Sick & sick

After a week of school, the following week.. Dylan MC already.

Actually it was nothing serious. The following week’s Monday was Deepavali holiday, and he developed a mild fever the evening before. The fever quickly subsided when we gave him PCM. We monitored his situation through Monday, and when his fever did not come back, we sent him to school on Tuesday.

However on Tuesday afternoon, he developed fever after he woke up from his afternoon nap.

Then we found that Bryan also have fever. And that night itself, Dylan vomited.

So both of them MC on Wednesday. I was very very busy last week and could not take time off from work. Luckily hubb was able to take time off and took the boys to their PD on Wednesday morning.

At the PD’s clinic (11am), Dylan no longer had fever though his last dose was at 530am. Bryan on the other hand, started to shiver right in front of the PD. When checked, his temperature was 39++. PD immediately gave him Voltaren Suppository. But PD wasn’t really concerned. He said it was normal to shiver during fever. Shiver is the body’s way to protect the internal organs by drawing and concentrating the heat inside. So his limbs will feel cold, and shiver will help to bring the overall temp higher so that heat can be dispersed to outer limbs.

I later Googled and found that shiver is the side effect of the body’s action to fight & kill infection through increase of body temperature.

PD was instead more concerned with Dylan as he is smaller, and he has had fever for a couple of days.

He told hubb to monitor Dylan’s situation and to watch out for dengue signs. He told hubb not to give the PCM unless there is fever. But he found out that Dylan had throat ulcers and prescribed some antibiotics for him.

But the PD did not find anything wrong with Bryan. So we were just asked to give him PCM if there is fever and just monitor his situation. He also prescribed some Voltaren supp just in case PCM did not work.

We had recently changed to a new PD which is much closer to our home. I kinda liked him as he is very calm, attentive, patient and gave detailed explanations to all our questions, and when I am at the clinic..I do have a lot of questions for him. The first time we consulted him, I think we spent 30+ minutes in his clinic. Husb said I very “cheong hei” (long winded) and that’s why I like him…cos he is also equally “cheong hei”!

Anyway, Dylan’s fever never came back but the antibiotics resulted in diarrhea and bloatedness.

Bryan’s fever on the other hand, went on a “roller coaster” ride. His fever came down after the Voltaren supp, but at 3pm++, came back very high again. My mother gave him PCM, but it did not work. So I told mom to gave him Voltaren supp again.

Bryan was shivering and claims that he was very cold. I called my mother constantly to get updates about him. I was very guilty for not being able to go home to him as I was rushing a package for an important teleconference meeting that night. But I know that my mom is taking good care of him.

Anyway, hubb and I discussed that if the Voltaren didn’t work, we would rush him straight to the hospital. Thankfully, it worked after 30 mins, and Bryan fell asleep not long after that.

He got better after the 2nd shivering episode. His fever came under control and by the next day it was gone.

Though both their fever is cleared, we decided to keep both of them at home the rest of the week so that they can get a better rest.

Bryan went back to school on Monday but Dylan only went on Tuesday. We kept him another day as he continued to suffer from gas & mild diarrhea due to the antibiotics.

Finally after a week of absence from school, Dylan goes back to school.

Will update in next post how it went…

YAY! Dylan is fine

Dylan had urinary tract infection when he was a newborn. After he was cleared, he did a kidney ultrasound which thankfully showed that his kidneys were normal and healthy. But nevertheless, he was recommended to go through the MCU a couple of months later.

Dylan’s PD gave us an option. To do the MCU at a private hospital or he can arrange to have it done at GH. His wife is a PD at GH and she could help us arrange for the necessary tests. He does not recommend that we perform the tests under insurance as,

1. Dylan contracted UTI as a newborn, when he was not under coverage.
2. He can always write the report in a way so that Dylan is eligible for the coverage, but that would leave a record in his insurance file which may impact his coverage later on. And he think that this is not a good idea as Dylan could be normal.

Thus, he recommended that we perform the tests at GH.

1. It is cheap, and will cost almost nothing to us.
2. If the tests proved to be something more severe, his wife can arrange for consultation with the nephrologist. Subsequent tests & treatment at GH will be very inexpensive also.
3. If the tests proved to be normal, then Dylan would have a completely clean insurance record.

So after months of waiting, we finally went for the MCU at GH.

What is an MCU?
An MCU is an x-ray test of the bladder as it fills and empties. An ultrasound of your childs kidneys and bladder may be performed immediately before or after the MCU.

The MCU allows us to look for ‘reflux’. This medical term describes the abnormal passage of some urine back up the tubes (ureter) to the kidneys when a child urinates (wees). Normally when a child passes urine all the urine drains down from the bladder through the urethra.

Reflux is important because when present it can potentially damage the kidneys. In the long term this damage if severe may cause high blood pressure and renal failure.

Source

It is actually a very simple tests. But because i chose to have it done at GH. It became a very painful procedure – FOR ME!

The GH PD said that I will need to admit Dylan the day before the exam. BUT I would be allowed to go home to sleep at night. I just need to make sure that I arrived back at GH really early in the morning.

However on the actual date, the nurse refused to let me go home. Later I learned that GH is going through ISO certification. So everything is following PROCESS. And I have to stay overnight at GH. And I have prepared NOTHING for the stay.

But I think the main problem was, I was mentally not prepared for the stay. I am not used to staying in open wards. Going to shared toilets & bathrooms. Really shared bathrooms – Men & Women. I am not used to sleeping in a non aircon room, with almost no fan. I am not used to seeing suffering, really suffering children. I am not used to hearing children crying all the time complaining of pain.

The section that Dylan was saying is the nephrology ward. And next to it is the leukemia children’s ward. But this is GH. The only thing separating the wards is just some board – Not even a wall.

Luckily, Dylan is oblivious to all these. In fact he seemed to be enjoying his crib. He sleeps in a playpen and he found the crib exciting. He was busy climbing up and down the crib. Cruising along the rails, and waving and saying hi to his neighbors. He hardly slept at all that night. He slept about 11pm ++ and was up before 5am! Oh ya, I have no place to sleep as well. I have to share his crib or sleep on a chair.

This is not the blog for me to rant about my sufferings. So I will not drag on here.

The most important thing is – Dylan did the MCU and it showed no reflux. Everything seems normal! YAY! He had been on daily antibiotics since he was 10 days old. Now I can say bye-bye to the nightly antibiotics feed.

He have a DMSA scan scheduled end of this month. I am going to cancel it! No need for that anymore.

Finally after months of uncertainty, I finally know that my child is fine.

Please always be well, my baby.