Getting Sick

All the stitches are gone.  The shorn side of her head is growing soft blond hair again.  The incision, once a red, jaggedy gash, is now a gentle pink scar.  She talks in three-word sentences, and adds to her vocabulary daily.  Both hands worked evenly well to spoon in her dinner: fish, rice and vegetables, with peach cobbler for dessert.  She ate it all.  She can walk, run, and even dance on her tiptoes.  When she wears her hat, she would look to anyone like a normal, active toddler.  It's hard to think normal, though.

Recently, Angelee came down with a fever.  I instantly plunge into worry mode.  Normally I am a very calm parent.  Really.  But with Angelee, I have to look at it from every angle.  Exactly how hot is she?  I grab the thermometer every hour to check, ignoring her loud protests.  What if it is...bad?  She kept the fever for a few days, spiking to almost 103, but cooling off with a dose of Tylenol.  She had cold-like symptoms, and we did have a cold going around the family, but I felt like it was something more.

I finally took her to the doctor, something I never do for a cold.  He was not concerned, and sent us home with prescriptions for cold medicine and an antibiotic, just in case it got worse.  He dismissed the sores around her mouth as normal cold sores, and left me feeling like something was missed.

The next day, when I found the sores in her mouth, I realized it was the Coxackie virus, or hand foot and mouth disease.  It is characterized by several days of high fever (check), general feeling yucky (check), cold-like symptoms (check), painful blisters around and in the mouth (check), possible sores on hands and feet (only found one), loss of appetite (check) and pronounced grumpiness (double-check!).  It lasts for about two weeks and generally goes away on its own.  Pain reliever helps some, but just batten down the hatches and grit your teeth folks, because this one is a doosey.

Angelee was awful nasty irritable.  She constantly wanted to be held, rarely wanted to eat, cried frequently, and work up every hour at night.  She was a mess.  We were a mess!  It lasted about a week and a half, before slowly decreasing.  It's so nice to have our girl back (again).  I'd like to quit losing her. And one day, maybe I won't worry so much.