear that's all over and everyone's feeling well again. Thanks for posting those photos - now I know what to look out for!