Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease – Every (Working) Mom’s Nightmare

Okay, it’s really every mom’s nightmare, working or not, but being employed full-time makes it extra challenging.  You see, when the doctor told me that Hazeline might miss the entire week of school my very first thought was – “That CANNOT happen.”  Who was I going to get to watch my highly contagious child for a day, let alone a week?  Five whole work days.  I had already missed a ton of work from Hazeline’s pneumonia last month and Greenleigh’s never-ending stomach virus earlier this year, that I just couldn’t miss any more days.  Plus, I had clients that had flown in and events that had been scheduled for months on the books.  What’s a working mom to do?

Maybe I should back up a little.  About a week and a half ago, we were in Atlanta at my in-law’s house getting ready to leave for the airport and catch our flight back to Florida.  Before we left for the airport, I decided to change Hazeline’s diaper one more time, because I have no love for public changing tables and try to use them as sparingly as possible.  When I was done changing her diaper I went to put her shoes back on and noticed several bumps all over the bottom of her foot.  As a kid, I used to get similar looking rashes when the weather would become too hot, so I automatically chalked it up to it being summer and the fact that I’ve been putting her in shoes with no socks out of convenience.  I scooped Hazeline up, thought nothing more about it, and off we went to the airport.  But things only got worse from there.

As we sat on the plane for what seemed like an eternity (they had to reroute us and change all our paperwork due to weather), I noticed similar bumps were forming between her fingers.  It was only two or three though, so I figured maybe it was a fluke.  It was at that point that Erajh decided it was chicken pox and went into major crisis mode.  The worst place to have a panic attack over a contagious, airborne virus?  Thirty-five thousand feet up in the air.  Tends to get the people around you to freaked out.  Good thing we were taking up an entire row and no one in the other rows were paying much attention to us.  By the time we landed the bumps had multiplied and were covering both of her hands.

Within a half hour of landing, Hazeline and I were on our way to the doctor (thank goodness for Sunday hours – open until 8pm!) where she was diagnosed with Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease.  There’s no vaccine to prevent it and no medicine to clear it up.  It’s passed through direct contact with an infected person, or something that they’ve touched, which seemed a little odd in our case since Hazeline had been out of school for most of the estimated incubation period.  It typically affects kids under the age of 5, although the doctor didn’t seem concerned that Greenleigh would get it.  I nodded through all of this information, not realizing what was coming next – “She might not be able to go to daycare all week.”  Why do doctors always act like that kind of news isn’t a big deal?  Because it is a big deal.  Huge.  Denial set in quickly though – My kids rebound fast; she would be in school by mid-week, I assured myself.

But her condition was getting worse, not better.  The rash was continuing to multiply and was covering her hands, feet, face, and body.  Although she never ran a fever during the whole ordeal, she was warm to the touch and cranky.  I secured a sitter for the next day and conceded that she might be out of school until Wednesday…at the latest.

Monday, the day after the rash first appeared, was probably the worst for us.  Hazeline was cranky and wanted to be held constantly.  She slept often but only wanted to sleep on the babysitter and not in her crib.  She scared the sitter to death when she refused to eat anything all day and turned down her bottles (if you know Hazeline, you know how much she loves to eat).  She looked out of it.  And of course the rash had spread to her face and her body.  Poor baby.

But lucky for us, Monday was the worst of it.  On Tuesday my good friend that graciously agreed to watch her for the day reported that she ate and slept like a champ.  She was happy and played with her toys.  But the rash stayed.  And with the rash, she couldn’t go to daycare.  And so the days went on, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – No daycare.  Happy, but quite possibly contagious and had a rash.  In case you’ve never seen Hand Foot & Mouth, this is what can look like, although these pictures were taken on Wednesday, when she was getting better.  These pictures were definitely an improvement over what she looked like on Monday and Tuesday.And it’s hard to see, but there are a few small bumps on the right side of her face around her mouth in this picture:By Friday, the rash was significantly better and she probably could have gone to school, but Erajh had nothing planned for that day so he ended up staying home with her.  And by Friday, we had spent enough in sitter fees (as reasonable as they were) that sending her to daycare for one day just didn’t make financial sense.  Hazeline seemed a little stir crazy, but we kept her home anyway.

So, as it turns out, my child really did miss a full day of daycare as a result of this awful illness, but was back to her normal self just in time for the weekend.  Maybe I should have listened to that doctor when she said that 5 days before.  Either way, I’m happy to report that the virus has left the house…for now.  Of course we just need to wait the normal 2 week delay to see if Greenleigh gets it.  I’m crossing my fingers that the answer is no.