But, alas, such was not to be the case.
The Thursday before I got out, Max was sent home from school with a fever. Joe picked him up and took him for a drive to calm him down a bit. They went over the Golden Gate Bridge, which Max loves, and the poor kid promptly threw up all over himself. I know this because I got to hear the story from Max every time we caught a glimpse of the "red bridge" over the next few days. And then he was fine on Friday and we figured it was a quick bug.
Saturday was the pre-school's end-of-the-year picnic and we all went, and were met by Tom and Carla, too, and played with all our friends all day. That night, Daniel complained of being thirsty and when I checked him, I noted he had a fever. By Sunday, his fever was gone, but mid-day Caroline came down with one, meaning she would not attend school on Monday, as the instructions from school are that we should keep kids out if they have not been fever-free for 24 hours.
So Max and Daniel went off to school on Monday and Caroline stayed home. She watched Princess movies and snuggled with Daddy on the couch while I took the boys to school and went to a doctor's appointment, and then she played tea party with me when I got home. I had an appointment for a manicure and pedicure, so I brought Caroline along with me to that. Uncle walked over to join us and play with her and then to help her when she picked out a shiny pink lacquer for her own toes.
The next day, having been fever-free all Monday, Caroline returned to school, for which I was grateful because I had to be in Redwood City for interviews. All day, though, I kept expecting the phone to ring saying that she needed to go home. We made it through the day and at 3pm, Grandma, Joe and I descended upon the school for the kids' end-of-the-year dance recital (Caroline's third, the boys' first).
When Caroline came in in her little sleeveless dress, I noticed a rash all the way down the back of her left shoulder. After the recital, Miss Renee came to us to share that Caroline had been complaining that her throat hurt and that she had cried during lunch when she tried to eat.
Yup - fever, rash, sore throat - it was the dreaded Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. I had only fleeting familiarity with it - a colleague whose daughter had been infected while I was pregnant who sent me an email telling me to keep clear (it is very dangerous for pregnant women) and a friend whose family had been afflicted a couple of years ago. After a call to the advice nurse and a quick bit of online research, I was put at ease. It's a one-time ailment, like chicken pox, and it seemed like we were already at and nearly past the worst of it.
Everyone stayed home on Wednesday, though the boys weren't really sick. Caroline bounced back and forth between seeming fine and screaming with tears pouring down her cheeks. But by the end of the day she was medicine-free and seemed fine. And since she hadn't had a fever (and since they would've already exposed anyone at school in the previous week), everyone went back to school on Thursday and Friday.
I stayed home from the Giants game on Thursday in case a call came that anyone was sick, but it didn't, and she was free of any complaints when I picked her up that afternoon. And so the school year came to an end and the summer has begun.
Check in with me in a couple of months and see how I'm doing...
No comments:
Post a Comment