Hand,

Foot, and Mouth Disease. Look it up. It sucks. Especially when you have three children that come down with it all at once. UGH

Rewind back to last week. Monday night Jenna is eating her supper and starts bawling like a scalded cat. (Mind you I have never seen or heard a scalded cat, but you get the point) She came running saying she had an owie. So I had her show me. She pulled out her lower lip and there was what I thought was a canker sore. No big deal, I thought, it will go away in a couple of days, and until then, just bland foods for Jenna. Then came Tuesday night when Zack started whining that his throat hurt. We had just spent the afternoon at the lake so I figured he was just overly tired and would see what happened the following day. Wednesday he was pretty lethargic and by Wednesday night he was shivering and shaking so bad (but not running a fever) that it took me over three hours to get him to stop. It was really sad. Thursday morning, Addison woke up saying her throat hurt now. THAT'S IT!! WE ARE GOING TO THE DOCTOR!!! Went in and had throat cultures run (via the suggestion of an intern), and when the doctor came in, she took one look and said no, it was HFMD. What's that?!?! Well, it's these awful ulcerations (that look a lot like puss pockets associated with strep) all over the mouth and throat. It CAN spread to the hands and feet. THANK GOD that it never went past the mouth and throat with my three. It has been a long week, but all is now well and luckily none of my daycare kids got it! The best part about this sickness is that, much like chicken pox, once you get it you won't get it again. So, I won't ever have to do this again! THANK GOODNESS!!!

Also, I talked to Grandma today. It's just odd. She is really at peace. I can't even explain it. She is past all the meds and doctors and just enjoying life. And I mean REALLY enjoying life. The way we all should. She is noticing things like birds singing in the morning and breezes touching her face. She does have to go to a neurologist tomorrow because she fell a couple of days ago and they can't quite figure out what happened. Her right leg just basically stopped working for a few minutes. It's kinda weird. She and I had a really great talk though. She just flat out said she is done. So, I said.... OK, Grandma, then let's get to living. To which she replied... Yes, let's. So there we have it. I asked her a lot of things that, this is going to sound morbid, I have always wondered when one is faced with Death. Questions like: Are you afraid of dying? What is the worst part of all of this for you? Are you in pain? She is so wonderful. She answered everything. She is not afraid of dying, she just doesn't want to say goodbye. She isn't in pain, she is just tired (which we decided has to be because the chemo is not all out of her system yet). Yet another wonderful conversation and memory to add to the collection of my Grandma Wells. Although one day I will miss her terribly, I am looking forward to helping make more memories while we have her here.