Sick!

Last Friday got Limelet in to the doc as  he had been having "cold" symptoms for three weeks solid, and they were only getting worse.  He was ending up being awake from 1-5 am each night because of the congestion.  And it was turning green.  (Ewwww.)  I wondered if he was getting an ear infection because of the non-sleeping thing. I used guafenesin a couple nights, which  helped, but it's so nasty that it was hard to administer.  By the day we got in, though, he was already getting a lot better.  The doc said his eardrums looked a little bulgy, but no sign of infection.  So that was good.  He had a really good night's sleep that night (and so did we.)

However, over the weekend, his sleep deteriorated again, where whenever he would stir in the night, he would start crying or almost crying and stiffen his body up.  Sunday night he started telling us his throat and his mouth hurt, and his appetite dropped.  I had to relent on the no-night-nursie because he was obviously sick and miserable.  Monday I saw a little sore on the tip of his tongue, like a canker sore.  Day care told us he couldn't come back in without a doctor's note, because there were several cases of hand-foot-and-mouth-disease, which I'd never heard of.  All I could think of was hoof-and-mouth disease.  However, the flyer at the day care suggested it wasn't something so terrible (which Google later confirmed.)  He was okay eating ice cream and maybe a little pancakes and donut sugar, but that's about it.  

I had to take Limelet to work with me yesterday, as there were a few important things I couldn't put off doing that day, and he couldn't go to daycare.  (And he was not lying-around sick, but happily-running-around sick.) There was a lot of running back and forth to use the snack machine in the hall, but not really because he wanted snacks.  He just loved the dispensing process, especially putting money in.  I was able to make some important phone calls while Limelet watched kid videos on YouTube at my desk computer.

I took him home at lunch time (a few frozen peas, donut sugar, and milk) and put him down to nap.  Then I had a phone conference.  Luckily, Limelet stayed asleep for exactly the length of the call.  Literally he began stirring and crying out for me just as I was hanging up the phone, so I was able to get him back to sleep for the rest of his nap okay.  Then when he awoke, I struggled to get him reluctantly ready for his doctor appointment and ran out to the car with kid and bags--only to find that the baby seat was out and the car seats still down from the move.  We so seldom use the car these days.  I had to call them and say we'd be late, but it still worked out okay.

At the doctor's office, Limelet played with everything he wasn't supposed to--the ear light covers, the stirrups on the exam table, the supply drawers, the exam light--instead of the books and calculator I brought for him.  The doctor finally arrived and needed only a tiny glance at the tongue sore to confirm HFMD.  He wondered why they would send him home for that, and then checked Limelet's ears.  Holy moley, they were very inflamed, and the doctor said most kids would be screaming in pain with that much inflammation.  So, surprise!  Only takes a night to develop that great stuff.  The doctor wrote a prescription for a different antibiotic than the last two times.  

I'm not ready yet to try the no-antibiotics route--I need to see more data on the recent studies, and I need to have this job contract be over so I can deal with some (more) sleepless nights more readily.

We went to "the medicine store" and got the new antibiotic as well as a couple ice lollies, which Limelet selected and ganwed on in the store.  (They're in the freezer now.)  Thank heavens, this new antibiotic is not horrible tasting!  It's made it much less of a trauma to medicate him than the last two times.  The pharmacist gruffly recommended that I give Limelet "Milkshakes.  Milkshakes with a raw egg in it.  He'll never know it's there!"  He was pretty funny.  Like a caricature of a small-town old-tyme guy of some sort (pharmacist, I guess.)

We got home in time for Daddy to return home, too--now with sore throat and feeling cruddy generally. Daddy also brought home some ice cream and a really cool toy set: two battery powered bubble gun sort of things, which the two of them played with while I made dinner.  I made dinner but TheLimey could barely eat it, and Limelet was also uninterested, preferring the salty blandness of a huge pile of corn chips.  I kind of get that.  I want salty bland stuff when I'm sick, too.  

I got him bathed, medicated, lotioned, powdered, pajamaed, nursed, and asleep by 8:45, which is really good timing for us.  (Especially after I let him stay asleep until 2:40 at naptime.)  He sure slept a lot better last night, partly due to being allowed nursie when he stirred, and partly because of baby Motrin.  His appetite was back this morning.  He selected a yogurt for himself and ate half of it, and then ate a whole soy sausage, as well as some animal crackers and milk.  Thank goodness!