The sicklies

I write this post as a reminder never to take our health for granted.

Some three weeks a ago, sickness struck our household. First to get hit was Christian. A mysterious rash had started to appear on his body. There weren't any other symptoms - no fever, itch, or anything else, so we just put it down to a mild allergy.

Rash starting out on the thighs and mildly on the torso

However, when the rash persisted for the third day, I decided to take him to our GP. She checked his mouth, found a couple of ulcers and made a diagnosis: HFMD! We were quite horrified, as we knew how contagious that was!

Still, I had a nagging feeling of doubt, as Christian did not have any rash on his soles and palms, neither did he have a fever nor difficulty eating.

Anyhow, we tried to keep the kids separated as much as possible.

Then, it was Ewan's turn to feel unwell. It started with some body aches, and he started to feel cold and hot alternatively. He developed a rash, fever and had severe migraines. We begun to suspect that he had Dengue fever - he'd had it before and he noticed similar symptoms. We hurried him to the A&E at Mount Alvernia Hospital, and he did a blood test. Thankfully, it was not Dengue, but a viral fever. In fact, we also thought that perhaps that was what Christian had - and not HFMD - as the rash looked quite similar.

We were relieved, thinking the worst was over.

Then Connor came down with a fever. It never went very high - hovering around the mid-37 degrees to 38 degrees. I wasn't too worried, because, well, kids come down with fevers all the time. Right? Right? (Second-time mum speaking here)

Hot hot!

We gave him some Progesic, slapped a fever patch on his forehead, and the fever went down each time.

Then one Saturday night, Connor woke up repeatedly through the night. He felt warm so I gave him some medicine and the fever patch, but the fever just kept spiking.

Sunday morning came, and I decided to take him to the A&E as the GP and Paediatrician weren't open. I rushed down to Mount Alvernia Hospital and he did a blood test. The poor little fella was screaming as they tried to draw blood from his teensy finger. The test results showed that his white blood cell count was extremely high - 1,350. The normal range is just 0-6!

A urine test followed and we found out that he had a urinary tract infection and had to be warded immediately.

Patch me up

Dr Ong Eng Keow, who's actually Christian's PD, was on hand at Mount A, so we went with him. He checked on Connor and put him on Augmentin, an antibiotic.

Drowsy from the meds

All this time, while I was settling Connor in at the hospital, Ewan was with Christian at home. Christian wasn't feeling too good either. His rash was clearing up, but he didn't have much of an appetite (a rarity!), and when he did, he was throwing his food up. After eating, he would practically double over in discomfort. His meds were making him drowsy and he would just doze off while sitting in the living - something that NEVER happens. Ewan ended up bringing Christian to the A&E on Monday for a quick check - and he was found to have a viral fever, probably what daddy had.

Masked men

Connor stayed at Mount A for two nights. He was always his cheery self, except when we had to give him his meds, which he hated (who could blame him).

Love the huge bed to roll around on

On the second day, he had to get an ultrasound done, to make sure his kidneys and bladders were structurally normal. Thankfully everything was. Right after the scan though, he did a major poop (antibiotics causes loose stools) and leaked everywhere! I had to run back up to the ward and give him a bath.

Unfortunately for him though, he had run out of rompers (daddy was bringing them only later that afternoon) so he had to wear Mount Alvernia's official garb for infants...

Sexy and I know it

The nurses at Mount A were a great bunch. The morning after he was warded, he had woken up at 6am, and was being fussy all the way to 7am. The nurses saw that I was exhausted and offered to watch him for a bit while I went to freshen up. After I took a quick shower, I found him in the corridor playing with the nurses - little things like that, I was indeed grateful for.

Mornings at the hospital spent watching Channelnewsasia with mummy

On Monday morning, Dr Ong came to see him with the results of another urine test and we found that his white blood cell count had gone down to 80 and could be discharged. Boy, were we relieved.

He'll have to go back for a review in two months, and we'd have to decide if we want to do some additional tests to ensure he's fully cleared of the UTI, but that's another story for another day.

Imma superhero

All's well now and I'm so thankful. I pray that we'll always be blessed with good health.