Hand, Foot, Mouth--OUCH!

On Sunday I went to do Ellie's hair for church and noticed she felt really warm.  I took her temperature and sure enough 101.8 so she was staying home from church and I decided that Lila would also stay home since we were still trying to get back on a normal sleep schedule from our trip.  They both took a nap and Ellie had to be woken-up after 3 hours.  Lila was upset when she realized she did not get to go to church. I warned the Robinsons that Ellie had a fever, but they were willing to take the risk and I hope they don't get sick. Tuesday afternoon Ellie was in tears about how bad her throat hurt so I thought maybe it's strep. Called the doctors office,  but they were not open because of Pioneer Day so we decided to wait it out.  Before nap time Lila said I don't feel well I need some medicine--I thought she may just be wanting some attention so I told her we would wait and see after nap time.  She turned to Ellie and said I won't cry when I take my medicine (getting Ellie to drink the childrens medicine is an ordeal and she cries every time). That evening Lila starts feeling warm so I give her some Advil and send her to bed. She wakes up in the middle of the night boiling hot 102.3 I try to give he some more Advil and she goes hysterical on me--what happened to the I won't cry? Long night with no real sleep. Ellie wakes up feeling much better so at that point I think it can't be strep must just be a viral infection that will go away. Lila does ok--I keep Tylenol and Advil in her to keep the fever down. Doesn't sleep at all that night. Thursday she is really cranky and wants me to be by her all day--I think it is just due to lack of sleep.  That night I notice her walking with her toes curled up and I ask if her feet hurt which she says yes. So I check her feet and there is a bumpy rash and it is on her knees and legs so now I don't know what to think. She sleeps better that night because her fever broke, but when I check her rash in the morning I notice it all on her arms and the palms of her hands so I call the doctor. In we go, they run a strep culture and then the doctor comes in and takes a look at the rash and says, "It's Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. It is one of the few infections that cause a rash with blister like lesions on the palm of the hands and we are seeing a lot of it this year."  She says the disease can be very painful with usually the third day being the worse--huh, that explains, Tuesday for Ellie and Thursday for Lila. The rash can be in their mouth which causes what they explain as a sore throat. I ask if she is still contagious even though she no longer has a fever--the answer is yes and it is an airborne disease. So everyone can be grateful we have been staying home all week--no gym classes, no story-time, nothing . . . we even had to miss our weekend plans to be in Idaho to see Steve and my family do the Spudman triathlon. So we've played with play-dough, made those iron bead shapes, and cut and colored like crazy--my house is a mess because I'm too tired to care and I can't believe I'm going to post pictures of it, but I thought the pictures Ellie has on display are cute.

Toys are rarely allowed downstairs and here is my front room covered in toys.

Ellie has taped pictures up all over the house (how many can you see in this picture and there is one in the previous picture). I'm just grateful she asked before attempting to glue them to the wall. ;)

Ellie's artistic take on Dad &Mom. Notice her initials. Steve noticed a few weeks ago that when she was drawing other people's pictures she was putting their initials too and Steve explained that is how an artist signs their picture--now everything she does either has EM or ENM on it. :)

The girls have been feeling much better today and played together really well this afternoon so much so that I didn't notice Lila get out the things of chapstick and apply it to her whole face, her stuffed puppy's face, and the green body pillow I have been letting her sleep with. I explain to her that chapstick only goes on our lips and that I'm throwing it out as punishment. She says, "I'm sorry I made a bad choice." I don't know if there was any remorse or just stating a fact . . . I guess we've moved on to different dilemmas.  Cheers!

*Note: the creative house destruction continues Saturday morning with the help of Mom's crocheting thread.

P.S. that's the men's olympic road race I'm watching while crocheting and hoping Steve's race is going safe and well (really I shouldn't listen to all the scary injury stories or see the crashes while my husband is doing his own race).