Coxsackievirus. Not Herpes.

Herpangina. The doctor said, "Wow, he must be pretty stoic about pain." Maybe she said it to make me feel better about the fact that I hadn't noticed the blisters at the back of the boy's throat. The ones that bled when she took a culture.

I mean, if you had painful, bleeding blisters in your throat, when you ate, wouldn't you give some indication of pain greater than some mild fussing? I just thought he was telling me he was full. He ate almost all of his breakfast this morning while we chatted about balls and bananas and made goofy faces at each other. Never once did he say, "Damn, Daddy, my throat hurts like hell." Not once. I almost didn't even take him to the doctor today, since his fever was gone when he woke up (but back again at the doctor's office). I thought, "Guess we might as well go and make sure he doesn't have an ear infection since he keeps shoving his finger in there deeper than one might think was even possible. Besides, I can ask her why this kid poops so much." And surprise! Herpangina!

Ah well, yet another point of stupid, macho pride: the boy can suck it up when it hurts. Yeah!