Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

This is totally unrelated to my fertility journey but an experienced that I have along the way which I find that majority of us did not know about. From the previous post, I have mentioned that I had the Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) when I went to the hospital to remove my stitches.

To begin with, I had fever, cold and a really bad sore throats where I can see ulcers surrounding my tonsils. That happened around 21st to 22nd August 2018 and I went to my nearest government hospital for treatment. At that point in time, the doctor confirmed my symptoms to be viral infections. So, I took the medication to treat the infections and by 23rd August, my throat was not hurting anymore. On the very same day when I woke up, I noticed red spots similar to eczema from my neck till my décolleté. It was itchy and bumpy which I thought was my eczema reactions as I do have eczema. So, I had antihistamine and put on my medicated ointment that I used for my eczema before I head to the hospital. 

As I arrived in the hospital, I just felt that my lips and face started to have the tingling sensation and I felt rather itchy all over my body. I thought probably my viral infection was not completely healed and so I just wait patiently for my turn to remove the stitches. When the nurse was cleaning and removing the stitches for me, the nurse asked me whether I am sensitive to something because my whole belly were full of red spots. I knew at that time something was not right because eczema usually do not react in this way. After the consultation, I rush to the toilet and check on my body and I saw how it turns out to be worse than I thought. The red spots spread from my cheeks, neck, chest, body, back and even my hands. I told my husband that I think I need to see a doctor. 

We arrived at the KPJ Hospital in Damansara Kim. A nurse did an initial checks on me and the first thing that he asked me was to show him my hands and my bottom of my foots. I knew at that time what they were trying to conclude as I heard of HFMD breakout recently among kids. However, I was still shocked to see the bottom of my feets had the red spots too! I felt trypophobic and really uncomfortable. The nurse said that based on the initial symptoms, most likely I had HFMD. A question that pops up in my mind at that time where also, I get a lot of questions as well after that, was "I thought HFMD is for children or babies? I am at my 30s and I have HFMD?!"

So, here is the answer for everyone who still have the notion that HFMD is for children only:

Adult can also get HFMD although it is most commonly in children or infants. 

I was too skeptical at that point because I thought it could just be the usual chicken pox which I already have it in my early years or I could have dengue but I do not have any body ache whatsoever. When the doctor finally attend to me after an hour, I took a blood test just to confirm although she seems to have conclude the whole HFMD symptoms by looking at me. The blood test took probably 2 hours or more and I felt tormented. The doctor interpret the results with a vague explanation and she just said that some kind of protein level is abnormal and so that concludes I might have HFMD.

Below shows a brief explanations on HFMD based on my research and if you just need a quick understanding of it:

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HFMD?

• HFMD is a combination of various viruses which I will not have any idea what they are called since I am not a medical person. Just say that the viruses that causes the same skin illness like chicken pox, hives, measles and dermatitis. So, a different combination of the viruses can lead to HFMD.
• While it is common for children and infants, adult can get it too. I find that many people have the misconceptions on who can gets HFMD and I got a lot of questions on this. So, the reason that it is most common in young children and infants was due to the fact that the immune system was not developed completely to fight against such viruses. In my case, I can probably said that I had it because of my low immune system from post-surgery and also due to my long term hypersensitive skin that I had all these time. Also, probably I have contacted with a kid who happened to carry those viruses. 
• HFMD is contagious illness. Hence, I found that there are cases where the babies had HFMD and the mother can get it too. Therefore, not just the kindergarten or day care has to close down for disinfectant but the mother would need to be quarantined or separated from other kids as well. It is really not easy!
• HFMD in adult is worse than children/infants. This is true and my take on this is that adult body has exposed to various contamination, bacteria or virus, and takes longer time to heal with a larger body frames.
• There is no cure to HFMD but only prevention. In that case, there is no medication to treat HFMD. However, you can prevent this by ensuring that you and the kids wash your hands occasionally and just keep everything clean. 

WHAT CAN YOU DO IF YOU HAVE HFMD?

(Disclaimer: I am not a medical practitioner or have any knowledge to any medical conduct. Hence, this is just based on my experience and the method that I used to overcome HFMD. There can be other ways you may come across from other sources and that is fine for you to experiment and see what's work for you. You should consult your doctor whenever possible.)

• Food to avoid : Seafood, soy sauce, sweet sauce, oyster sauce, spices, chicken, eggs, dairies, duck. Basically avoid high in toxicity food as what Chinese believe. 
• Food to take : Vegetables, fish, pork, lamb, rice, anything cold like ice cream that will allow you to swallow easily, avocado, oats. 
• Apply calamine lotion if your rashes are watery similar to a blister. Mine was not watery but itchy, so I stopped using calamine lotion because it is too drying after some time. 
• Avoid exercise or movement that causes perspiration as it will agitate the rashes even more. Short walk around the house will be sufficient.
• Avoid scratching the rashes.
• Wear house slippers to walk easily. I used the hotel slippers which I have gotten during my trips.
• Separate all your cutlery with others as your saliva is contagious.
• Use anti-bacterial wipes as often as possible to ensure good hygiene.
• Quarantined / limit mobility to avoid spreading the viruses to others or expose to other viruses. Let your day care, schools, workplace or housemates aware of your illness to ensure they disinfect the place and create awareness.
• Ensure cool and dry air in the room and wear comfy clothing that will not causes scratch or itchiness to your skin. Try using humidifier. Try not to wrapped your body and ensure there is air circulation for your skin.
• Shower at least twice a day using mild soap or soap for sensitive skin. In my case, I use Pentarsol. 
• Soak your body with Neem leaves. This is a remedy that I was told by my aunt where people bathe with this leaf when they have chicken pox. So, I just tried and it does help to relieve the itchiness. I use a large pail that can fit my body and let the Neem leaves (tear the leaves into pieces) soak in the water. I put a few drops of tea tree oil as well before using it to wipe all over my affected area including my face. It is advise to pound the leaves and just apply the juice, but I find that it is too hassle to do it. 
• Gargle with salt water as often as possible.
• Drink plenty of water to keep hydrated!
• Get a lot of rest and sleep as it helps the itchiness and increase your immune system.
• The only supplement I take was Vitamin C just to boost my antibody.

I did not take any medicine at all throughout the time. Below shows the progress. Note that you might find the image disturbing as it looks like I am an alien. I cried on the next day of my hospital visit because I couldn't recognized myself in the mirror. My face were swollen and my lips were huge. I was terrified. 

This was taken a day after I got HFMD and using the all the method above. Please don't mind the blood stain on my belly button as that is from the stitch removal. :

Some progression on Day 3 as my face was no longer swollen and rashes were almost gone on my face. The rashes started to turn flat and less reddish :

This was Day 5 and the rashes has gone lighter but it's still there. I still religiously use Neem leaves and maintain the diet that I have mentioned above.

After 3 weeks, the rashes were almost gone but the affected areas starts to dry and skins were peeling off my legs and hands like snake skins.

Today which is slightly more than a month from the day I had HFMD, everything seems to be back to normal. No more peeling of the skins. It took so much longer than I thought. I read from the website that usually it will take 7-10 days to fully recovered but in my case, I think it took me 21 days to truly see the rashes subside but not until 1 month that I see the skin's peeling off.

I hope this is informative and could help those who get HFMD. I truly hope that none of us would have to endure this underrated but common disease. But if you do, do not panic and do not worry about it. It will go away slowly but surely. Always remember that prevention is possible : be aware of the surroundings and ensure good hygiene. 

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- K a t e -

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