Hand foot mouth party

A chinese proverb "屋漏偏逢连夜雨" best describes the recent unfortunate events which happened to Ya tou.

Just as i was recovering from the trauma of the past accidents Zhirui got into, another tsunami hits! Ya tou contracted hfmd..

The viral bug hopped onto her from little cousin when we gathered at Grandpa's house last Weds. Little cousin wasn't aware that he's had the illness too until that the next day.

For Ya tou, symptoms manifested on last Sun night starting with a low fever and then Mon when nanny noticed spots on her hand, foot and buttocks.

We brought her to see nanny-recommended doctor Dr Ho. He passed the verdict. Apparently there's no medicine cure for hfmd. The patient has to build its immunity against it. Dr could only prescribe medications to ease symptoms, eg anti-inflammatory & fever medicines. There's no vaccine and recoverers do not neccessary get immuned from hfmd in later life. Thats becoz the family of virus (Picornaviridae) causing hfmd is HUGE, with members running in hundreds. You may get immuned from one member but can still be sabotaged by the rest. So forget about vaccines!

Dr Ho issued us a 'warning' before we left, "Please please.. do not organise any hfmd parties, or any H1N1 parties. H1N1 cases are expected to peak in these 1-2 weeks." (I was quietly amused by his choice of words)

Today's the fifth day and Zhirui is on the road to recovery. Her symptoms are mild with only 2-3 oral ulcers. I might attribute that to breastfeeding, from which she's got an extra boosts from my antibodies. She's now able to drink from bottle meaning her oral ulcers are healing. Same good news for the lesions on her leg and foot.

Well done girl! We can look forward to our party on National Day soon! :)