Ah boy or Ah ger?

During this stay at the hospital, I was amused to find Keston being mistaken for a girl on quite a few occassions! A couple of the doctors referred to him as "SHE". One of them was consistently going "She blah blah blah and her blah blah..." I would then reply her clearly without trying to cause any embarrasment "He blablablabla and his blablablabla.." But she didn't take the hint and carried on referring to Keston as a girl. She must be thinking this mummy's English so jialat, keep referring to her 'daughter' as a He. Hmmmm

And then a nurse who was assisting me in switching wards was gushing about Keston saying "Ger ger so cute" I said "Erm actually he's a boy." And she quickly apologised. I wasn't offended lah, but just curious....just because he's dressed in unisex hospital gown then cannot tell his gender already? I always thought he's a very boyish boy!! I really feel like dressing him up as a girl to see the effect ley!

Back to KKH

In case you've been on Planet Mars, we did indeed go back to KKH. Must rename as KKHotel liao, cos that's what it feels like. Kindda.

On Monday, Keston had fever again...he was extremely cranky, refused his milk feeds and ate porridge very sparsely. Drank less than 200ml whole day.

Tuesday, fever still going on-off. Hardly any wet diapers. Still refusing milk and extremely cranky.

Wednesday. Same thing. Couldn't stand it anymore so went back to KKH. Dr says he has tears when he cries and drools alot so he's not dehydrated. Understands my concerns about the lack of urine and agrees to admit him again.

At admission counter, I was pissed to find there were no more vacancies for A1 ward. They only had B4 and C wards left!!!! I was so upset I nearly shouted at the staff cos I never expected the hospital to run out of rooms!? I calmed down and read the description of the room, but somehow I read B4+ instead (which was a 5-bedder, aircon and attached bathroom). And I thought, ok still can tahan for 1 day cos I was put on waitlist for A1 ward...and I expected to transfer to A1 ward by the next day. On entering the ward, I got a shock. First of all, there were 6 beds and secondly, no air-con! Thirdly, no attached bathroom!! Then I realised there was B4+ and B4. Bo pian, just had to make do. I'm not sure why, but it never occured to me at that point to change to another hospital.

Still upset over the ward, I told my mum loudly "How is Keston gonna be able to sleep? If other kids cry, he sure wake up!" To which she reminded me of the ages of the other occupants. If anything, Keston will be the one disturbing them. Oops. The other occupants were all pri or sec students! Heh! True enough, Keston was the only one making noise throughout the day/night. Evening came, a doc came by to put the drip on Keston. Made me wait for half an hour and ended up failure. Closer to midnight, another doc came to try to administer the drip. This time we timed. It took more than an hour and still they failed to locate his veins. The poor boy has so many polka dots on his hand and cried till his voice was hoarse.

Morning came and at 7.30am sharp, the nurses came by to pull open all the curtains and forced me to wake up. WTF! Cannot let me wake at my own pace meh? Anyway, true enough there were available A1 wards now and we were transferred back to our previous ward 86. Night came, another doctor came to try to administer the drip and again failed and basically told me he's been poked too many times already. Then after midnight another doctor came and told me they could stick some tubing up the baby's nose so we can force feed. I told her to wait till morning cos he's sleeping. But she kept trying to convince me to wake him NOW and do it now. I said no, let him sleep. She said ok let him sleep for another hour then wake him up. I insisted that we let him sleep till morning first. I went back to sleep and another doctor came and adviced me again to put the tube in now. I told him baby already very hungry, I don't want him to be hungry and tired so please let him sleep. Then finally they let me be.

Friday morning. The 'proper' paed came and she adviced to monitor his feeding for the day. Frankly most of the doctors don't believe Keston's not feeding well cos' he's extremely active and alert. Baby still wasn't drinking v well or peeing much. But drank a bit more so I was abit comforted. Started him on some flu medications for his runny nose.

Sat morning, our previous paed came and showered praises on Keston again. The last time he was in, she kept going on about how adorable he is. This time, she kept saying he's so gorgeous and kept asking me to send him for baby contest. Anyway she said not to be too worried about milk and just to make sure he's taking fluids.

And so on, finally got to discharge on Sunday. Frankly, this hospital stay was really quite unnecessary. Nothing was done there except we got milk on demand and baby got many people to play with him.

