Tired

Initially appeared on vox.com on 11/25/2008.

This week Adrian got hit with Hand, Foot & Mouth disease (not to be confused with FMD, which hits swine), and it has not been fun.

The mouth sores are the worst.  I can see white areas on his tongue (sometimes they look suspiciously like thrush, but only when he's had a drink of milk) and they apparently hurt like the devil, because whenever he attempts to eat or drink, he starts crying.  He tries his best to soldier on, slowly drinking from his bottle with tears in his eyes, but it breaks my heart every time because i know he's hungry and thirsty and has no choice but to be a brave little boy and take the pain.

The feedings are not the end of it.  When he tries to sleep, he wakes up every half-hour from the pain.  We now have him on a rotating schedule of Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, and Mylanta (to coat his mouth) and "work" in shifts so that one of us is always awake to rock him back to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night.

I realize that in the Philippines he would probably already be in the hospital right now, hooked up to IV fluids.  He'd also have one or two katulongs plus family on rotation to keep him company.  Unfortunately in this country that would be considered a waste of healthcare dollars; also, there's no one for Gianina and i to depend on but ourselves.  So for now our household consists of one sick boy and two zombie parents.

It's ironic that i can save lives with what i know, but do precious little to ease my son's pain.  Until the virus burns itself out, all we can do is grit our teeth, hunker down, and do our best to keep him comfortable.