Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Hand Foot Mouth Disease in Adults (Day-to-day)

So here's something fun: I caught hand/foot/mouth disease from my kid. Uggggghhhhh. I didn't know much about it before but have since learned it is a BITCH.  And it's super contagious. And of course he caught it after only being at a new daycare for TWO DAYS.
There's tons of internet info on HFMD in kids but not as much in adults because they don't always get it. (Lucky me!) So I've decided to keep a daily log of every strange gross detail in case others go searching like I did.

Before I knew I was sick
I was taking care of Jack 24/7 while he was sick with HFM because Hubs was traveling for work. Sleeping was terrible for many days because he was waking up SO OFTEN and I was spending a lot of time "sleeping" in a chair because he couldn't sleep unless I was holding him.  Therefore, I was exhausted, getting very little sleep, and I started feeling like I was getting a cold.  Not surprising. I started taking DayQuil around the clock and just continued feeling under the weather the whole time I was nursing little man back to health.  After about a week he got better, his blisters scabbed over and he was mostly back to normal. Hooray! And then the fun started...

Day 1 (Thursday)
I woke up with an extremely sore throat and was really run down all day. Low energy, no appetite, body aches, headache, chills. I assumed the HFM had finally gotten the best of me but as the day wore on and my body ached more and more (even becoming sensitive to the touch) I started to wonder if maybe I actually had the flu. Went to bed at 6pm and for the better part of the next two hours, laid in bed super uncomfortable and, though I'm not proud of it, was actually moaning and writhing in pain from the soreness at certain times. Extra Strength Tylenol did nothing.

Day 2 (Friday)
Awoke feeling like there were knives stabbing my throat. This continued throughout the day every time I tried to swallow or talk. Decided it was better to try not to do either. Body still sore and sensitive to touch but nothing like last night. Then discovered that there were white pus patches all over my throat and tonsils which is indicative of Strep. Great. Decided to head to the doctor since Strep is bacterial and would need antibiotics. They ran a Strep test - negative. They drew blood to test for Mono - negative. I asked again if it could be HFM and they said it was "unlikely as you don't see the white patches in the throat with this disease and you don't have any of the telltale blisters on your body". They sent me home with a shrug and a prescription for more rest and some viscous lidocaine which I was supposed to gargle with every 3 hours to numb the pain and be able to eat. I tried it. It was like trying to gargle with metal-flavored pudding. Impossible, disgusting, and I have no idea how I kept myself from puking. Later in the day I decided instead to squeeze some onto a Q-Tip and dab it on the worst parts of my throat. It dulled the pain for approximately 5 minutes. I gave up. Who needs to eat, right? Popsicles became my new best friend.
Another strange thing this day: my nose. I had like a little leak in the very tips of each nostril where I had never felt snot before, and it would solidify into a translucent but yellow colored crustiness. (Yes I picked it to examine it.)  And I kept blowing and cleaning the crusties out throughout the day (I can't call them boogers because they really weren't...hard to explain) but stopped when I realized I was fighting a losing battle and they just kept coming back. Very strange.
Lots more rest and to bed early again.  Alternating Advil and Tylenol still was not doing much.

Day 3 (Saturday)
Again with the stabby knives in my throat. Also, woke completely drenched in sweat. I mean drenched - like I went swimming in the night and then just climbed back into bed. Aaaand...hello blisters on my hands!  Ah ha - so it is HFM!  So glad I spent most of yesterday in the ER and paid $125 for them to tell me it wasn't HFM. :-/  I almost felt a sense of relief. Not that I wanted to catch it but I was glad to finally know what it was so I could know what to expect.  But then I did research on how HFM presents in adults and realized I probably would have preferred something unidentifiable.
Throat sores were so sensitive popsicles were now a lovely distant memory (too much acidity) and ice water and ice cubes were the only possible replacement. Overall body soreness was much better but now I had itchy, pins-and-prickly-needles blisters coming out over all my fingers, hands, feet, scalp, and a couple on my face. The full quarantine began and I spent most of the day in bed alternately sleeping, watching Netflix, and trying not to swallow.

Day 4 (Sunday)
Throat ever-so-slightly less stabby upon waking. Still hard to swallow but no longer felt like I was eating shards of glass.
Could not use my hands at all due to painful blisters. This was extra fun because it was my son's 2nd birthday today and I was completely useless to help or play with him and had to just be the dirty diseased ragamuffin in the corner salivating over cake I can't eat, and then slinking back upstairs to my bed to hide once presents were opened. Starting to wonder if the Netflix show I'm binge-watching is actually my reality. Hmmm.
Towards end of day I was thinking that maybe I made it through the worst day (! Huzzah!) but then I discovered the rash had spread to both legs (thighs and knees mostly), elbows, ears, one side of my abdomen, back, butt...well, basically everywhere. FML. Bring on the Benedryl.

