Diseased & Not Pleased

That "little fever" Georgia had the other day was not something to be dismissed. It was only the beginning. Of a difficult and dark and sad week. :( 

Poor Miss Georgia bean... all that time spent at our friend's house. Turns out she caught Hand Food & Mouth virus from them. I knew she was getting it. When we brought her home from the water park I could see random speckles on her skin like a rash forming. The more time passed, the worse I felt about it and as the week went on, I just spiraled down into a bit of a guilt ridden/self pity party of which I was the center. Zach left to work out of town and I tried to beg him not to leave me but in the end, he had to go and I was just kind of freaking out about the whole thing. It was such a long 4 days by myself! 

I had never even heard of HF&M before my friend's kids got it. Didn't even pay much attention to it, she didn't seem too slowed down by it and acted like it went away fast. Mistake number one. I should have googled and researched it and stayed FAR FAR AWAY. It's extremely contagious! Georgia got it, our other friend's baby also got it and then our MOM FRIEND got it (it's extremely rare for adults to get it and she just happens to be rare!) and she passed it on to her kids. So we were all kind of miserable for a good 2 weeks all around. 

It starts off with a fever for a day or two, then turns into a rash that spreads like wild fire all over their bum, hands, feet, and mouth/throat. That rash turns into huge blisters that bubble over and then scab. And then eventually all the layers of dead skin start to peel away and THEN you are healed. Crazy. Here's the beginning of the of it all in case you are interested in pics. Because I just couldn't get over the horror of it day by day. (Excuse the explicit baby parts... she's a child)

 It also got into a scratch she had on her leg and took over that wound:

A couple days of spreading and blistering:

Those are all the pictures I have, but it got so much worse... her bum was so bad and scabbed over and the blisters on the soles of her feet were huge and seemed to stay forever! I couldn't really see any in her mouth thankfully, but I'm sure she had a few. It is basically like a strain of the chicken pox except not THAT bad. 

Throughout the endless hours of dousing her in essential oils (to help contain it), washing my hands every 5 minutes (my hands were practically cracked and bleeding too), keeping her covered from head to toe so she wouldn't pick at it, and silently praying that somehow Boston wouldn't be exposed to it, I only cried twice. And it was mostly because I was tired and lonely and feeling guilty and selfish for wanting to hang out with my friends instead of being cautious and wary of sickness, especially since it affected my children. I also felt like it would have been nice to have had a fair warning of the sickness from the mom who had it first, but I guess everyone just deals with it differently and to her, it just wasn't a big deal. It was a sad week for me and it still kind of breaks my heart when I think about it! I didn't want to talk to anyone or answer my phone, I just wanted to sleep and pass the time as quickly as possible. Bos was only 4 weeks old and I was just super stressed out about caring for him and my other sick baby all while keeping them a safe distance away from each other. I am just so grateful that Georgia didn't seem too bothered by "the end of the world" as I saw it at the time :). The hardest part is trying to get them fed and hydrated through it all. But kids don't really seem to feel that much pain from it. In talking to my mom friend who had it, adults feel much more pain in the process. It was so sad, she said her hands and feet swelled and felt like they were on fire with the blisters, and when she ate, it was like eating knives all down her throat. So terrible! 

Thankfully this boy was an angel:

We laughed at this one, covering "the sun" (as Zach refers to any kind of light source when he's trying to sleep):

 Such a sweet boy!

 Caught this cute happy smile after eating:

 I was facetiming with my mom and she said he looks just like Zach with that smile. I don't see it... 

He's still soooo tiny:

Oh and thank GOODNESS for LILO & STITCH!!! haha! I discovered that Georgia would watch that movie all the way through, so at the end of a week, I had probably watched it 27 times, sometimes back to back 3 or 4 times in one day. I went from hating it and being appalled at the amount of bad behavior and potty words per minute, to humoring it, to memorizing it, and then just loving it. Embarrassingly, I found myself crying at the sad parts multiple times, getting choked up at the sentimental times and missing my sisters, and could NOT get rid of the songs playing through my head on REPEAT in the dead of night! Ugh so frustrating. But I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Lilo & Stitch now. It saw me through some trying days ;) haha.

The end of my lone week and waiting for daddy to arrive:

 B quarantined on the couch:

Georgie's hands and feet peeled off in layers over the next two weeks, but she's all healed now. I felt like she would be scarred for life, but that was just me :) she's beautiful as ever! People be warned. Stay far far away from kids with nasty rashes! I wish someone had warned me.