I've observed a few things though. People generally stereotype the patients in the 'lousier' wards to be in the low income group and thus speak Mandarin. On the 2nd day we were there (before changing wards) these 2 NUS med students-- 1 Chinese and 1 Indian, tentatively approached me. The Chinese girl spoke haltingly in Mandarin 'Errr ni jiang hua yu ma?'. When I replied her in fluent English, she eased up considerably. They were doing some research on baby ages. Anyway, I digress. Rich people (not me) cannot stay in B wards meh? The doctors standards in the 2 wards differ as well. And get this, the vending machine outside the B ward sells 40cents cup drinks. But the vending machine outside the A ward sells $1+ can drinks. lol!

Would I stay in B ward again? No way. The shared bathroom is disgusting. And I don't appreciate being woken before I want to wake.

And up the stairs we go...

Discovered yesterday that Keston knew how to climb stairs...well, steps actually! He kept crawling from his playmat in the living room to the platform, climb up the platform to get to his jumperoo!

A couple of times he even crawled up the 2 steps that separated the living area from the foyer. Without assistance!

Update on his health. He's still not drinking or eating well. The poor little boy...I can hear his stomache rumbling and yet he still doesn't wanna drink and takes loads of coaxing to get him to eat anything...didn't really pee yesterday either. Have half a mind to send him back to KKH...

Skinny boy

Back from the docs. Keston now weighs 8.1kg, 400grams down from more than a month ago. This can't be good!

Happy Mother's Day

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. ~Rajneesh

Sickness overhaul

The last 2 weeks have been nothing short of a mediacorp-type drama!

A week after Keston recovered from the bout of high fever, I fell sick myself.

On Tuesday I woke up feeling fine. By midday, I felt my body aching everywhere and a general weakness in bodily functions. Took my temperature at night and it was 38+ degrees. Popped panadol, did the usual baby routine and went to sleep. Consistently took panadol but by Wednesday afternoon, fever still persistently high. Went to see doctor, costed me a whooping $60+ to be told I have the flu. Went home and continued with my panadol and other flu-type meds but stubborn fever refused to go down. Bad sore throat and blocked nose developed. Thursday went to see another doctor to get a fever jab. Costed me $80+ this time. Bodyaches disappeared and fever went down. Horror started. I did not sleep all night. I don't mean tossing and turning and falling asleep fleetfully...I simply could not fall asleep. I laid in bed with my eyes closed from 10pm and I was fully aware of everything around me until 6am the next morning. So when Keston stirred in the middle of the night, I could get up pronto to pat him back to sleep. Friday woke up with no fever. Yay! But by evening time, started feeling cold and odd again. Temperature went up to 38+ again. Horror continued, I still could not sleep! Felt so exhausted due to no sleep the previous night, and fever and flu. Medicines made me drowsy but I could not fall asleep. Saturday, brought Keston over to my parents place. The plan was so I could rest and sleep at home. I laid in bed all afternoon, all evening and sleep refused to come....I tried counting sheep but it took me some time to conjure up an image of a nice docile sheep. Then I decided to count horses instead but then decided the clippity-clop may be a tad too energetic. Then I decided to count Kestons but that made me smile and didn't do the trick. So I went back to counting sheep but couldn't decide if the sheep should be jumping over a hurdle or just trod past. Anyway you get the idea, I didn't get to sleep again. No sleep for more than 48 hours and my eyes were bloodshot and swollen. I was terrified that I couldn't sleep for the 3rd night running. When I tried blowing my nose, my eyes actually hurt so bad. I was still having fever.

By Saturday night, I decided to see another doctor to find out if something is actually wrong with me and also to try to get some sleeping pills. Doctor said fever can take up to 1 week to go off and I was only on day 5. Then he gave me some flu pills that were 'guaranteed' to make me fall asleep. Guess what? It didn't work, so I had my 3rd sleepless night in a row. Sunday morning came and my eyes hurt so bad. Previously I thought baby being sick was one of the hardest things to bear. I take that back. Mummy being sick is a hundred times worse cos I just could not conjure up any energy to take care of Keston. I could barely smile at him, and I could barely open my eyes to look at him. It was that bad.