Day 5 (Monday   with pics!)
Feeling a little better overall. Sore throat still there but not awful every single moment of the day. Discovered I have already lost 8 lbs from my steady diet of ice cubes, ice cream, scrambled eggs and ramen. Quite itchy and Benedryl is doing nothing. Having a hard time walking because even though the blisters on my feet don't look like much they are super uncomfortable when I stand or even move a toe.  The ones between the toes are the worst. But hands are getting better (see pics) and I can now sort-of use them again. Thank God.
Took a shower today for the first time since oooh, Friday? Gross.  It was tough though. I needed to use cool water because even slightly warm water made the blisters hurt more.  And my head was one giant dreadlock so trying to comb that out with hands that barely work was fun. In the end I think I dried my skin out more. Super itchy now and day dreaming about a tub full of calamine lotion.
I feel like I HAVE to be getting better soon, no?  But I'm not seeing any evidence of blisters actually popping or oozing so now I'm getting suspicious. Thought they had to pop then crust over before you can start getting better. So I'm still in waiting mode, hoping every night that the next day will be better.


It's amazing that the blisters don't look like much in the pics but they hurt so much the last few days!


Day 6 (Tuesday)
I can sort of walk again! I can still feel the blisters on my feet and between toes and it's super annoying and itchy but at least they don't hurt as much. And the throat is a bit better. I even ate today! And my fingers are now becoming calloused, which is a good thing because I'm able to use them again.  All the itchy rashy parts on my legs, back, side, butt are just staying an itchy rash, not turning into blisters like on my hands and feet. But they are super itchy so we'll see what happens there. Another day of rest and my new Netflix world.

Day 7 (Wednesday)
I am officially on the mend. I even went out today to Target and the grocery store. Like a real person! My throat is like 80% back to normal so I am eating ALL the things. The callouses on my fingers make everything I touch feel like it has a layer of fuzz on it. I've still got some itchies in some places but for the most part, the places that were just rashy (like my thighs) are starting to clear up and the random single blisters around my body are hardening. Except my toes - those are still bothering me and wearing shoes today was not fabulous. I still have those weird calcifications (I refuse to call them boogers) in the tips of my nose and am resisting the urge to dig 'em out. They're just so weird!!  But other than that, I have my energy back and I expect to be back to normal soon! Hurrah!

Conclusion
That sucked.

In re-reading everything I wrote just now I noticed that I didn't mention anything about coughing. I had a dry, un-productive cough off and on the whole time I was sick. Sometimes it was just a tickle that I couldn't seem to get rid of and at other times it was kind of a deep chest cough.  Strange. That seems to be going away now too.

If anything else crazy happens I'll update this post again. But for now, I am just keeping my calloused fingers crossed that I don't lose any finger- or toenails over the next month+!


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UPDATE (May 22): So more than a month later I'm now starting to lose my first fingernail. Yee-fucking-haw. And the scabs(?)/marks(?) on Jack from his blisters still have not fully disappeared. This is like the sickness that never ends.  I also failed to mention that my fingers peeled like crazy in the weeks after and then my feet too - in every place there was a blister.  So, like, 100 places. My feet are still peeling a little. Two layers of skin every time.  SO weird. I just hope to God I never get this again. Ugh.


11 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry! That sounded awful. :/ Glad you're on the mend. On another note, I can't believe Jack is 2 years old!! Still would love to meet up with you guys one day!

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  2. Wow, that sounds horrible. Now I understand why Ollie was so cranky/miserable when he had HFM. Thanks, daycare! So many delightful diseases they send home, eh?

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  3. It's awful! He gets sick one week, we have to take a week off for him to get better then he gets something else the next time he goes and we have to take another week off!! Gah! And as for HFM, be soooo glad you didn't get it! Based on what I've read it seems it's worse for adults than kids so that's good at least.

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  4. I have questions since I'm suffering with this now

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  5. It sounds terrible! My son has it now and I started to have blisters on my palm. Thank you for prepping me up for the adventure!

