He's got WHAT?!?!?!?

Kind of a long day today...

By Saturday morning, my son's fever had broken, and was nearly normal. He still had a sore throat, but I felt comfortable enough to leave him at home, so I could go to rehearsal in Des Moines. When I got home, he told me that he had white spots on his tonsils. By this time, we still hadn't heard the results of the strep culture, but I assumed that they would have called by then if it were positive. By this point, he was complaining about food like tomato soup burning his throat (I know, he insisted he wanted it, though). He also couldn't eat chicken noodle soup. Basically, I stocked up on banana pudding, chocolate ice cream, and chicken broth.

Sunday, still had the spots.

This morning, I had to go back to work, but I called the clinic to see if he needed to be seen again. The nurse called me back about 45 minutes later to tell me that he needed to come in, so they could double-check to make sure he doesn't have MONO. At this point, I'm two steps away from freaking out at the thought, as school starts in a month, marching band in a couple of weeks, faire in five weeks.

After stewing in the waiting room for awhile, and then discovering that he's already lost two pounds, the doc breezed in, took one look at his throat, and said...

"Hand, foot, and mouth disease. The spots on his throat and tonsils are canker sores, which explains why it hurts a lot to eat. He'll be back to normal in a couple of days." She went on to explain that teens don't get it as badly as younger children, he may luck out and only have the sore throat.

And that was it.

After talking with my mom, she googled HFMD, and of course got the scary CDC explanation. This is apparently highly contagious. Soooo, I am disinfecting the whole house, have bought paper plates, bowls, and disposable cups and utensils for him to use, plus paper towels so he doesn't have to use the hand towels and washrags.

At least 2 more days until this is over, and he can be contagious for more than a week after, although not as much as during the first week.

But, no matter how annoying this is, it could have been worse.

At least he doesn't have mono... ;)