The Plague

Oh the never ending joys of mother hood firsts...

Please pardon my slight sarcasm, but, we are having a 1st around these parts. Ava was diagnosed as having, Hand, Foot & Mouth two days ago. It started as just some fairly normal whining. Then I noticed she was biting, chewing and slobbering on everything as if she were 9 months all over again. Hmmm... teething, I thought, totally - and ignored it. Afterall, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The biting, chewing and slobbering soon became more intense and accompanied with more whining and all out crying off and on. Weird. So, off to the Doc we go - dread of all dread - I HATE paying $20 each time we go!!!

She looks at Ava for all of a few seconds and says, "Oh, she has hand, foot & mouth - look in her mouth" - sure enough pink dots. But I wasn't too convinced - she didn't have any spots anywhere else and... it wasn't our normal doc. Aren't I so smart? I have a medical degree so I can make these decisions. Anyway, {sigh}, the Dr sent us away with no advice and no hope. Basically, you can't do ANYTHING for this plague. You can give motrin for a fever and they can have popsicles to ease the itchy mouths. Thats... all. But, like I said... I wasn't convinced she even had this.

Yesterday the fever came. (Still, I wasn't convinced....but I did call moms to tell them) Then today and late lastnight... the blisters. Ew, Ew, Ew. Her poor mouth is full of ulcer-looking sores. Her lips are swollen now and the rash has spread from her feet and hands to her shoulders, legs and back. I am gagging! I hate rashes! And I feel like the plague has hit this house.

I've had to stop several times today and just pray and cry out to God. I cannot handle this on my own. And, I know some of you are chuckling thinking this is NOT that big of a deal - and, it really isn't... I'm just feeling over the top about it right now. I can't smooch all over my girl like I normally do. She isn't sleeping well or napping well during the day. She's just covered in itchy bumps so she doesn't want to snuggle or even just sit with me... and it is HORRIBLE.

So, the quarantine flag is up above our house... for kids anyway (evidently, adults are ok). See ya sometime world. Wanna know more about this weird thing... go to bing.com and check out the images. Be prepared to be GROSSED out.