Last week was pretty hectic for the Davenport family. Poor Campbell came down with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease which, according to the internet, is a "mild childhood virus". Nothing about what Campbell went through would be considered mild. It all started on Friday. I didn't notice anything amiss until that evening but looking back there were signs she wasn't feeling 100% earlier in the day. She had a very hard time listening during her morning swim lesson. That afternoon I took her to Red Robin for lunch where she hardly ate any of her mac and cheese and kept laying down in the booth "pretending" to sleep. I should have known immediately that something wasn't right when she didn't eat her lunch but I kept attributing everything to her being tired from our big day the day before. Here is a picture of her at lunch, the last picture I took before her health plummeted.
Friday evening she wasn't acting like herself and I decided to take her temperature. She had a low grade fever so I gave her some Tylenol before bed and didn't think much about it. She got up a few times during the night but never complained about how she felt. She got up because she needed another hug and kiss, she couldn't find her bunny, etc. Saturday morning I could tell immediately she wasn't well. Her eyes were a dead give away. That morning she had a fever, no appetite and was complaining of a sore throat. As the day continued her condition got drastically worse. Her fever spiked to 103.1 and we started to notice a slight rash on her hands. She also had a bleeding blister on her butt that had not been there the day before. By 3pm she had a definite rash on her hands and feet and these blisters were popping up everywhere. She was still complaining of a sore throat but her itchy feet were causing her the most discomfort.
I called the on-call doctor on Saturday as Campbell became increasingly uncomfortable. The doctor said it sounded like a text book case of Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease. She also said the rash shouldn't be itchy and that Campbell probably didn't have the vocabulary to correctly describe what she was feeling. I love the doctor and I know that this tends to be true MOST of the time but this was absolute hogwash as far as Campbell was concerned. I watched Campbell on the monitor at "nap time" (which lasted about 3 minutes) and there was no question she was itchy. She could not stop scratching her feet! She was wiggling around the bed like she had ants in her pants, doing anything possible to take the itch away. At one point I watched her start clapping her feet together to help the itch. She was becoming increasingly uncomfortable and increasingly agitated. The doctor said there wasn't much we could do besides giving her Tylenol and Motrin to ease her pain so we really were just trying to ride out the storm. By Saturday night Campbell was full-blown miserable. The poor thing was in so much pain and she was so itchy! NOTHING was bringing her any relief. Ryan laid in bed with her that night and scratched her feet for an hour and a half. Needless to say it was a loooong night of Ryan and I taking turns trying to help our little girl.
I did a lot of internet research that night and Sunday morning I sent Ryan to the store with a laundry list of requests. He came back with Aveeno Soothing Oatmeal Bath, Children's Benadryl, Calamine Lotion, milk and donuts. Anyone that knows my daughter knows she cannot turn down a donut. The longer the donut laid on her plate untouched, the more concerned I became.
Sunday proved to be as painful, if not more painful for Campbell than the day before. We tried everything to keep her comfortable but she was impossibly miserable. She had a sore throat and painful blisters but her biggest compliant by far was her itchy hands and feet. The rash around her mouth, hands and feet was becoming more apparent. And again, nothing we did brought her much comfort. It was so difficult to watch my daughter in so much pain. My heart broke for her. She was literally screaming. Screaming. No words, just screaming. At one point when Ryan and I were doing everything we could think of to ease her pain she yelled out, "WHY IS NOBODY HELPING ME?!" I felt so sad for her. Here are a few pictures from our Sunday.
I don't know how but we somehow made it through Sunday. She was able to sleep Sunday night with the help of Children's Benadryl and woke up Monday feeling much better. She was still slightly itchy, lethargic and had a fever of 101 but she was no longer screaming in pain. I took her to the doctor that morning and he confirmed the Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease diagnosis. I had to carry her in and out of the office because her feet were covered in blisters and we couldn't get shoes on her. At the end of our appointment I overheard the doctor tell the nurse it was one of the worst cases he had ever seen. She had blisters covering her whole body including in her throat, mouth, nose and ears. Although she was feeling better, physically she looked worse on Monday than she did the day before.
Monday we rested. Campbell actually slept on the couch, which NEVER happens. She began drinking some fluids and I could tell we were on the road to recovery!
Tuesday Campbell woke up with an appetite, spunky personality and NO fever. If you were blind you would have thought she was a completely healthy little girl. However, her rash looked awful! Her blisters and rash were a darker red and some of the blisters were starting to ooze.
Over the next few days the blisters slowly started to heal and fade. By Friday, exactly one week since this awful illness had begun, Campbell was well enough to swim in her Nana's pool during our 4th of July celebration. This is when we first noticed the peeling skin around her toes. By the end of the day all her fingers and toes were wrapped in tape because all her skin was peeling off.
We were both a bit freaked out about the dramatic peeling skin situation… thank God for Daddy! Sunday morning he trimmed the dead skin off her hands and feet as she laid there patiently allowing him to do so.
By Monday morning my little girl, who had been through hell and back over the previous 10 days, was ready to return to school. She said she was nervous that the kids would laugh at her because her blisters were still healing and somewhat noticeable. On our way to school that morning we practiced what to say if someone asked her about her "polka-dots". Her response was going to be, "I got sick, I was brave and now I'm all better." We get to school, I walk her out to the yard and what's the first thing that happens? A little boy runs over to her and says, "Hey! Why do you have those dots all over your body?" Campbell grabbed onto my leg and before I could coach her into responding the boy ran away.
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| Ready for school! |
The good news? That's the end of my sad story. Campbell came home from school that afternoon happy as a clam. She had a wonderful day and although I don't know if anyone else commented on her dots, if they did it certainly didn't bother her! I am so glad this experience is now behind us and I hope we never again have to deal with HFMD!
The End. :)
