Sunday, September 24, 2006

Really, Truly Sick

No photos this time. Today we had to take Harriet to the hospital because she was well and truly sick. I had been awake all night with her (she slept, but was so restless and feverish that I only ever got 30mins sleep in a row maximum). In the morning I was putting her down for her morning sleep at about 9am when she started arching her back (a sign of pain in babies) and screaming. Drove to the hospital and she was diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth disease. You can have a look at it in more detail here: http://www.health.vic.gov.au/ideas/bluebook/hand_foot.htm

Basically it's a viral disease spread by aerosol droplet infection as well as through vesicular fluid and faeces, but since she hasn't been rubbing her hands in anyone's burst blisters or poo, I think it's the droplet method that's done her in. Poor mite, apparently she has vesicular lesions through her posterior pharynx - these will burst and become ulcers. Knowing how much just one small mouth ulcer can hurt me, I can't imagine the pain of a whole mouth full of them. Jennie told me a horror story about how a friend of hers had her child wean because sucking was more painful than drinking from a cup...don't tel me things like that Jennie! Harry's only 13mths!

Since it's viral there's nothing to offer but analgesia. So we gave her some paracetamol + codeine which has definitely helped her sleep. Only problem is that she requires 7mLs of the stuff - we have a battle getting 1.5mLs down her for Panadol! So we tried it in the bath tonight so that the sticky excess just ran into the water and she wasn't too sticky afterwards. Worked a treat! She's sleeping now and I'm about to join her...man am I tired!

So apologies to everyone we were going to see this weekend (we actually had a very full weekend booked and everything got cancelled). Hopefully we can reschedule for sometime soon. Will hopefully be back in here soon with some happy news and smiling photos.

2 comments:

jodes said...

Hey Guys hope Hazza had a good nights sleep (you guys too) and is pulling through this okay. Give her big hugs from us. J,T and X xxx

Anonymous said...

It's 3 days since you posted this so fingers crossed that Hazza has pulled through & is feeling heaps better. Hugs all around xxx