The Bad Disease
A few days ago, Goldie stopped eating. She also had a fever of 101-ish and so I did what any loving mother would do, gave her some Advil and pretended that nothing was wrong. She has an extremely high pain tolerance and never acts sick, even when she is. I should have known better. We went to play dates, on long walks and a very large parade. Then yesterday I noticed that her gums were swollen. And bleeding. I saw visions of missed flossing opportunities and late night bottles of milk and began frantically dialing doctors and googling Red Gums+Fever+Incompetent Mother+Doom followed by Baby Dentures Better than Diamond Grill+Toddler.
When we finally went in last night, the triage nurse took one look at her mouth and was all "dude, what took you so long to get here?" The kind doctor somehow convinced her to open her mouth and thought it was strep for sure and did a throat culture that, judging by Goldie's reaction felt like being stabbed in the eye with a hot poker. Eventually she calmed down and ate a Popsicle while we awaited the results. Not strep. The doc was still concerned and I casually mentioned that ha ha, I have this leeeeetle cold sore here on my mouth and that dot above her mouth looks soooort of like a cold sore, couldthathaveanythingtodowiththis?
I held the poor little duckling down so we could pry her tiny mouth open for another look. All the doc said was "impressive, I'll be right back." Ten minutes and another Popsicle later she returned with Diagnoses Oral Herpes-Some-Big-Word. Apparently she has giant open lesions in her throat and there is no treatment other than Advil. Damn it, WHY wasn't I more careful when I felt the cold sore coming on? I feel about an inch tall.
I also wish that her and Roob had not spent the past week having an old fashioned drool-off while Roob practiced her kissing skills. But that, I am sure, will be another story.
When we finally went in last night, the triage nurse took one look at her mouth and was all "dude, what took you so long to get here?" The kind doctor somehow convinced her to open her mouth and thought it was strep for sure and did a throat culture that, judging by Goldie's reaction felt like being stabbed in the eye with a hot poker. Eventually she calmed down and ate a Popsicle while we awaited the results. Not strep. The doc was still concerned and I casually mentioned that ha ha, I have this leeeeetle cold sore here on my mouth and that dot above her mouth looks soooort of like a cold sore, couldthathaveanythingtodowiththis?
I held the poor little duckling down so we could pry her tiny mouth open for another look. All the doc said was "impressive, I'll be right back." Ten minutes and another Popsicle later she returned with Diagnoses Oral Herpes-Some-Big-Word. Apparently she has giant open lesions in her throat and there is no treatment other than Advil. Damn it, WHY wasn't I more careful when I felt the cold sore coming on? I feel about an inch tall.
I also wish that her and Roob had not spent the past week having an old fashioned drool-off while Roob practiced her kissing skills. But that, I am sure, will be another story.
posted by Kirsten at
12:24 PM
3 Comments:
Did you look up Hand Foot and Mouth disease? It's going around this year big time and by the sounds of Goldie's symptoms, it sounds a lot like it.
One of my girls had it at age one, and it's a bitch. My doctor had us alternate Motrin and Tylenol every three hours to keep the pain at bay. (Your mileage may vary!)
If it is HFM disease, the treatment doesn't change, but it would mean that it didn't come from your cold sore :).
Here's a link:
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/hand-foot-and-mouth-herpes-neither.html
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/
hand-foot-and-mouth-herpes-neither.html
Let me try that again.
I was thinking HFM, too. Tell yourself that's what it is! ;)
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