4th day of hand, mouth and foot virus!

Ethan has caught Hand, Mouth and Foot virus not to be confused with the super scary Hand and Foot disease. But in our family, its absolutely the most horrible thing. I want it to go away right now! The first two days were filled with intermittent screaming in pain and body thrashing. We didn't know what was wrong except he had a mouth ulcer and wouldn't touch food and drink. He couldn't suck his thumb and was drooling constantly soaking his tops within 10 minutes. Then a couple of small blisters appeared on his thumb and forefinger. The nights were worse with him waking every hour screaming and thrashing. No amount of consoling, hugging or singing helped. We ended up taking him to the Morecambe Health Centre at 2am. The doctor was excellent and very careful and said it was only a really raw throat and told us to alternate between ibuprofen and paracetemol, We hadn't noticed the blisters at that point. Yesterday, he was still suffering but perked up after some ibuprofen but we still took him to Bentham Health Centre. Dr Sullivan took one look at the blisters and said it was Hand, Foot and Mouth and it will take up to 7-8 days to clear up. It's been going around preschool children and the Dr. has seen 4 cases in the last week or so. Later on, he started drinking more juice and even managed to eat some crisps and chocolate buttons. We went to see Mama and Papa Zee and Papazee suggested some herbal drops- valerian- Hops and Passiflora. This worked wonders yesterday afternoon and Ethan got a much needed and solid rest. It was a bit shocking how well it worked as shortly after having some juice with the drops, within seconds, he was in a deep sleep. He had a few sips of the juice before bedtime as well and managed to sleep for more than 4hr periods waking and wanting juice but not the thrashing. This morning he woke to thrashing tho and threw his juice bottle across the room . Maybe he knows something is in it but the drops are flavorless. We gave him "normal' juice and just let it sit beside him while he watch Cbeebies. The first hour after waking was pretty tough and miserable and everything we offered to do or give him to eat was "Not today!" Then he just suddenly came out of it, asked for juice.He guzzled about a 1/4 of his juice in seconds the wanted snacks (Cheese puffs) and by the time he finished it, he had drank 3/4 of his juice. Pretty considerable amount of liquid as the bottle is almost 3/4 of a litre. He's also managed to eat a banana bread muffin too.Yay! Thank goodness for small wonders! He's been showing his happy normal self and is now making something with playdoh and talking up a storm. YAY!!!!!!! I also noticed a couple of a blister on a couple of his toes. The blisters on his hand and feet don't seem to bother him which is a blessing. Going to go play with him now. C ya!