So I made this post about getting hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD) from students at work as an elementary teacher. My little one ended up getting blisters all over her body and especially on her hands. She also had many mouth sores, which led to her refusing to eat from the bottle because sucking was painful.
Due to the HFMD, she developed another bacterial infection from the sores, which then turned into a staph infection through her infected lymph node. This resulted in basically being sick and dealing with it throughout December, two ER visits, and a drained lymph node (which she screamed bloody murder for as they cut it open). We’ve been on different liquid antibiotics for a month now, which my little one hates.
Currently, we’re on antibiotics and things are improving, but they found necrotic tissue near the lymph nodes, so if it doesn’t heal with antibiotics, she’ll need surgery to remove it because we want to avoid another infection.
I’m praying it heals with the antibiotics so my 8-month-old doesn’t need surgery.
To everyone who said I lack empathy as a teacher, that I should’ve “expected it” as a teacher and that “it comes with the job,” I truly wish the worst for you because I wouldn’t wish this upon you or any other parent.
I understand that this is a bigger issue, especially in the US, where employers don’t do enough to support parents in terms of leave. However, if keeping your kid home while sick is an inconvenience to your job or your “livelihood,” maybe you should’ve thought about that when you had kids. Having children comes with responsibility and anticipating that challenges will come up. Teachers shouldn’t just have to “deal with it.” We’re parents too, and we will do what we can to keep our kids safe. For us, that meant staying home with HFMD and taking leave. Also, for those who said, “well, teachers have the same time off as your kids, you don’t need to take off,” I actually did take off work to take care of my sick child.
This is more of a rant/update that no one asked for, but I firmly believe in keeping your kids home when sick to prevent situations like this from happening.
Edit: Thank you everyone for your kind words and feedback! I’m not trying to be hostile, just sharing my experience and the real consequences of how a sickness that many parents don’t see as a “big deal” can escalate.