Two weeks ago I took Jimmy and Ellie to see Playschool. It was a drizzly day and the parking situation was horrendous, so I had to park a fair way away. As we were trudging to the auditorium, Ellie tripped at my feet. Rather than trip over her and land on top of Jimmy who I was carrying, I sacrificed my ankle instead. It was a rather wicked sprain, but there is no way I could explain to an excited toddler that we would need to turn around and go home, so I gritted my teeth, sat through the production with a swelling ankle, then hobbled home for restorative icing, elevation and bandaging. I'm still hobbling around a little, but the swelling is much reduced and definitely less painful. I know that it's taking a long time to heal, but really, when I have to run around after an energetic toddler and a crawling infant, there isn't a lot of time to rest and recuperate.
Meanwhile, Jimmy came out in spots. He had spots everywhere, from his trunk all the way down to his toes. I was a bit confused about whether it was hand, foot and mouth or whether it was chicken pox as he had symptoms of both. We hustled to the doctor (just an aside, but WHY do my children always get sick on days that I have to take both with me to the doctor?), who hesitantly called chicken pox. I know that there is no treatment for either HFM or the pox except time, but it was good to have a diagnosis anyway. I'm not sure where he caught it from, but I suspect daycare as Ellie's friends love to greet him at pickup/dropoff time with snotty kisses, and he's still too young to have had a chicken pox vaccination. Apparently it's quite unlucky these days for a baby to get chicken pox... go Jimmy, beating the odds!
He's been completely miserable, so we've been doing a lot of baby wearing. My days looked a lot like this...
... swaying and rocking him to sleep wrapped against my chest. Which, if I'm honest, has always been one of our happy places to be.
What I actually suspect now, is that Jimmy had HFM, which has been doing it's usual rounds at Ellie's daycare, and then while his immunity was low, he caught chicken pox, which is when I took him to the doctor. How do I know this? Because I got HFM. Thank you SO MUCH daycare and Jimmy. Sharing the love, sharing the love, right? HFM is usually a children's virus, but I know quite a few of my parent friends who have also caught it.
So I've been pretty miserable too, as we've both had to be in quarantine at home. Here's another picture of how we spent our days once I got sick too. Here, I'm a bit flushed from getting him up there, and he's still a bit glassy eyed, but we both feel better touching each other.
HFM is a seriously revolting virus as an adult. I won't post a picture as that's just icky, but there are lots of mouth ulcers, making it hard to eat/talk/swallow because your tongue swells and everything hurts. Little pinprick sized blisters all over your hands and feet make it a bit painful to walk or even be immersed in water, so showering/bathing/doing the dishes is agony. Despite that, I'm told I got a mild dose.
I tell you, we all better be building some serious immunity here!! I'm super grateful that, excepting Jimmy, we have all either had chicken pox or been vaccinated, so that didn't spread any further. Also, Ellie has had HFM and didn't show any signs of further virus contamination, so I've been able to send her to daycare for a 'break' while I cared for Jimmy and myself. Mr Fork remained disgustingly healthy.
Despite all that, we are all on the mend here. I look forward to being able to get out of the house, to typing on a keyboard, and to baking properly again... I've been afraid to bake bread or do anything with kneading or hand mixing while my hands were gross. Consequently, we've been eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches around here, which I am getting a mite tired of...
I do have one more thing to share. Ellie drew me this picture to make me feel better. It's one of her first recognisable drawings. That giant head on the left is me. On the right, under all that hair, is her. She tells me we are holding hands. I won't lie, I maybe choked up and got a little teary when she handed it to me. It's worth getting sick and investing so much time and energy and love into my small people for moments like these.
Whew! That feels better. I feel all caught up now. Tell me, how has your week been?
Oh, this sounds like such a tough few weeks. I'm sorry to hear about your ankle and the HFM and the chicken pocks! You are definitely overdue some rest and relaxation, and as you say, some serious immunity to future illnesses. I hope you're all on the mend xo
ReplyDeleteThanks Kari! x
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