Julian's Journal: Coxsackie!!!!

It all started Monday morning. When Mommy and Daddy noticed that my cradle cap had gotten infinitely worse. It looked like someone was beating me up at home. But everyone just thought it was bad cradle cap. I just continued scratching the crap out of it.

Then by Monday evening, Mommy and Daddy noticed that there were reddish rashes in my foot creases. They then concluded that perhaps I was experiencing some eczema or dermatitis, which is common for babies my age. But then Mommy got a call around 1pm from school, I was running a fever of 100.4 - still not high enough to be sent home but enough for Mommy to make an appointment with the pediatrician. The pediatrician told her to bring me in immediately because there have been many outbreaks of coxsackie (Hand foot mouth). Mommy and Daddy scoffed at the idea - because i had rashes only on the creases of my foot and on my head - not blisters on the soles and palms of my feet and hands and nothing in my mouth.

By the time i got to the pediatrician, my rashes had gotten a lot worse and had spread to my face and upper arms and thighs. The pediatrician said it didn't look like coxsackie, but she was concerned because my fever was 101.6 and because i was still very young. So she sent me to the Pediatric ER to do some blood work to rule out any type of bacterial infection from the eczema.

So Mommy went to pick up my brother and then brought us both to the ER.

My brother kept busy with Daniel Tiger while I continued to scratch the crap out of my head.

The nurses put on the Cartoon Network but all he wanted was Daniel Tiger.

After examining me and finding sores in my throat, the hospital pediatrician diagnosed me with Coxsackie. She explained to Mommy that i had an atypical presentation and that is why no one seemed to think I had it. Mommy thinks I got it pretty bad because I am a baby and it's my first exposure to any kind of virus/

So I was prescribed some antibacterial cream and was told to take tylenol for my fever and aches.

Of course by the time I got home, Mommy got an email from school saying that they were experiencing a Coxsackie breakout in school!! TOO LATE! I ALREADY CAUGHT IT!!! I just hope my brother doesn't catch it from me!

The first night i had no problems sleeping. But the rashes were all over my arms, face, head, and legs. And they were itchy. I was pretty cranky.

I HATE THIS!

I have them all over my thighs, behind my knees, and on my foot creases on both sides.

But every so often, I was able to crack a smile...

At least its not so bad on my face.... but my head is super itchy!!!! GAH!

Last night I woke up at 1:30am crying. I was miserable!!! My head was so itchy it was driving me crazy!!! Daddy took me downstairs and put me in the swing, and luckily that made me feel better enough that I could fall asleep.

Day 2 at home with Mommy: Doesn't seem to be getting better yet....I am definitely feeling worse than I did yesterday. There are more rashes on my arms and the ones on my legs are crusty and oozy. Mommy says I look like a Zombie baby.