The Mallorys Online

I woke up with JD at 6am on Sunday (Mother’s Day) and noticed he was very warm.  I fed him a bottle and Jennifer got up shortly after.  We took his temperature and, sure enough, his fever was 102F.  Since he wasn’t showing any symptoms of a cold or flu we thought his ear infections were back because he just got over ear infections two weeks prior.  We had no idea our clinic offers a pediatric urgent care from 9am-12pm on Sat-Sun so we took him into the ER.  By the time he was seen in the ER his fever climbed over 103F.  They took a look in his ears and confirmed the ear infections were back.  We know the routine, a Zithromax prescription and TLC for a few days, right?  Wrong.

By Sunday night his fever climbed to 105.1F.  This is the hottest he’s ever been.  He was understandly becoming more and more irritable and refusing to eat/drink.  Toward the end of the evening his fever tapered off into a more managable 102F and we prepared for a rough night.  Monday was more of the same and he refused to eat or drink anything.  He was tugging at his face and shrieked in pain whenever he attempted to take food.  We got a different antibiotic prescribed and some numbing drops for his ears because we thought the eating motion was causing pain from the infection.  We knew something was different.

Tuesday morning he still wasn’t any better so we got him into the pediatrician that morning.  She took a look in his ears and said they look like they’re healing nicely with the new antibiotic.  Then she looked in his mouth and discovered the reason he’s so upset, his mouth had erupted with little sores from a viral infection.  It’s called Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease and it’s fairly common in children.  There are four viruses that cause the illness and once a child is exposed they’re immune to that specific virus for life.  The bad thing is if he comes in contact with any of the other three then he can get it again.

It’s now Wednesday and he’s able to get some food and liquids down, but he’s still very uncomfortable.  Jennifer’s doing a great job with him at home, but we feel so bad for him.  The tough thing with Jacob is generally even with a minor illness he’s in great spirits.  The fever is usually the only clue we have that he’s getting sick.  With this virus everything is different because of the amount of pain it inflicts on kids.  Testament to his resilience are the adorable photos I got of him on Sunday night.