Hand Foot & Mouth Disease

I almost instinctively started to type the title of this post as "Sam is Sick". Then I realised I've already had previous posts of the same titles, so I came up with this boring, and also accurate, one instead.

Yep, Sam's got HFMD. This morning I still didn't know, sent him up the school bus after he happily finished half a slice of peanut butter sandwich.

So imagine my surprise when I got a call from the childcare centre 20 min later, telling me they found ulcers in Sam's mouth, so can I please fetch him to the doctor's.

Fortunately my tour today is in the afternoon, so I managed to get Sam to the doctor's & back before going off for my assignment. And the doctor confirmed Sam did catch HFMD, and now has to be quarantined at home for 1 week before going back to the doctor for follow-up. Only after he's been cleared next Wed can he go back to school.

Luckily for Sam, he's got a mild strain of the HFMD, so not likely to have ulcers on his hands. Actually, it had seemed a bit silly to trot Sam to the doctor when he's not having a fever, not feeling unwell, basically still his naughty self, except for some white spots inside the cheeks of his mouth.

In fact, when I received the call from the childcare centre this morning, we had thought Sam was too heaty from the ONE durian he ate yesterday, and my MIL even cooked barley water while we were at the doctor.

But, well, no amount of heatiness would induce normal ulcers to grow in the cheeks, I think. And by this evening, Sam had started to feel a bit of discomfort when eating dinner, so I gave him his oral drops. Which, by the way, he was fascinated with.....went babbling to his granny about this new medicine and the new method of drinking it (drops directly into the mouth, instead of drinking from syringe or cup or spoon).

And luckily I checked his temperature just before bedtime, cos he was running a slight fever by then, 37.8 degC.

So now I'll be stuck with the little bugger for one entire week............in addition to making sure we don't share food with him, have to think of ways to occupy him for 6 more days without him stepping out of the house. Sigh!! Why can't Sam be those super-healthy boys who never fall sick??????? I should never have thrown away the used syringes after he recovered from his phlegm 5 days ago!