Here's my story of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease:
On a Saturday morning (August 18), my four-year-old daughter woke up complaining of a sore throat, but she ate breakfast and was excited for our morning activity of the day. We went for our morning activity, after which she had no interest in a snack and was cranky. I gave her a bath and she said the bubbles and water hurt her skin. We parked in front of the television for much of the day after discovering she had a fever. On Sunday, the fever was gone, she seemed fine. On Monday I noticed a rash on the back of her legs and a few bumps on her arms. I called and made a doctor's appointment for the next day. The office checked for strep, which came back negative, but the NP diagnosed as Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. My daughter was feeling pretty good, but as Tuesday progressed, I noticed soreness in my throat. And so it begins....
On Wednesday, I started noticing closed lesions on my hands and a few on my feet. By Wednesday night, I had weeping sores on my face and even in my nose. My scalp became incredibly itchy. When scratched, yellowish-orange crust came off (like the weeping from the sores on my face and in my nose).
On Thursday, the sores on my hands became increasingly painful, whenever holding anything, using warm water, whatever, it hurt. I noticed a few more blisters on my feet, but not too bad.
On Friday, my face is more crusty. I ran an easy five miles in the morning. Upon completion, I noticed a blister-like sensation in my feet. My toes are covered in blisters, some small, some large. There are more blisters around my feet. My hands are swollen and painful with lesions increasing, some tiny, some large. My scalp intermittently itches; I have to work hard to resist the urge.
On Saturday I got some much needed rest. My husband and daughter left me in quarantine and I sat around and read a book. Everything remains status quo, with a nasty crusty nose and face. My hands continue to hurt at the tips as the "sores" seem to multiply and some come together to be one large spot. My feet are better than Friday, but still painful. I applied a product called Calmoseptine to the sores on my face. This product immediately soothed my face.
On Sunday, the Calmoseptine seems to have helped my facial sores. I was able to run four miles this morning with some foot discomfort. With another day of restfulness (again, family left me in "quarantine"), things seem to improve. My hands hurt less.
On Monday, my hands stopped hurting completely, but the tips of my fingers that had blisters are essentially "numb" and the skin is extremely tough. I was able to run seven miles with some mild foot discomfort. My scalp no longer itches and I don't have the big scabs on my scalp that I once had. I felt comfortable going out in public with confidence that I looked merely like someone with chin acne rather than looking like a leper or meth head.
On Tuesday (August 28), I feel largely "healed." The blisters on my fingers (palm-side) are now tough and fading. The blisters on the backs of my hands are now brownish, still visible, but don't hurt. Certain spots on my feet remain tender, but I'm up and running again at decent distances.
It should be said that at the height of this nastiness, I probably had 30+ blisters on my right hand, 12 on my left hand, and 30+ on each of my feet. The largest blister was on my right thumb at the tip (it started as multiple blisters that grew together to one big blister).
On Sunday (September 2), all of the blisters on my hands and feet have now "toughened up" and the skin is either making a callous (on my feet) or peeling off (on my hands). The largest blister on my right thumbs peeled off with multiple skin layers revealing raw red skin that looked and felt like it wasn't quite ready for primetime (but with each passing day it becomes less sensitive). Last week I was worried about how gross my face looked, now I try to hide my hands because they're peeling away. Despite looking gross, I'm just happy to be without pain in the hands or feet.
On Wednesday (September 5), most of the peeling on my hands is complete. Nearly all of the blisters on my feet are callouses.
So that's the timeline. The typical data on HFMD indicates it will last seven to ten days.
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Here's a post from the blog whatsupfagans.blogspot.com. They experienced the "adult" HFMD.
The REAL Verdict is in - Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease
As I also became a victim of the viral strain passing through my house, I had to seriously question what it was that we had. How could Josh and I both be getting the chicken pox, our previous verdict, again for a second time in our lives? And how could our girls have it despite getting the vaccine 6 months ago. It just wasn't adding up.
As I started getting spots on my face, arm, and then fingers, palms, and foot, I decided to call our doctor and see if I could also get some of the meds my husband got when he went to the doctor on Tuesday. The nurse called me back and said No, because the doctor wasn't sure if what he had really was the chicken pox. She mentioned scabies on the phone. When I got off the phone I looked them up (way gross), but totally didn't describe what we were experiencing. After that I looked up measles, bed bugs, and chicken pox again, I then looked up hand, foot, and mouth disease.
