Oral Gingivostomatitis.
This started for us over a week ago. It has been a really hard, long week. Cooper started with a fever. He had the fever for a couple of days and it wasn't breaking so we went to see our family doctor. We were told it was a virus.
Fever persisted, acne like spots came out. Cooper was miserable. Completely miserable. Wouldn't eat much, wouldn't drink much. Back to the doctor, virus...of course.
Acne like spots began to change to mosquito bite looking spots, Coop was extremely uncomfortable. He cried all the time (not like him), he wouldn't let me more than a foot away from him (not like him), wouldn't let anyone else near him (not like him). Back to the doctor, this time we were told it was chicken pox. There is nothing we can do for him but ride it out.
Screaming, crying, needy, not eating or drinking. Spots seem to worsen.
Then Saturday came, Jason is at the cottage for the morning, Riley's dance recital is in the afternoon, we have a house showing at 2:00. Cooper wakes up from his nap with a pool of blood around his head. The blood is coming form his mouth. I FREAK OUT!!! Jason gets home and takes him to the hospital. I get Riley ready for her recital, Simon ready to go and clean the house. I am still in my P.J's vacuuming at 1:50. I quickly get ready, run out the door, jump in the car and drive out of my driveway. Not even a minute later the people are in our driveway to see our house.
Riley gets to the theatre on time. Simon is happy it's raining and the worms are out. Cooper has been diagnosed with Oral Gingivostomatitis. To put it simply he has cold sore like ulcers on his face and all over his mucus membranes. His throat is covered in them, that's what was bleeding. It is extremely painful. He is on advil and codeine every four hours....most of the time this is not enough. We are in for about another week of this. He is eating popsicles, ice cream and yogurt. Little of anything else. HE IS MISERABLE!!!!! IT IS EXTREMELY CONTAGIOUS.
Now the guilt, the utter and complete guilt. The sleepless nights guilt. The cry multiple times a day guilt. He got it from me. ME. I had a cold sore a couple of weeks back. He got it from ME. To add to this guilt. He suffered, badly, for a week as we listened to our family doctor. He suffered, we didn't do anything for him. We didn't know.
I am sorry. So very sorry.
2 comments:
Amanda,
I just came to your blog after reading your facebook post. This is heartbreaking. I've never dealt with cold sores that bad but Morgan had a virus with small painful sores in her mouth earlier this spring, and she's actually home from school today with a fever and small sores in her mouth again. If you have a naturopath, I would highly recommend taking him to one. Docors really can't treat them, but viruses are very treatable with natural remedies like elderberry tincture and I use a mouth wash made from red raspberry leaf tea 3x a day (steep 2 tblsp in 1 cup boiling water until cool, keeps 3 days in fridge). Helps the sores heal quickly. you could squirt a little in his mouth and tell him to spit, but it's safe to swallow if he does so by accident. Children's echinacea and and garlic, (try raw garlic minced in butter, put on sft bread) are powerful at fighting viralinfections.
I know how you feel, you shouldn't blame your self. Like you said cold sores are very contagious, it's a virus, obviously you could not have known this would happen. He will get better, and if you're like me you will feel better if there's something you can do to fight this infection. Hope this helps, xo
Oh Amanda - I am so sorry to hear and see this. Poor Coop looks miserable. But honestly, what can you do? (As if you could ever resist kissing that adorable little boy!)
Hang in there. We'll be thinking of you.
Paula
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