Never seen anything like it...

I've had two boys home sick all week. Whatever it is that we keep getting lasts forever! Mostly just a bad cough and fever for 5 days or so. Crazy. Nick, however, has something totally freaky. He woke up Sunday with a fever and a mouth full of sores. They don't look like cankers, but large white pussy sores all over in his lips and cheeks. By Monday, they were worse and looked bigger. I took him to the doctor and he said he hadn't really seen anything like this. He went and looked something up and brought in another doctor who said it must be some kind of virus that is showing itself this way. They did a strep test to be sure, negative. They sent us home and said give it 5-7 days.

Over the next day or so, his throat was so sore and his eyes were blood red and the fever was still up around 102. Feeling horrible for him, I asked a friend of ours that is a dentist if he had any thoughts. He agreed to see him and gave a similar report but with a twist. He said it looked like an initial herpes virus 1 outbreak. Apparently the majority of people are exposed to this by the time they are three and experience just a mild case of flu like symptoms and then are mostly immune (except the occasional cold sore). The older you are when you are exposed, the worst the symptoms...just like chickenpox, which is in the same family. The eyes, fever, sore throat, sores in his mouth all fit the description. Unfortunately, nothing you can do but wait it out. He is on day 6 and has lost all tolerance. Today those white pussy sores have turned to scabs. His lips are totally swollen and scabbed over. It's heartbreaking to look at him. The scabs would indicate healing, but he's still in so much pain and is emotionally at his limits. I'm sure he's wishing for a hole to swallow him up at this point. Not to mention he's missed an entire week of school and that will be hard to get caught up on. I feel awful for him. I'm sure pictures of his mouth would be ones for the medical books, but I wouldn't want to expose anyone to that, it's NOT pretty.