three words

hand.
foot.
mouth.

as my friend sarah said today, “you know we have to stop blaming everything on teeth.”

hazel has been feverish for a few days (in fact her fever started about the same time my parents plane took off for china.) and i’d put it down to getting more teeth. but yesterday i noticed that she had little sores on her tongue. uh oh. THAT explains the fever, drooling, crying and inconsolable nights.

a visit to our pediatrician today confirmed the diagnosis of herpangina or coxsackie virus, also known by those three lovely words:
hand.
foot.
mouth.

what it means is a very sore throat, decreased appetite due to the sore throat and extreme fussiness. now that i have been doing the tylenol and ibu piggyback, its not so bad but its been a rough few days. i’ll send up a flare for help if ruby gets it! either that or i’ll be looking for the first boat outta here.

with her surgery just around the corner it seems, i want hazel to be especially health and robust going into it. hopefully this will run its course quickly. and like all the parents before me, i’ll have my whine and cheese fest tonight, but i’ll survive.
***********
as i tap away here linda and mike (my parents) should be getting ready to do their first day of touring on their two and a half week trip to china. so tonight the girls and i got out the large national geographic photo book of china and looked at pictures of tianamen square, the forbidden city and the summer palace. tomorrow will be the badaling section of the great wall and the ming tombs with i think either peking duck or the bejing opera in the evening.

this should sound very familiar to those of you who have adopted. the bejing tour seems to be the same for all americans who visit china. few places in the world can rival china for its “uniform” approach to tourism.

they ‘ll be traveling to several cities and plan to see the three gorges dam by boat, the stone warriors at xi’an and shanghai. my mom had been itching to go to china since ruby came home, and for mike it is a return as he was there at the end of the second world war.

i’m sure that i will return with the girls many times in the future. i really want to show them the rich heritage that they come from. there are many fascinating places in china to see. every time i look at fydors china or lets go china, i find another place i want to go. on my short list are lhasa, lijiang, emeshan and mongolia. i’m sure all i’d have to do is look at a map tonight and i could add lots more.

i was talking the other day with a friend about how its important to have a carrot out there to look forward to as you swim through the days that are your life. i love looking forward to my next vacation or break , though come to think of it right now i am just focusing on getting through october. tonight it’s good to have memories of places been and thoughts of future travel to carry me through my reality of kid illness. too bad i’m not a drinker , that might help too! you’ll certainly have my sympathy if you ever hear those three words yourself.