Insert appropriate livestock disease joke here
Apparently, "hand, foot and mouth disease" is not the same as "hoof and mouth disease," as much as I wanted it to be (because who doesn't want her kid to have a cow disease? If she has to be sick, it could at least be something I've heard about on Dateline, something that could cause a national panic and spawn really bad TV movies.) Norah has the former, and for the last three days my poor baby has been battling 103-degree fevers and blisters on her lips and tongue. She's much better today, but I swear if I didn't have a sense of humor (and a mega-sized bottle of baby Motrin) I would have killed myself from the pain of watching her sad, sad little face.
For a while there, I was pretty convinced that she was just teething - the fever was low, she kept biting her fingers, etc. Then she got what I thought was a zit, which is pretty stupid in retrospect. Babies don't get real zits, they get those cute little white zits, because everything related to babies is somehow cute. (And if you believe that, I'd like to talk to you about a Nigerian lottery you've just won.)
When her fever hit 103 on Tuesday afternoon, I decided that it was definitely time to be concerned, so I called her pediatrician, who directed us to the Urgent Care clinic. There we met Dr. Shepherd, who was incredibly, unbelievably hot. HOT! What kind of hot guy spends his days taking babies' temperatures the Uncomfortable Way? A SUPER-hot one, because he can do that and still be cool! I am ashamed to admit that that totally helped.
He checked her over, during which time she was laughing and dare I say flirting with Dr. Hot, and did a little hot diagnosing. He referred to her illness as "Coxsackie virus" a few times, and just to illustrate how emotionally shaky I was at the time, I will confess that every time he said "coxsackie" I snorted. He advised us on our Motrin and our sleeping and our freedom to lounge around in underwear and watch too much TV, and sent us home. And sure enough, the underwear lounging did the trick - she's sleeping like a log, and I'm about to be.
So that's where I been at - what's new with you?
Posted in: on 5/11/2006 at at 9:46 PM
so sorry to hear that Norah's sick. Here's hoping that you are both recovered soon.
I spent my morning up on a roof, trying to figure out how water got behind the flashing. It's still anyone's guess, unless we ask the exterior consultant who knows way too much. But, I also bought some flowers on the way back to work. Happy First Mother's Day if I don't talk to you!
smooches