hand, foot & mouth

Anna woke up with her fever back over 100 degrees this morning and continued to complain about pain in her mouth. Suspecting strep throat, I brought her in to the doctor to have her checked out. Turns out that she has picked up Hand, Foot & Mouth disease - a common virus in infants and toddlers - and has a throat and mouth full of sores. I noticed the first one on her tongue this morning but the doctor saw a number of them on the back of her throat. No wonder she has been in such pain and has needed so many cuddles! I feel so badly for her as it's hard to eat or drink when you have those sores everywhere. And, unfortunately there is no medicine to treat it - just time, Tylenol & Motrin.

It is likely that she picked this up at Summer Camp. It swept through our neighborhood last month and we managed to avoid it somehow...but it appears that we were destined to pick it up at some point. Fortunately it should pass over the course of the week.

Until then Anna is enjoying cold treats. She tried her first popsicle today and she loved that! The doctor suggested popsicles, ice cream, and anything cold and soothing for her throat. A small ray of sunshine for Anna through all of this!

As an aside, while we were there and Anna was unhappy anyway, the doctor decided to do some bloodwork as we had discussed 3 months ago. She wanted to test Anna's thyroid and to also check for a dairy allergy. We will get these results back in a few days, but overall she was thrilled with Anna's weight gain as she has gained almost 2lbs since we were last in (even after not eating for 2 days!).

Keep little Anna in your thoughts as she gets through the next few days...