The Mystery Ailment

Sunday night Audrey woke up complaining that her arm hurt. Monday night she woke up complaining that her arm hurt, and then a little while later, her hand. I discovered a bunch of red bumps on her palm that looked like tiny blister under the skin. We went to the doctor on Tuesday and he was not very concerned about the arm pain and told us the bumps were a virus similar to hand, foot, and mouth disease. He told us we could give her ibuprofen for the pain and as long as she didn't develop a fever, she would not be contagious after a couple days. He said it would spread and probably last a week or two. Tuesday night, whe woke up with arm pain again. Wednesday morning, we saw that the bumps had indeed spread to her arms. Wednesday afternoon after her nap, the bumps had spread up her arm and were no longer blisters under the skin, but raised blisters with liquid in them. She also complained more of arm pain and would not use her right arm. I took her in to the doctor again, but our regular doctor was out, so she saw a different one. This doctor was stumped and concentrated more on the arm pain, but found nothing wrong. She could move it OK and no matter how the doctor twisted it, Audrey didn't seem uncomfortable. She brought in another doctor to look at the bumps and they concluded that it's a virus like chicken pox. They said she would only really be contagious of people came in direct contact with the bumps, so she needs to wear long sleeves. In June. None of the three doctors seemed to be very sure of their diagnoses, and we go back on Friday for a follow-up, right before we're supposed to head for Minnesota for the weekend. It's frustrating to see her in pain and not know what's causing it. She is such a trooper, though. I'm very curious to see how this ends.

In other news, two funny things from Lydia:

I told her that this morning I found Charlie licking my deodorant. Lydia said that was gross and I agreed. Then she said, "Now you have to put it back in your armpit! Disgusting!" Apparently, she is more worried about my delicate armpits.

Tonight Lydia told me, "I think you were cuckoo when you were a little girl." I confessed to her that I think I'm still a little cuckoo. She looked at me very concerned and said, "Should I tell somebody?"