That's NOT Chicken Pox

Friday came along and the Hubs headed off to youth camp, sick tummy and all.  One of the parent volunteers called and needed some extra supplies for dinner, so he had to run a couple of errands before he headed down.  Not a half hour after he left, the Monkey came in and snuggled up with me, asking for a nap.

A nap?!?  Who under the age of 22 without kids asks for a nap?

My son, apparently.  Just before he spikes a fever.  I thought, "Here we go.  He's going to be the next victim of this Oregon Trail virus."  He then toddles off into the family room where I was certain he would soon barf all over our new white shag rug.

Yeah I know, I know.  I bought a WHITE rug, in a house full of little boys.  Not one of my brighter ideas.

Minutes and hours went by and nothing.  He took the Motrin like a champ (first time I've been able to get him to do that) and once the fever was down, he was back to his bouncy, alphabet obsessed self.

Saturday morning came along and he was totally fine.  He was a happy, energetic, normal little guy but shortly after lunch I looked across the room at him and noticed his legs were covered in a bright red rash.  It didn't stop there, his arms and little bum were full of it too, but not on his torso, which I thought was weird.  A few looked like they were going to blister.  Great, he has the chicken pox.

He's had chicken pox before, when he was an infant, but it was a mild case so I suppose he could in theory get it again.  (The doc didn't give him the varicella vaccine because of his prior infection though.)

Sunday morning around 5:30am he decided I needed to get him a towel, wet it, and "wipe the scabs off".  Poor buddy.  When the Monkey asks you to get him wet, he must really be desperate.

Then I get a call from the Nursery Director from our church.  She tells me it's not the chicken pox but Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease.  I'm thinking, "No way.  He's got it all over his legs and arms, and as of that time, none on his palms and bottoms of his feet."  She insisted that it was going through the church and that it was most likely exactly that.

So after some research I discover that not only is she correct but, because we are overachievers here at the ranch, it's a new, ugly strain that only entered the US 2 years ago.  Ugly because not only does it affect the extremities, but it will infect adults as well.  Oh, and it's SUPER contagious.

Because we all need to have another round of sickness here in the house, right?

Then Hannes got a fever, a very red sore throat followed by a bloody nose and get this... his eye started to BLEED OUT THE CORNER.

No lie.

I've never seen tears of blood except in the movies.  It was SO creepy.  Same side as the nostril that was bleeding and showed up every time he put pressure upward on his nose or tried to blow it.  This poor kid.  There's nothing on the internet about this.  Even the nurse at Children's didn't really know what to say about it.  So weird.  I didn't tell him it was actually happening for fear he'd freak out.  It's all stopped now and he seems fine so I guess we wait and see what it does or doesn't do.

It's 11:30am.  Looks like we may have a 3rd sickie today.  :-(