Hand Foot and Mouth Disease in Adults (HFMD): My Experience

I’m not a doctor. This is not medical advice. This is just my lived experience. 

TRIGGER WARNING: This post is going to be gross, filled with symptoms and pictures, not sugarcoated. I’m putting it out there for others who could use this story.

Most of what I read online said that it would be mild in adults. Well, it wasn’t for me. It was awful. The most sick I’ve ever been. At one point, I thought I was going to be hospitalized. 

So, my son started at a new daycare. He must have picked up the disease there. He’s fine. He got through the worst of it in a few days, the rest within a week. But, I got it from him.

Click the jump to see the day to day and pictures...

Day 1 (Saturday): I had a headache. Tylenol solved it.

Day 2: I was hit like a freight train. I was completely out. I slept the entire day and night. I only got up to use the bathroom. My throat hurt. My head hurt. I was dizzy with a fever that peaked at 103. I honestly thought I had COVID, so I stayed away from everyone, even my son. It was not COVID. I had HFMD. 

Day 3: I felt a bit better, maybe at 60% of normal. I was hopeful that the worst was behind me. It wasn’t. Throat hurt, hurt to eat. Tired. 

Day 4: I had spots growing on my hands and feet, and they were beginning to hurt. It hurt for me to eat or drink, too. I had diarrhea. Yeah, I called off work. I knew it was getting worse. I tried soaking my hands and feet in oatmeal water. Not sure it helped. I was mostly OK mentally, just tired. The fever was gone for good.

Day 5 (Wednesday): The spots on my hands and feet felt like fire burning me. My hands and feet looked like I had stuck them in open flames. I could barely walk, eat, or use my hands. This day was pure suffering. I had woken up in the middle of the night last night and taken out two cold Gatorades and attached them to my hands with socks to try and dull the pain. After that, I kept frozen wet rags in the freezer, rotating them out to keep my hands cold. I had my mom drive me to urgent care. I wore gloves. The nurse said it was the worst case she’d ever seen. The nurse also said her daughter was recovering from it. The doctor put me off work for the rest of the week, said the only thing to do was take Tylenol and ibuprofen. She gave me a regimen that was higher dose than I had been taking. I think the ibuprofen worked better because it lessened the pain in my hands and feet. Doc also recommended Zyrtec. She said I had welts on my throat and ears as well. The nurse recommended witch hazel and calamine lotion. I tried it all. Nothing killed the pain, but I guess it distracted me to keep rubbing witch hazel on me. I did not sleep this night. 

Day 6: Mostly the same as the day before, but starting out with the new regimen of Tylenol and ibuprofen helped. The witch hazel, buckets for hands and feet to soak in cold water, and calamine lotion distracted me a bit, maybe gave moments of relief between the torture. My hands felt like fire, and when they didn’t, they itched. I got three hours of sleep. I think the best decision I made this day was to eat some Gerber Rice Baby Cereal (my son’s). It was the only thing to not hurt to eat. Everything else hurt to eat (even ice cream).  

Day 7: Mostly the same as 6. My hands and feet were fire and pain. Looked even worse. My face was blistered up, too. However, I found small relief in that my throat was feeling better. Near the end of the day I perhaps was just so exhausted that I actually was able to sleep most of the night. 

Day 8 (Saturday): I felt a bit better having had some sleep. My hands and feet were not burning anymore, but they still itched and hurt. Everything hurt them. Standing on carpet in comfy shoes hurt. Flicking the light switch hurt. I tried to just stay off. I was able to eat and sleep normally, though, so that was better. Oh yeah and all the skin on my nose peeled off. All of it. My nose was bright red and all new skin. I looked like Rudolph. 

all the skin on my nose peeled off

Day 9: Same as 8. Nose looked less red, thankfully. My hands and feet began to crackle and flake.

Day 10: I was still having trouble walking and using my hands. I wore gloves and triple layers of socks. It was a painful day. My hands and feet were beginning to majorly peel. Like, all the skin. All of it, peeling off. I looked like a zombie. 

Day 11: The peeling was wretched looking. Just a pure zombie. Still hard to walk. Felt like having a dagger stabbing into each foot. 

Day 12 (Wednesday): I am a big guy, very rough and tumble. I have always had thick skin padding on my feet. Until this day. All the skin, all the padding, was falling off completely. All my heel skin. Weird. Same with my hands. All the skin that remained was like newborn baby skin. Thin, sensitive. Painful to touch things with. 

Day 13: More peeling. The itchiness ramped up majorly. It feels like having athlete’s foot on your hands and feet everywhere. Incredibly itchy and annoying. Makes it hard to sleep. I tried anti-itch over the counter stuff, but nothing worked. My shoe situation got better a bit… I had two sets of insoles in each shoe, then three pairs of socks per foot… then I stuffed my shoes with plastic bags. Helped. Also, I covered my hands and feet with Neosporin before gloving them up. Helped to keep them from getting infected where all the peeling made me bloody. 

Day 14: Hard day. I was exhausted. Stuffing my shoes helped. The plastic bags helped to put pressure everywhere on my feet. I got home and, with the weekend here, I tried to pull as much of the dead skin off my feet as possible. My feet were raw and thin. More Neosporin. More blood where the peeling falls off. 

Day 15 (Saturday): Stayed off my feet mostly. Watched a bunch of Impractical Jokers. The itchiness was bad, though. My hands and feet have been incredibly itchy. 

almost all skin peeled off here, leaving me with skin that felt like newborn baby skin, paper thin

Day 16 (Today as I type): More of the same. Very itchy, red hands and feet. Wearing winter gloves has helped. Calamine lotion might be helpful, but not completely. I noticed that I lost about 7 pounds since the start, probably from not eating much. Mostly distraction helps. More Impractical Jokers. Playing video games. Truthfully, the thing that has helped the most has been having a wonderful wife to care for me. She got my coffee and oatmeal in the mornings. She did my laundry and vacuumed my computer area, kept me off my feet. Not to mention she’s been doing nearly all the childcare. She’s been wonderful. 

NEW UPDATES: Day 17-20: My hands and feet have mostly regrown with new skin. I noticed that I no longer have fingerprints, just smooth newborn baby skin. I've been clipping off the excess skin, and it's mostly gone. Sadly, where the skin comes off there's often blood. Every other day it hurts to walk. Some days are near perfect, some days, pain is back. I hope that means I'm healing. I still wear gloves on my hands and 3 pairs of socks every day (stuffing my shoes with plastic bags). My sense of hot and cold on my hands is extreme. Holding a cup of coffee hurts. Also, trying to open caps and zip zippers hurts my baby skin hands. Standing on carpet or the bath mat in the shower hurts my feet. Still extremely itchy. I think it's getting better overall, but it still takes a toll.