I feel what you felt ....

There were days when I could hardly find anything to write about for this blog. Today, for one reason or another, I had several things I would really want to blog about. So I guess, I better get started else I forget. Old man here and memory fading ....

When Ryan first came down with HFMD and I had to take care of him, for the first couple of days, he was showing so much pain in his mouth from the blisters he is having and he was also very very lethargic. Everytime, he squirmed and his face got all distorted due to the excruciating pain that he has from his blisters, I would tell him that it's alright and all he need is to drink more water.

He would dutifully sip from his water bottle and the ice water would give him some form of relief for just a while. Little do I fully understand or appreciate what he was actually going through ....TILL....I have HFMD myself!

Yupe. I caught it from him after spending 3 days with him and now I can fully comprehend what he has gone through and what little Chenya must be going through too, since she too has also caught the virus about the same time I did.

For those fortunate not to experience it, let me share with you the various stages of `suffering'. Hopefully, that will help us understand what our children might be going through if they should unfortunately contracted this very rapidly spreading virus.

The first sign I had was the lethargic feeling on the first day. The feeling that something is just not right but you could not just put a finger to it. Somehow, there is just this feeling of uneasiness.

On the second day, I began to feel dryness in my throat. This is the same feeling that you would feel if you are going to get a sore throat. I was just tired. Towards the end of the day, the sore throat has worsened. By this time, some part of my inner cheek and tongue were getting sore. Swallowing saliva almost felt like swallowing a hundreds pieces of sharp broken glass, cutting and slicing through firstly, the the tip of your tongue. The pain then transferred to the back of the tongue and both the inner cheeks. At this point in time, my natural reaction is not to swallow and that would mean spitting out the saliva. With little choice, you would tell yourself to swallow that saliva and immediately, you would feel that excruciating pain at the back of your throat, travelling down the esophagus.

If you ever have one blister or ulcer in your mouth or your tongue, well try imagining having dozens of them everywhere.

Don't even thing of swallowing anything remotely solid because that will surely bring a tear to your eyes, no matter how manly you are.

The blisters are not the only thing you have to contend with. On the second day, as the blisters developed, I felt so cold and was literally shivering. The chills were as if you are running a high fever. In  my case, I have none but Chenya had it rather bad.

And finally, the rashes on hands and feet. Mine came only this morning and this is third day when the blisters in my mouth and throat started showing. I don't have that many rashes on my hands and feet unlike Chenya, who is almost covered with it. The rashes are not really that itchy but if you applied pressure on them, they can become painful. So, a simple task such as opening the cap of my water bottle can be tricky. And since some of the rashes are on the sole of my feet, walking bare footed in the house can also be an unpleasant experience.

The paediatrician told us that the third day would be the day when the disease is at it's worse. Well, both Chenya and I are at the third day now. The throat, mouth and tongue is definitely most sore today and I have seen more rashes on my hand and feet than yesterday. And whatever, I am going through, little Chenya is going through it as well. The only difference is I'm 49 and she is ONLY 10 months old. Now I can truly appreciate and understand the trauma she must be going through and yet through it all, she is one brave tough cookie ... definitely much tougher than this `toufu' daddy.

Well, we definitely hope the worst is over. Ryan is almost fine now and is already his usual super hyper active self.

This week has definitely became longer and longer since all three of us has confined to home.

Good bye milk bottle ??

Something positive just might just turned out from this HFMD episode after all.

Ryan has been stuck to all his four Chico milk bottles for his daily dose of milk (nen nen). We have been faithfully bringing his bottle out wherever we go with him. If we are out for long, his bag will be stuffed with at least 4 such bottles.

So far, our attempts to get him to stop using these bottles have not been very successful.

However, with his mouth full of blisters and probably painful to suck from the bottle and yet at the same time, he is getting hungry, he has resorted to drink from his normal drinking bottle with a straw.

Hopefully, after this episode is over, we could say farewell and good riddance to those bottles who have served us well over the last couple of years ....

An update on his HFMD status, he is definitely getting better. Although there are still blisters in his mouth, the lesser pain he has definitely suggests that he is getting better. Anyway, he is `almost' his hyper active self, monkeying around the house and beginning to get into my nerves as I am trying frantically to separate him from contacting Chenya....

He has not really had any fever since this started. Probably because we gave him paracetamol when we detected his temperature touching 37.4 or 37.5. He has not shown new rashes on his hands and legs and the old seemed to be fading somewhat...

Hoping that this episode will end soon and crossing all my fingers and toes that the next does not start with Chenya. According to the paed, if Chenya is exposed and infected, she should start showing symptoms anytime from now till the end of the week. Wish me luck.....

Quarantined ! HFM !

Yupe. The dreaded has finally caught up with Ryan. He came down with Hand Foot Mouth (HFM) disease over the weekend. 

On Friday evening, when I brought him back from his daycare, his daycare taker has already warned me to watch out for HFM as they detected some blisters in his mouth. He was his normal self on Friday and Saturday but he was already complaining about his throat being sore.

At 2am on Sunday morning, my wife asked me to check his mouth again because he was warm. I tested his temperature and it around 37.2 to 37.4. I can already see some red rashes in his hands and legs. I fear for the worst.

He had a rather restless night. Early on Sunday morning, I search the internet for a paediatrician who would be opened on Sunday. Found one in SS22 and we bought him there. Arrived there at 10:30am and the clinic was packed and crowded. We were told that there would be a long wait of at least an hour.

OK. We went to have a our brunch and came back an hour later and there were still over 10 patients ahead of us. We waited another hour before the doctor could see Ryan.

And she confirmed our worst nightmare, that Ryan has indeed contracted the HFM disease and would need to be quarantined for the next week. Since HFM is contagious, we were advised to watch out for Chenya since she had been exposed to Ryan. With a 3 to 7 days incubation period, we were told to watch out for any fever from Chenya around Tuesday or Wednesday.....

With him quarantined at home, I will be quarantined as well to look after him as it would be impossible for the maid to handle both children if we want to avoid Chenya from being infected. Right now, I only hope that Ryan recovered soon and Chenya is spare from the pain and the agony....