Sunday. Again stayed home to try to get some sleep. Keston by this time was a tad bit feverish (37+)....did not get any sleep. Evening time, Dad called to say Keston's fever soared to 39.6 degrees. Panicked and asked them to send him to KKH. HW came home to pick me up to meet them there. The wait was horrendous...I think it took him more than 1 hour to get to the first counter that takes your temperature and your basic details. In the time we were there, his temperature went down considerably to below 37 degrees so we decided to bring him home. Yep after waiting over an hour, we decided to go home. That night, I finally managed to fall asleep! BUT Keston kept waking up all night so I might as well have gotten no sleep.

Monday. Keston woke up all cranky. Not his usual happy self. Took abit of milk and stayed cranky. My eyes still hurt and I still needed my rest, tried to soothe him and play with him. He refused to smile and kept whining. Brought him over to mils so I could stay home to rest. Went over in the evening to get him and she said he was v cranky and refused to drink milk or eat or sleep. He was truly not his usual self and I got worried. After much procrastination, decided to send him down to KKH again. His temperature was now 38.3 degrees. The wait to the first counter was much quicker this time-- 30mins? Then another 15mins to register him. The wait for a doctor was horrendous-- probably 2hrs at least!! And this is in the children's emergency! In all this time Keston refused to drink milk and he kept crying cos I think he was really hungry but just didn't want to drink. We couldn't dream what went wrong with him....suspected teething but this was getting abit extreme. After what seemed like forever, we finally got to see a doctor who inspected and found ulcers in his mouth. He suspects HFMD. WTF!? Keston had rashes on the dorsum of his hand and feet, no fluid filled blisters what. But still, because he was refusing his foods, the doctor suggested we admit him so he can get hydrated via a drip.

Admission was another horror, wait so long even though there weren't many/any people waiting. By the time we actually got up to the ward, it was already past midnight and I had a very hungry and sleepy kid on hand. I was told 'the doctor is coming'. When I cuddled Keston, he fell asleep (he was that tired) so I quickly tucked him into bed. Half an hour later, I asked and was told again 'The doctor is coming'. 'When? Anytime tonight?'. 'Yes. He's seeing 1 patient now, you are next.'. This blur doctor took another half an hour to appear. He woke poor Keston up to inspect his rashes and ulcers and the poor baby started crying again. Then v abrubtly the doctor just left. I was again told that they are preparing to put the drip on. I managed to get Keston to fall asleep again. 15mins passed, I asked 'Is the drip coming tonight or tomorrow?'. 'It's on the way.'

I very naively thought I could go home and sleep and come back the next day! hahaha..that was how much I needed to sleep. But they told me Keston needs someone with him, so I shoo-ed everyone home. By then it was 2+am. After some time, the same blur doctor appeared again, I think to put in the tube for the drip. They chased me out of the room and Keston was screaming away while they tried to poke him. It was VERY disturbing when I kept hearing the blur doctor asking the nurse 'Why like that ah?' After a very distressing 15mins, the doctor abrubtly left. No one told me what they'd been doing. And I found my crying son with a red mark on his foot but no drip. Asked again 'Is the drip coming?'. 'Yes. They are making arrangements.'

Put Keston to sleep again and 30mins later, another female doctor appeared. She was seemingly more experienced and did not chase me out of the room to poke Keston's foot. She managed to get whatever hole she needed amidst the crying and thrashing. Again put Keston to sleep and another half an hour later, the holy drip finally arrived. Keston was awakened again while they poke the drip in. Wah liao! Finally! Finally he can sleep in peace. Somehow we made it to morning and Keston was cranky. Lack of sleep, no food, what to expect right?

Tuesday. Keston still not drinking milk and took only a bare minimum of porridge. Not in good mood all day.

Wednesday. Keston drank a little bit of milk and took more porridge. Drip was removed in the afternoon. Kept forcing him to drink milk but he refused. But was in better mood.

Thursday. Drank more milk to start the day. Less than usual amount but more than past few days. Doctor wanted to discharge him but I wanted to stay another day just in case. Cos he was still not drinking/eating as normal. Keston more or less back to normal playful self. Nurses kept stopping in to play with him.

Friday. Finally discharged from hospital. Still not drinking alot of milk, think the teat is poking at one of his ulcers. Eats more porridge. Very playful again.

Back home, drinking very erratic. He's generally more willing to take his milk when we are with him for the first 2 feeds. The rest of the milk feeds are sparse and few. His daily intake has gone down from 800ml to about 500ml. Poor boy has started coughing v badly after discharging from hospital.