HFMD a little journey through HELL

Hi,

My daughter contracted this crap about 10 days ago. She went through all the classic phases and is now pretty much over it. She never really had much trouble other than malaise and mild fever. No itchiness or pain. She still has some of the red spots but most of her skin is peeling and replacing these. She's pretty resilient and as far as I know this was the first time she'd ever been sick in 3.8 years.

I started noticing muscle aches about 5 days ago and that quickly turned into full body aches and fever. I couldn't sleep that night and was beginning to think I had the flu so I visited a walk in clinic and was tested for Flu, Strep, Pneumonia and this of course was negative. They simply left it most likely a virus. Of course that evening I started developing the blisters on my hands and they quickly became itchy. Over the next 3 days my hands and feet were covered with these pustules. They were itchy to the point of madness. I couldn't sleep, relax, watch tv or even think for this. I truly went to the edge...

Now for pretty much most of my life I've suffered from Dishidrotic Excema. For those familiar it can be equally maddening. My hands would develop similar looking pustules just beneath the skin with itchiness always present. Occasionally this would happen on my feet. I learned years ago about bleach baths and that had always been my go to defense for this. After a few soaks of just my hands or feet in tubs of strong bleach water the excema would always halt and then retreat.

This HFMD presented in much the same way and I figured I'd fight it just like the excema. It took a bit longer to halt than the excema but I feel like the bleach bath was effective. The itchiness is all but gone. The spots are still here and will be until the skin replaces itself but my sanity reserves are replenishing. I can actually sleep and do most everything normally.

During this I also used Calamine which provided absolutely no relief. I used Nyquil with 10% alcohol, may or may not have helped.. not sure. I used benedryl capsules, I think helped with itchiness. I used ibuprofen for pain. Nothing I believe helped more than the bleach baths. The way I mixed it was probably something like 8 parts water, 2 parts bleach. I always mixed it to where the solution felt very slippery when I rubbed my fingers together in the solution. Now this is strong. It left my skin smelling like bleach even after washing and did produce minor chemical burning on the more sensitive skin areas of my hands and feet but for me was definitely well worth it.

I just wanted to post what had worked for me as I know what a nightmare this is. Good luck to all.

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