Hand food and mouth disease is very common in children, and how they described it, fit well with our children's initial breakout - slight fever, started on the bum with small red bumps that turned into fluid-filled blisters, spread to around the mouth, the legs, feet, and hands. They did not itch. My girls did not like eating oranges one day and cried out in pain like their mouth was sensitive or had sores.
Hand-foot-and-Mouth Disease 
Hand-foot-and-Mouth Disease 
Hand-foot-and-mouth disease
With Josh and I we both had fevers and body aches and a sore throat. When the fever broke (or continues to come and go in Josh's case), the sore throat remained. A day after the fever broke, my palms, an area on my right arm, and around my mouth started to get red sores. They don't actually itch. They hurt and are sore more than itch. I also realized as I was sucking on a popsicle that it felt like I had sore under my tongue. That feeling has increased and I have many sores under my tongue and the back of my throat. It is hard to eat much.
Hand-foot-and-mouth disease. Notice the sores on her nostrils.
Sore on my tongue from Hand-foot-and-mouth disease
It all sounds like Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.
Sores on the roof of my mouth from hand-foot-and-mouth disease
Why Josh and I would contract a different childhood illness is again the mystery. It is very rare for adults to get it, and if they do, generally milder, but not in our case. It must be a more viscous strain.
The only thing that doesn't quite line up is severity to which Josh has gotten it. His entire head is covered with sores, including his scalp, nostrils, and ears. He also continues to get feverish from time to time. Needless to say I have been extremely worried about him. We are both going to the doctor today to officially confirm what we have.
Sores all over his head from hand-foot-and-mouth 
Several days into hand-foot-and-mouth 
Sores from hand-foot-and-mouth
HFMD is usually caught by direct contact with someone who has it - by sneezes, coughs, saliva, or stool. It is in the incubation stage for only 3-6 days. This means Alison, who showed symptoms first, probably caught it from another child in Nursery at church, since she didn't start showing symptoms until about Thursday last week. I however know of no one at church who's kid has had it recently, so who knows? The disease is most contagious during the first week of illness, but can remain in your respiratory and intestinal tracts for weeks or even months, thereby still possible to transmit. That sucks! It can mostly be prevented with good hand washing and is most common in the summer and fall months. I think we could've gotten it from our girls since we share kisses and drinks pretty often.
sores from hand-foot-and-mouth
Sores from hand-foot-and-mouth 
Sore fingertips from hand-foot-and mouth
There is no cure and no specific medicine to take. Tylenol or Ibprofen are recommended for the overall pain and fever. Gargling salt water, drinking milk, and avoiding soda and juices are recommended for the mouth sores. It is also important to stay hydrated. Aloe is recommended for the body sores. I've been keeping up on the aloe 3 times a day and I think it is really helping. We've been sucking on Popsicles and eating ice cream for the last few days.
sores on back of hand from hand-foot-and-mouth
We'll continue to take it easy, even if it does prove, again, not to be what we believe it to be. Wish us luck and good health. And God bless all of you for being such great friends and family - for your prayers and thoughts and help.As a footnote provided when I asked for permission to post, Mrs. Fagan writes:"I would like to add that after we posted, we all experienced flaky skin as the "blisters" died off. In fact, my husband was able to pull off large chunks of dead skin from the bottom of his feet, revealing very red and tender skin underneath. Super gross. Our fingernails, and toenails of our daughters, also had a weak part that flaked off and was very strange as well. It took a long time for the nails to grow out. It took us a while for the skin on our hands and feet to not be flaking off either. My husband experienced fevers just about every day for a week during the worst part of it. I only had a fever a day or two before the sores appeared."1View comments
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I am creating this blog in hopes that people will visit and share their stories and timelines of illness with the Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease virus. I have personally contracted the virus and looked for anecdotal evidence and timelines of the disease in adults. There are few compressed resources as most citations of the illness frequently indicate the prevalence in infants and toddlers, while noting the rarity and decreased severity in adults. I'm going to post my timeline. I encourage people to send me their timelines so that I can post them to this blog and maintain the anonymity of those individuals as well. Please send along your story.2
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