Sick Little Guy

I think I jinxed little man. I have been raving about how healthy he has been since getting his tubes back in August. It's been so refreshing to go a couple of months with no real illnesses. A breath of fresh air to not have to constantly give him breathing treatments, antibiotics, preventative allergy medicines, all that nonsense.

I think I jinxed little man, because, well, he's sick again.

Every kid gets sick, right? Why do I feel that our little guy has been sick so much during his first year of life? Why do I always feel guilty every time people ask if I stay home with him or send him to daycare? As if that's the only reason he gets sick. I do get that he is exposed more to illnesses when he's around so many other kiddos and sharing toys, but does it always have to make me feel so bad that I need to to work and cannot stay home with him?

This past weekend, Cruz was out on the farm with my parents until the hubs and I could get there Saturday morning for the wedding shower/bachelor/bachelorette parties for my brother and his fiance. He had a little cough and runny nose, but nothing serious. I also noticed a little red bump on his forehead (probably a blemish) but then noticed a couple more on his wrist/knuckles (spider bite?). When we got home Sunday night things got worse. He was congested, coughing (a lot) and wheezing. He didn't sleep well that night so I made an early morning appointment with one of our pediatrician's partners to see what's up. It hadn't even crossed my mind as to what the red bumps could be, until I was listing off the symptoms to our nurse and got to the bumps and she said, "uh-oh."

"Uh-oh?" Do nurses really say "uh-oh" and then leave you with "the doctor will be in shortly"?

Then it dawned on me...it's Chicken Pox. How did I not think of that when I noticed the red spots?

The doctor came in and I gave her the same rundown that I had just given the nurse. I asked her if it was Chicken Pox and after checking him over, she said it could either be that but she really thought it was Hand, Foot & Mouth, only she couldn't tell because the symptoms weren't clear and were resembling both viruses.

Ugh...I didn't like the sound of either of them. Even worse when she told me that there isn't much we can do to treat either, except breathing treatments for the wheezing, Motrin for the fever and if he started itching Benadryl.  Plus, no daycare until we knew exactly what he had. H, F & M would be until his fever totally broke and he wasn't drooling excessively since the virus is pretty contagious (well, he's also teething, so not looking good that the drool will stop anytime soon) and with Pox he would be out until all of the spots dried up completely (generally 10 days).

Nick and I stayed home with him all day Monday - the night was a treat, he woke up at 11:30pm and I couldn't get him to stop crying, fussing and coughing until 3am. (Bright side - I did get to watch an entire movie I had wanted to see, if there is a bright spot I suppose this is it.)

Fortunately my mom was able to come down and stay with him for a couple days while we went to work (HUGE help) but we continued to experience similar situations at night. Our normally great sleeper was definitely bothered by his symptoms. At least he seemed to be feeling better during the day, besides some majorly fussy moments.

On Wednesday night, we took him back to the doctor because we needed to know if they could now diagnose his illness. We were able to get in to see our normal pedi - and she checked him over completely. It wasn't until she looked into his mouth and noticed his throat was covered in red spots that she realized it was definitely Hand, Foot & Mouth, but looked to be a mild case as far as the blistering, red bumps went. The worse of it for him was the junk that went along with it.

We kept him home Thursday (the hubby and I splitting the day) and then Nanu and auntie Morgan were able to watch him Friday. He actually slept through the night Thursday and didn't wake up until 5am...I felt like a new woman having actually gotten five hours of sleep in a row! Fortunately, he seems to be on the mend and we should be able to bring him back to daycare Monday.

Let's just hope he kicks it this weekend....we need him to be fully healed by his big FIRST birthday on Tuesday!