Thursday, July 8, 2010

Hand-Foot and Mouth Disease

Looks like our sweet Sam has HFM... he had a slight fever severals days prior to this:


The flat rash is on the tops of his feet and is spreading up his legs.  It's also on some parts of his arms.  He has a few blisters in his mouth, his throat is a little sore. 

If you are not familiar with HFM, do not dispair, it's a simple disease. 
Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common childhood illness that is caused by a viral infection (most commonly the Coxsackie A16 virus). It typically affects children under the age of 10 years, but older children and adults can also be affected.

"Symptoms generally start to appear 3-7 days after becoming infected with the virus, beginning with a mild fever, tiredness, reduced appetite, and sore throat. The characteristic features — mouth sores and skin rash — usually develop one or 2 days after the onset of fever.

The rash appears as flat or raised red spots, which may form blisters. The rash is not itchy, and usually affects the palms of the hands and soles of the feet."
http://www.mydr.com.au/kids-teens-health/hand-foot-and-mouth-disease

HFMD is usually a mild disease, and children generally recover within 7-10 days.  There is no specific treatment for HFMD, and because the disease is caused by a virus, antibiotics are not effective. (Antibiotics can only be used to treat bacterial infections.) However, a simple pain reliever such as paracetamol is often all that is required to treat the symptoms.

So prayers that Sam will heal quickly and that it will not spread are much appreciated!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow...

Where have I been?  I just realized I haven't blogged in a long time... time for an update!

We spent the weekend working on the barn.  The months previous we (we = the boys) had cleaned out the barn... of thirty plus years of someone (many someones) junk!  The barn has two sides, the left side had a dirt floor and the right side had a wooden floor.  The wood was rotten and termite damaged so we removed it.  Mr. Lonnie came Saturday and Monday and he and Tony and the boys (and Matt when he got off work) rebuilt the one floor and built a floor on the dirt side and repaired the roof.  Yeah! 

There's still a little more to be done but hopefully it won't take long.  Then we can move all of our stuff from the 20x24 storage building and begin renovations on that!  We are going to convert that into a little bedroom/living room/kitchenette for our oldest little birdies. 

What else has been going on... let me think... June 2 was Luke's birthday, he's 12 now!  We celebrated his birthday on May 31.  Tony took him out for the traditional 'Birthday Breakfast with Daddy'.  Luke wanted to wait until Matt got home to have his party so we had a supper birthday party.  Luke wanted Legos and a fishing pole, and he got a few other small things.

June 2 we left for Virginia and we were gone until June 8.  We took Jennifer up for her best friend's wedding.  Susanna's (the bride) grandparents go to church with us and we took them up also.  It was a really fun trip!

Next we had Father's Day.  Jennifer made a special breakfast for her hubby and her 'dad' :)  It was much enjoyed! 

Then Jennifer's 20th birthday on the 21st... we had supper and a little party for her.  She wanted a strawberry cake so I modified my favorite white cake -- it was pretty good.  When I perfect it I will share the recipe.  Matt surprised her with a laptop :)  We got her a waterproof camera for the beach.  She's such a shutterbug but doesn't want to take her good cameras to the beach ;)

Tony's birthday is July 1.  We had a supper party for him too :)  He also wanted strawberry cake so I made the modified one again with another change.  I like the first one better.  And this time I made a Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing which was preferred by all to the Strawberry Buttercream I made for Jennifer's cake. 

July 21 is Molly's birthday... guess what kind of cake she wants?  LOL