Friday, May 30, 2008

Jackson Has a Double Ear Infection and Now Hand Foot and Mouth Disease!

The verdict is finally in, Jackson has been waking up so early because he has had an ear infection. Thursday night he ran a little bit of a fever, and this morning his fever rose to 101.8. Since tomorrow is the weekend, and they charge more for weekend appointments, we went ahead and decided to take him in today. He actually slept till 8 am this morning...go figure. Anyway, he screamed bloody murder when she checked his ears. She said the left ear looks pretty bad, and is probably why he has been waking up so early the past week. I am just glad to be able to treat this with antibiotics, motrin, and numbing ear drops. He has not had an ear infection for a while, and believe it or not he has only had about 5 total ear infections. This time, he did not wake up in the middle of the night and he just started pulling at his ears bad today. Hopefully, it will not be much longer till he can say "ear hurts." Oh that blessed day. He is repeating many words I say, and he love to try and say "Giraffe" when he sees picture of them (he loves giraffes and we will be going to the zoo soon to see them in person...I am so glad we have a great zoo here). Can't you tell he is so sick in this picture taken tonight... his energy level amazes me.

*Added later* Friday night he got a huge blister on his tongue and he did not sleep well at all that night. He woke up every 2 hours and then Saturday he hardly even had a nap. Needless to say, it was a rough time. Praise God that he slept all of Saturday night (he woke up once but we did not have to go get him) and he slept till 8 am. I felt like a new person this morning and he actually let me do some laundry. He is doing much better but he is not eating at all just drinking bottles with his milk in them. If you have any advice on how to deal with hand foot and mouth disease I would love to hear it! The nurse said that we could give him anbesol but basically it was a virus and had to let it run its 5-7 day course. It has been very difficult to get the antibiotics in for his ear infection because his mouth hurts so much. Today he broke out in little red dots that look like bites around his mouth. The nurse did say that the blisters are very painful....although Jackson only has one huge blister on the side of his tongue that I can see.

We have not had to miss Sunday morning in months, but of course yesterday was promotion Sunday and we got new very large class of 4th grade girls (not to mention a nice teacher appreciation luncheon), and I really wanted to be there to meet all of our new girls. It was my week to teach so we had to scramble to get the material to Minge on Saturday. I hate to miss Sunday so just pray that Jackson's blisters are gone and he is well before next Sunday when I am suppose to teach again. I am dying to meet and to get to know all of our new girls.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

On Emily, all I can say is yuck! Asher had hfm twice in a 6 week period last fall. We were lucky b/c it was a mild case both times, but b/c it is so contagious we still had to stay away from other children until the blisters went away. I just tried to make sure that he was drinking enough...a friend of mine gave her little boy popsicles when he was sick, and that worked well. And we just made sure that he had Tylenol or motrin at bed time so he could sleep better. Unfortunately, though, you just have to let it run its course. Hope it doesn't last too long! My kids have been sick off and on for the past two weeks, so I know how frustrating it feels to have sick children. Hope he gets well soon!

lindler5 said...

poor little guy!! as if the DOUBLE ear infections were not enough!! we will be missing the little guy at FBC while he is on the mend.

Emily Wallace said...

Thanks yall! It is crazy him having multiple illness at once. I always thought you had a baby and lived happily ever after and they just occasionally got sick. I guess if you do stay at home everyday all the time that is the case, but who does that? Guess he is building up a strong immune system for later on. Great to hear from yall!

Anonymous said...

Hey there... so we have battled HFM disease last fall... Logan had it for like a week and a half. I think I missed 2 Sundays :( Anyhow, the one thing I could get him to eat that didn't sting his little mouth full of blisters was yogurt. So we at LOTS of yogurt while he had it. It was very hard to get him to drink, so I would lay him on my lap, watching a movie, and use a dropper to shoot liquid into the side of his mouth. Banana posicles also were a hit because they felt good to his mouth. Let me know if you have any other questions!
-Callie Jones

Mommy Reg said...

Poor Jackson. I am glad you discovered why he was waking up so early though. It is so frustrating when they cannot tell you what is bothering them. Poor little guy. Praying for a speedy recovery!

Emily Wallace said...

Thanks Callie and Mommy Reg. Jackson is doing so much better now that we got this ointment from an angel. I have had lots of my friends whose children have had HFM disease and I had no idea it was this bad. Ear infections are nothing compared to bleeding blisters all in your baby's mouth. This is almost as bad as the croup. Thanks again for your encouragement, it really means a lot!