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.