Captain Ai-Ai down with HFMD

July 03, 2012

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Ok. Not just HFMD (hand foot mouth disease) actually. The illness came in combo with gastroenteritis (as what Adam calls it) and high fever.

I would have to say, "virus and bacteria exist everywhere, not just in daycare & nursery." Aiman doesn't go to school and rarely in contact with other children (except Abang Adam) where he can easily pick up the virus. Yet this is Aiman's second experience dealing with this highly contagious disease. It must be from things that he touched and later put his hands into his mouth. Or he may have caught it in public, which I suspect the zoo trip that we had few days before.

The first one was a very mild case, for all we know that we had a sick toddler to be taken care off. So when the doctor diagnosed him with HFMD once again, we thought "ok, no Pantai Bangsar visit is needed here, Paracetamol will do" but heh, little did we know that situation was much worse. Because diarrhea came along in combo.

Obviously this is not a fun thing to deal with as everyone ends up tired and exhausted. HFMD is viral infection and this ugly virus causes fever and sore throat, and later will develop rashes around mouth, hands and feet.

For Aiman, it started with low range temperature which I first thought a normal fever. I was wrong. He start running the higher temperature and later had blistery sores on his diaper area.

Still, I never thought of HFMD.

After two days of fluctuated body temperature, he broke out with the red tiny spots on his tongue (ouch!!), lips, hands and feet. By then, eating was quite a challenge for Aiman Haris. He was on liquid diet for two days and yet again, that doesn't help at all. Remember that he got diarrhea as well? So milk and diarrhea just don't work together.

And he was hospitalized for 5 days! Not just the usual hospitalization but in ISOLATION. Aiman was very cranky and grouchy most of the time. He was not allowed to go out from the hospital room, not anywhere, not a single minute. Bed, Disney channel and room C528 is the life that we had that time. Having to camp out in the small room for 5 days, some more with limitation to move around (on IV drip) -- that was a mental torture to Aiman Haris. Haha! T___T

So here to the most fun part of it. HFMD often lasts between 1 to 3 weeks! The red bumps just don't go kapoooffff!! like that. With that, eventhough he was discharged yesterday, we still need to quarantine Captain Ai-Ai probably until end of this week. Or until the tiny spots disappear completely. There's no specific medication given to cure the disease but he was given bunch of medication to combat the viral infection and to sooth the discomfort.