Sick Last Week... Hand Foot & Mouth Disease

Why can't I get the normal illnesses most other adults get? Why do I always have to be different and unique? As you can tell, I've been MIA for the last week & a half... let me fill you in on all of the fun details...

It started on Sunday March 30th, I suddenly developed a high fever out of the blue, and my throat started to hurt. So, I spent Sunday and Monday snuggled under the covers in bed. My throat was feeling worse on Tuesday and I made an appt to see the doc. My strep test came back negative, but all of my symptoms pointed towards strep, so he decided it must be a different strain of strep and treated me for that anyway. That same day, I noticed a little tiny red spot on my right thumb that made my whole thumb ache like you wouldn't believe. It wasn't anything big enough to even bring to the doc's attention, I thought it was a splinter or something. (Telling him about it later, he agreed that he would've just blown it off since it was just one little bump.) Wednesday morning I woke up with a rash & painful red bumps/blisters/sores all over the palms of my hands, bottoms of my feet, and inside my mouth. I rushed back to the doc first thing that morning and he said it was classic symptoms of Hand Foot & Mouth disease (HFM) - high fever, sore throat, and the rash/bumps. I'd thought of that myself too - my son had HFM when he was three. HFM is a childhood illness, in the chicken pox family. It's spread through contact/dirty hands etc. It's one of the illnesses, like chicken pox, that once you've had it, you should be immune. Unfortunately for me, I'm not immune to the virus that causes all the illnesses in that family -- I've had chicken pox twice, scarlet fever, shingles, herpes on my knee, and now hand foot & mouth. We're thinking my son acted as a carrier and brought the virus home from school or day care -- of course he's immune since he's had it before. So anyway... I was completely miserable on Wednesday -- you don't think about just how painful blisters/sores on your feet & palms and inside your mouth can be. I couldn't walk, could barely handle anything, couldn't eat -- I spent the rest of Wednesday & Thursday on the couch with my feet propped up, eating popsicles. Friday I woke up and the rash had spread everywhere - it was ALL OVER. Plus, my hands were so swollen, several fingernails had turned blue and I'd lost the feeling in those fingertips. So back to the doctor I went. The doc said he still wanted to say it was HFM but he wasn't 100% sure anymore since the rash had spread. With it being Friday and the weekend just around the corner, we both agreed the best thing for me would be to go to the hospital for observation & treatment. Plus, he wanted an infectious disease specialist to see me, and the fastest way to make that happen would be to admit me -- otherwise it would have to wait until the following week. So, by 3:30pm on Friday, I was an official guest of Tomball Hospital. Ever hear of the shotgun approach to medicine? That's where the doc tests for everything and sees what comes back positive -- like shooting a shotgun at a target, SOMETHING has to hit it. I think he ordered one of every blood test possible - the phlebotomist took out 14 tubes of blood! The results from the more standard tests came back normal, but we're still waiting on the more obscure ones - lyme's disease, rocky mountain spotted fever, coxsackie (HFM) virus, hepatitis, even hiv & syphillis. He also set me up with some heavy duty IV antibiotics and steroids. I think it was the steroids that did the trick, because the rash was SIGNIFICANTLY better by the time I woke up on Saturday. The specialist saw me on Saturday too and agreed with my doc that it was HFM. He said the rash had spread and I just had a more severe reaction to it since I'm an adult. (the same thing happens with adults who get chicken pox too, I hear.) Since it IS just a virus, there's not much we can do to treat it. The steroids help with the rash & swelling, but we just have to let the virus run it's course and leave on its own. I'm feeling much better now and the rash is almost completely gone, just the most severe spots on my hands & feet are still here. I'm afraid a few spots will scar, but they're not too bad - pretty small. My throat is scratchy & my voice comes & goes -- I figure that's from the sores in my mouth & throat healing. The worst part right now is the skin has peeled off of my fingertips - the ones that were numb & swollen. They look like I've been burned, and they're SO sensitive. But again, oh well... ce'est la vie!