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  6. I also have this! I’m 41 years old. I have NEVER experienced such pain in my life. Mine started with a mild ache on Thursday which stretched into Friday. Friday night I woke up in the middle of the night with a 102 fever and pain in every joint of my body. The only way I can describe it is it was as if someone was stabbing my joints with hot needles. Woke up Saturday morning and noticed a breakout on my face and a pimple like mark on my lip. Went to urgent care and doc told me it was a viral infection and to just keep taking ibuprofen. Well, Sunday morning I woke up to a bunch of red itchy dots all over my body. They were extremely itchy! I made my boyfriend dissect our entire bed because I thought I had bed bugs! Then I felt the sores in my mouth. And the joint and muscle pain got so bad I could not even get up. If I had to walk, it was very stiff and extremely painful. Went back to urgent care today (Monday) and they diagnosed me with coxackie. I actually starting crying to the nurse because the pain was so bad. The doc prescribed me some steroids for the pain and a mixture of Maalox and Benedryl for the mouth sores. Luckily I only have 6 or 7 in my mouth and while they are uncomfortable, they are NOTHING compared to the aches and pains in my entire body. Searching online for symptoms for adults is useless. It doesn’t say anywhere how painful this virus is in adults. It seriously is no joke. Now I’m hoping my boyfriend didn’t contract it.

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  7. This was a really helpful post.. thank you! My LO is 6.5 months and just got over HFMD.. and has since shared it with me. Joys of parenting? I got a sudden onset of chills on a Sunday afternoon, fever spiked to 103, had fever until Tuesday AM with the blisters starting sometime on Monday night. Hands, feet, face, mouth (somehow not too terrible, THANKFULLY), nose and scalp crusties (WTF are these???) butt and random ones on my legs. I'd rather be going through labor again because at least that has an end game and epidurals. Tuesday night was the worst - my hands and feet were on fire, and I cried because I felt so isolated, couldn't walk, open doors, etc. I'm also still pumping milk for my girl so that was a disaster. I know I most likely won't pass this back to baby - but I don't want to risk it, so I miss her like crazy. Plus, I can't even pick her up with my hands being the way they are so Daddy is 100% parenting and taking care of me from a distance right now. I keep hoping that I show signs of improvement - but for every blister that hurts a little bit less, another one pops up. Hoping that this has as quick of a turn around going away as it did coming on. Thank you for sharing your story!

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  8. I'm 40 and am now on my 6th time of having hand foot and mouth. It starts with a lump on the mouth and sore lips. Each day it gets worse with spots on hands, knees, feet and elbows. Worst of all for me are the sores on the mouth. It's is complete agony. I don't move my lips or mouth. It's like they don't belong to me. I didn't eat at all first time I got this and was almost hospitalised but now I eat although sweating with the pain it is causing me. Don't eat sweet things as that hurts the most. I have learnt that it keeps getting worse for 7 days then it gets better. When it starts to get better it happens quite quickly thankfully. There is no cure and the only things that help are a green mouthwash prescribed by the doctor and strong codeine. Im seeing a private Doctor next week to see why I keep getting it.

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  9. This blog post was super helpful, thank you! As you know there is not much posted on what this experience is like for adults. I am in my mid 30's and have somehow contracted this, I do not have children. However, I nanny for a 7 and 13 year old, but neither of them have it or any related symptoms. Weird!
    My experience has been a bit different than described. Day 1, I noticed a spot on my palm (thought I pinched it somehow), then the intense night sweats and fever began for a couple nights. Then I noticed the center of my chest was covered with blisters, and then they spread... to my face, neck, all over my scalp, and a few in my mouth and then my throat. I also had some pop up on my back and other parts of my trunk. I do have some itching but it is not awful. The fatigue is a lot... almost similar to mono-like fatigue. I believe I am currently at day 4, fingers crossed it gets better soon!
    Again, thank you for sharing your story. It gives hope, that this feeling will end... at some point.

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  10. I’m 36 and I just had HFM last month for the first time. I have two teenagers that didn’t have it and must have contracted it from a store somehow. Mine started with feeling tired and no appetite and a fever then blisters on bottom of my feet and some popped up on my hands. Then the mouth sores started. The entire inside of my mouth was covered with blisters. Inner cheeks gums and my entire tongue. I literally felt like I had shards of glass in my mouth. I was using Glyoxide to keep mouth clean which burned like hell. Then somehow I got thrush on top of HFM. The pain was so bad I was crying all the time and I went to the doctor and dr prescribed pain meds and some nystatin for the thrush. The nystatin was so difficult to swish with because it burned the mouth sores. Very traumatic experience to say the least. It lasted the 7 days and I’ve read it can stay in your body for months after you heal and now I feel like I’m getting sores in my mouth again a month later. Jesus take the wheel!!!

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  11. Thank you for sharing your experience. I just went thru the almost same experience. The bumps on my hands and feet never surfaced but were very painful. I experienced the same nose yellow crusty… and it was hard to walk the or reddish patches on my heel hurt so bad like walking in rocks.. and I’m at the stage now where I can walk but my fingertips feel like they were dipped in paraffin, they felt kinda tingly for two days and now the paraffin wax feeling. Hoping this is over soon… when do you think it’s not contagious? If you have no bumps that can scab?
    Thanks again

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