Cox-what?

When Christine got Austin home Wednesday (she had re-arranged her schedule to be able to take him home after lunch), he went down for his nap. When he awoke, he had a fever of 102 degrees. Coupled with a gagging incident that he had experienced earlier in the afternoon, Christine called Keith to see if she should take him to the doctor. In typical first-time-parent-fashion, Keith said to call the doctor's office and see if they could see him. His mood was fine, but why not spend a $15 copay and just be sure?

Austin's doctor's office was closed, but she works in partnership with a bunch of other "sole practitioners" who cover each other's patients in the evenings. So...Christine got an appointment with one of these other cooperating doctors and took Austin at 6:30 for a quick appointment. The doctor looked and felt in all the usual places and came to the conclusion that Austin simply had a bug that had been going around. He advised her to use Tylenol/Motrin if the fever go too high, but otherwise just let Austin's immune system fight it on its own (unless he became cranky/fussy...at which point we were to make sure he remained comfortable).

Happy that there wasn't anything "major" going on, she came home and put him to bed. When he got up the following morning, he had a little bit of a rash on his feet. Thinking nothing of it (it was probably just part of the body fighting off the bug) Austin just went about his day...and happily too.

Friday morning brought a rash that had moved up into the legs and the rash looked less like raised red spots and took on more of a "white-head, pimply look". Christine had just taken him the doctor on Wednesday...but (after talking to Keith) decided to call Austin's doctor to see if she would like to see him now considering that his symptoms had changed. The doctor said that she would see him.

The minute that she saw his feet, she knew what it was. After examining his mouth/throat, her diagnosis was confirmed...Austin has Coxsackie. No not the town, the virus. No big deal, really....just a virus (that is mildly contagious) that should go away in about 7 days (and we figure that he has already had it for 2-3 days). It sounds like some terrible African drinking water contamination or something, but it is fairly common, and we are told, nothing to be too worried about...so we're not.