Hand, Foot and Mouth is the DEVIL!

This past week we've passed a few milestones that I'm none too thrilled about. First, we had Kate's first trip to the ER on Tuesday evening at 11:30pm. Let's back up to 8pm when she takes her last evening bottle before bed, she only took 1oz. and fell asleep. At 10:30pm she was restless and Brendan got up to feed her as he unwrapped her she screamed and screamed so loudly it jolted me from my sleep. He mentioned she felt warm, I took her temp and sure enough 102.6. I panic, as an infant Drew never had this high of a fever this early in his life. I call our on-call line they tell us to take her to the ER. Against my better judgement we opt to go to our local ER instead of drive the 40 minutes to the pediatric ER.

We arrive and first off our local ER does not have a pediatrician on call so we get the regular doc. First the nurse comes in takes her temp again 102.6. She gives her Tylenol, then a medical student comes in a checks her out. After he looks at her he suggests a spinal tap and chest x-ray. Tears, tears and more tears from this momma. The doc comes in and suggests a bag urine sample first and blood sample. We do these two things and the result of the urine test suggest a urinary tract infection. So no spinal tap and chest x-ray.

While we are waiting I mention to Brendan that I see a white speck on the top of Kate's mouth almost like she has a tooth popping through. I brush it off thinking its formula or something else. We are then sent home with a huge bottle of antibiotics and told to give it to Kate until they are gone and call her doctor in the morning.

The next morning I call our pediatrician and they want to see Kate immediately. We head to their office and our doctor does not think she has a UTI. They try to do a catheter on her and can't get any urine because she's so dehydrated. Our doctor looks in her mouth and she has Hand, Foot and Mouth, she says "look at those white sores in her mouth"(milestone #2). She also had the test results faxed over from the ER the night before for the 24 hour growth of Kate's urine and it came back clean. We were so thankful it wasn't something more serious and we were instructed to treat with Tylenol. I am so frustrated with our local ER, the doctor didn't even look at her and the med student missed the sores but who can blame him he's a student. I feel like they should have been more thorough or even just have had the actual doc look her over.

All in all Kate seemed to be uncomfortable for a total of 3 days and then woke up her smiley happy self.



But now Drew has a 104 fever and blisters on his hands. Oy Vey! I hate you Hand, Foot and Mouth! On the bright side it is short lived and with Drew we can treat with both Motrin and Tylenol.

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