Quarantined

Brought Umar to the GP last night as wifey thought that he had chicken pox. But he already had it a couple of years back and can't possibly have recurred within such a short period of time! I was sure that it could not possibly be the pox!

To our shock and horror, he was diagnosed as having the hand-foot-mouth disease. This really caught us off-guard as there is no outbreak of HFMD reported in the news unlike last year when Lorna Whiston, the language centre which my kids attended, had to cancel classes because of an HFMD outbreak.

The GP, to my disbelief, only prescribed a container of cream for the rashes, paracetamol for fever (he wasn't having fever) and vitamin (suggesting that he's vitamin-deficient?). Doesn't HFMD requires admission and adiministration of anitibiotics?

Back at home, did some quick research immediately and found out form the Malaysian Ministry of Health website that in almost all cases that medication is not required and it should resolve by itself in 7 to 10 days. This was confirmed by wifey's sister who's a doctor herself! Phew....! Aiyah....I should be trusting the GP, right?

Unless your kids with HFMD show signs of lethargy or shortness of breath or look very ill, it's quite safe to just let them be! We just saw Ib with some rashes on his knee this evening. There were no symptoms at all for Umar except for rashes on his knee and his feet! He is still jumping and clowning about as usual and his appetite does not seem to be negatively affected at all.

Ib and Umar has been home bound since this morning. They are absolutely enjoying their freedom at home!