As you may be aware I haven't been posting much this week. Why? Because I came down with Hand Foot and Mouth disease of all things. It's preventing me from posting and only today do I actually feel like I can type without it hurting too bad.
So what is Hand Foot and Mouth? It's normally a childhood disease that is marked by blisters/lesions on the hands, feet and mouth (naturally). It also usually involves a fever. It's almost always non-fatal and it spreads like wildfire. Though it's mostly found in children, adults can do it too.
How did I get it? Bad luck. I wasn't exposed to any children but I was exposed to two of my coworkers, who had both came down with the virus. They are brothers and were exposed to some family members that had the disease.
I felt off last week, starting on Tuesday. Not really sick but just off, with a very slight sore throat. On Thursday I started to get chills, which I wrote off as just the weather changing. But on Friday it was undeniable that something was wrong since I had a fairly high fever (102-103 depending on how accurate the thermometer was).
At this point I was thinking that it was the Coronavirus. Though I am vaccinated I know the virus is still going around and the vaccines are not the panacea that we were promised. I got a covid test and while I was waiting for the results I got the telltale spots on my hands and feet that tipped me off that I did not have covid (which was eventually confirmed by the test results). On Sunday I went to urgent care and it was confirmed that I did have HFM.
This is not the sickest I have ever been, but this was one of the more debilitating diseases I have ever gotten. The blisters are fairly painful and it made doing pretty much anything a chore. It was never so painful that it couldn't be managed with over the counter pain meds but it was bad enough that I didn't want to do anything.
The best way to describe the pain is that on the worst day it felt like I had been burned fairly badly. Short of a throbbing pain that didn't really go away. The only other thing I could think of is that it felt like road rash, but even that didn't seem quite right. It was fairly surreal. It did not help when I was trying to sleep. Even though I was exhausted the quality of sleep I got was terrible. It was a major sign in my recovery when I could sleep through the night only waking up once.
The other major problem was the sore throat. It took a lot of my apatite away and made even drinking difficult. Gargling salt water helped, as did the pain killers, but it did not stop the issue. I have had worse sore throats though, most notably when I had strep throat.
I'm mostly feeling better now, still a bit of minor pain in my hands, feet and throat. The fever has been gone since Saturday and the Nurse Practitioner that I saw said I should be ready to go back to work on Monday. That was optimistic as I was still feeling a bit rough that morning but I will be heading to work for my next shift. Supposedly I am no longer contagious but I am not sure if I believe that.
I look absolutely horrible though (which is why I am not posting any pictures in this post, it's a gross disease). I've got marks all over my feet and hands but also over my chin and lip. I haven't been able to shave in days either as I thought that would make things worse. I kinda feel like a homeless person with the way I look right now...
As far as this blog goes things should be back to normal now. I will be posting about normal stuff instead of myself. I usually don't post personal stories on this blog but in this case I though people deserved to know what was going on.
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