Some of you have mentioned hand foot and mouth disease being bad but oh my god, hand foot and mouth is hell.

My wife is a nurse practitioner and ever since we had our almost 2 year old this has been the illness she’s been afraid of. Colds suck, norovirus sucks, but she’s been terrified of hand foot and mouth disease.

Well. She was right.

Obviously symptoms started on day 3 of a 5-day vacation, when my daughter stopped eating and sleeping and drinking, which is, you know, not ideal. The rash on her butt was insane. The heartbreak and fear of her asking for food and drink and then screaming in pain when she swallowed anything was just…woof.

But ultimately she slept on the flight home and once we were home she started chugging milk. So at least we could stop worrying at that point.

…and then I got a tickle in my throat the day after we got home. The next day was worse. Then I started getting some tingles on my feet. Then itchy sores on my scalp. Then my chin. Then my lip/nose area.

The next day was worse. Suddenly I could barely walk. Then I couldn’t grab anything because the dozens of tiny sores on each finger all hurt. Meanwhile my wife caught travel-tummy and was constantly in the bathroom so I spent my first weekend post vacation silently screaming each time I touched anything or moved my feet or ate or moved my mouth/lower face, and acted as primary parent because I was the one who could at least be in the same room as the kiddo. By that point she was about 90% back to normal - she still had the rash but was eating and drinking and only scratching when she was due for more diaper cream on the rash. So she had it bad for about 4 days and lingering rash for 3 more with no other noticeable effects, and even the rash hasn’t seemed bothersome.

The next day was about as bad again, but at least my wife improved and I could stay still for most of the morning after doing an oatmeal soak for my hands and feet. My throat also maaayyyybe improved a tad. At lunch I rallied and went to play in the snow and I think maybe the cold did something, as late afternoon I could start to use my fingers again. Some pain, but at least they were useful.

Today is day…6? 7, maybe since first symptoms and I am now able to type this on my phone, though my right thumb is super tender and there are still splotches everywhere. My feet are still in bad shape, as it’s now getting worse between my toes, though there’s been improvement on the balls of my feet. My heels are worse today and there are probably 100+ spots/blisters on each foot at this point. Also the skin on my face feels a little better and is now just falling off, which is not a ton of fun.

Holy hell. This sucks.

Also the Internet tells me that I can look forward to a few finger/toenails falling off in a few weeks, so that’s cool.

Viruses are cool.