Hand Foot and Mouth

The foot part.

I swear, every time I think I've got a handle on this whole fathering thing, something new comes up and lets me know that I'll never know everything. Drives me nuts.
Earlier in the week my two little kids had high fevers. I got a call from the preschool 45 minutes after I dropped my son off saying that he was laying in a heap on the floor weeping. Damn. He was mostly fine when I dropped him off, a little grumpy, but he's four, he's grumpy sometimes. By the time I got there he was clearly sick and by the time we got home his temperature was 102.5. That's just some bad parenting right there. Then my kindergartener fell asleep in the truck on the eight minute drive home from school and had a temperature of 103.5.
The fevers broke with medicine and everyone slept well. The next morning they were fine. Cool. One day fevers with no other symptoms. We've had those before. Nothing to worry about. That day went find and I thought the case was closed. The next day was preschool again. I got right to the end of that before another call, rash on his forearms. Now, I know that wasn't there in the morning, but still, having to get called twice in the same week because your kid is symptomatic? That's not good. Of course you can guess that my daughter had the same rash when I picked her up at the end of the day too.
Off to the internet. High fever, breaks, then rash on the forearms. The first thing that comes up is Hand Foot and Mouth disease. It says that the rash will be on the feet too and maybe in the mouth depending. Pull off the socks and yup, rash. Nothing in the mouth, but this is almost certainly it. After a few days a bit of the rash has turned into the mild sores just as predicted. They're uncomfortable, but we're all dealing with them. It's viral so there's no treatment, just sit and wait it out. The good news (I guess) is that by the time you can figure out what the kids have, they're probably not contagious any more. Probably. Still not feeling like a particularly good father with all of this. Sending my kids to school sick at least twice and helping to spread a virus to at lest two different schools. There's some shameful head hanging going on around my house.
I talked to my mom and she just brushed it off saying that we all had in when we were kids and it was no problem. What? How many weird childhood diseases did I have? Considering every time my kids get anything, my mom says that I had it too, a lot I guess. I'm starting to feel like I should start a running list of illnesses that my children have had, and what treatment (or lack of treatment) we've pursued. I'll just make a copy of it and wrap it up to give to my kids as a baby shower gift. Congratulations, this is how your children will get ill. Have fun.