Monkey See, Monkey Do

So, Friday started out just fine and then daycare calls and says, "E's lips and fingernails have turned purple, his breathing is rapid and shallow and he's really sleepy. We may call 911 if he turns worse before you get here." Well, I'm sure I broke some laws in how fast I got there. We took him to the ER and after running some tests, they figured it was just his body's reaction to a severe double ear infection. We had been treating him for the ear infections, and just that morning he was chipper, chatty and close to his old self. We thought he was on the mend. We dropped him at daycare and an hour later is when it all happened. The docs decided to keep him over night for observation because of how severely he reacted, and to make sure it didn't get worse, so we stayed at the children's hospital. He definitely wasn't feeling well, even into the next day. But armed with serious antibiotics we headed home on our way to recovery.

Or so we thought...

Saturday night was a really rough night with H. He was super fussy and didn't sleep. We thought perhaps his ear infections that we had also been treating weren't responding to the antiobiotics. So, we planned to call the after-hours clinic first thing Sunday morning.

First thing Sunday morning arrives and even in our sleepless state, we notice that E is covered in a rash. It's literally head to toe. Our first thought was that he was having a reaction to the new antibiotic. So, we loaded E and H up and headed back into Madison. Once at the doctor, she took one look at E and said, "that's hand, foot and mouth." Come again?

It wasn't a reaction to the medicine (good news), bad news, it was a highly communicable illness that causes blister-like things all over the inside of the mouth, down the throat, all over the bottom and hands. Supposedly they don't itch but are very uncomfortable.

And the same was true for H, although his progression was a few hours behind his brother's. That's why he was so fussy, because his ears were actually on the mend.

So now, with two very uncomfortable little guys finally in bed and two very large sundaes in front of us, we try to figure out how to juggle the necessary days off this week (daycare apparently isn't fond of having children with communicable disesases hanging about and mouthing toys). But it's nothing a little hot fudge can't solve.