Monday, October 7, 2013

The Day Khye's Fever Reached 39.9 Degree Celcius!

Fever started on Monday night, 23rd September 2013.
It was mild, about 38 - 38.4 d Celcius. I gave Khye paracetamol, but to our dismay, fever did not subside completely. His temperature still lingered around 38 dC.

26 September 2013 - 1yo


I continued to monitor him, put Kool Fever on his forehead, sponging him from time to time hoping to bring down the temperature. But every 4 hourly, I still needed to fed him paracetamol orally as his fever could not go down completely.

By Wednesday morning, his fever went up to 39 d Celcius, and also Khye resisted the paracetamol I fed him orally (I guess he got sick of it!) and he vomitted it out after being fed.
So I had no choice but to gave him Voltaren suppository to bring the temp down.
I was telling myself that if the temperature didn't go down this time, I would bring him to the doctor for sure.

But then after the suppository, the fever vanished. Temperature came down completely and he was all cool at only 36+ d Celcius. I was glad to see his fever gone. He was ok for the whole day for about the next 12 hours.

Then came night time. You know fever always creeps up whenever night time falls? Well, it came back at about midnight but it was mild at about 38+ d Celcius and once again Khye vomitted out the paracetamol I tried to feed him orally. Either he had an upset tummy, or he was real sick of the meds. That obviously didn't help. I was hesitant to bring him to see his paed as it was midnight then, and his fever was not so high to warrant an emergency admission. So I held back.
But I knew I needed to feed him some meds before bringing him to see the doc the following morning. I gave him a supp again. And as expected, no fever throughout the night, though I kept on waking up every hour to check on his temperature.

When we woke up on Thursday morning, we decided to bring him to see Dr. Sim at Sim Children & Child Heart Clinic at Jln Masjid Negeri. It was our first time there, and I've heard many positive feedback from friends on Dr. Sim.

After seeing the doctor and getting his meds, we went back home. Then at about 4pm when both Khye and I woke up from our naps, I felt him very warm, and when I checked his temperature I was shocked to see it shot up to 39.8 d Celcius. Checked the other ear and it was 39.9 d Celcius! Scarily high!

I straightaway gave him a suppository to bring his temperature down, and then put a Kool fever on his forehead. And then I called up Dr. Dan to tell him we were going to see him and I packed the hospital bag just in case we were to be admitted. Then I left Shern to my mum while Dad fetched us to the hospital. Hubby was out for work at that time. Then off we went to Island Hospital!

Even at the clinic about 1 hour later after the supp, Khye's temperature was still at 39.1 d Celcius. Dr. Dan said it was better for us to admit him as his fever had been persisted for a few days and also he was afraid of Dengue Fever or Kawasaki Disease as his lips were all red.

And so that was how Khye was admitted to the hospital again.

First thing when admitted, Khye had to be poked with needles for the blood test, and boy, it made us both cry!
Khye is quite a big baby and thus quite strong. 2 nurses went into the room with Khye and I could hear him bawling and wailing. And 5 minutes later, a nurse popped her head out and called for another nurse to help them. It was then that my heart sank and I knew it would be a difficult and long process for Khye, and probably painful too.
The 3 nurses and Khye were in the room for a freaking 20 minutes!!!

I was standing outside with my heart pounding wildly and tears streaming down my face. It was never easy for me to hear Khye's cries for help and me doing nothing but sent him into the lion's den! I felt like such a bad mum! My heart ached for my little baby.

They came out at last and I quickly carried Khye to console him. I then questioned the nurse for the details. The nurses were actually very nice and she told me that Khye was very strong and thus needed more help to hold him down so that he won't move to make the process better. I asked how many times she poked him and she said twice. First time not successful because Khye moved too much and that was why she asked for another pair of hands. 

And Khye's blood was rather thick so she needed to massage his hands to make the blood flow out quicker to collect enough blood for the tests, thus it took them so long.
She also placed a cannula into his hands just in case he needed any drip, etc, so won't need to be poked again. The nurse also wrapped up the other hand so that Khye won't pick on it.

So here is a photo of my solemn Khye & me after the incident.

He was all pitiful and sick.
We were not be able to get the single room on our first night at the hospital, so we settled for a 2-bedded. Still way better than the nightmarish 5-bedded we had the last time!
So I shared the bed with him for the night.

The blood test results came back and thank goodness it was not Dengue Fever nor Kawasaki disease. Doc said probably just a bad case of viral infection.

No temperature for the whole day after the suppository I gave him before visiting Dr. Dan's clinic. And so he slept at about 9pm at the hospital.


The nurse came and check his temperature every 2 hourly or so.
At 2am, the nurse came and it was all good.

I suddenly woke up at 4am and when I touched Khye, I felt him all warm and hot.
I quicky took him outside to the nurses' station to have his temperature checked. The thermometer read 39.6 d Celcius.
So high again! So he was given another suppository to bring the temperature down!
Thank goodness I was so alert!

And besides that, Khye also poo-ed 3 times in the middle of the night, with the last poo all mushy and smelly and even got into his clothes and bedsheets. He must be feeling so sick, my poor baby.


The next day, thank goodness we were transferred to the single bedded room.
It was better with the privacy and also much bigger space. And also less noises and crying from the next bed, so Khye could sleep much better. And even me can sleep better.


Khye being a picky eater, of course still was having a very difficult time to feed him meds. Dr. Dan didn't really give him any meds besides the paracetamol, and also some probiotic and smecta for better stool and to have a stronger stomach.
I had to let him eat that because if he still has diarrhoea, he might go on drip and that would be very bad!

But Khye was wailing came every medicine feeding time, and we would have to forced him down to syringe-fed him, with him crying and gagging most of the time. But we had no choice. So unlike his bro who loved taking meds using syringe.

On the other hand, after seeing that Khye didn't try to scratch the cannula, I took out the bandage of his other hand, so that he can touch and feel things, and thus play with some toys and so.


My mum bought a small ball and a train for Khye to play with, but he was still all grumpy and such.
Khye DID NOT SMILE AT ALL the whole time in the hospital.
And everytime our room door opened, and he saw a nurse, he would CRY even before the nurses did anything to him. He was scared stiff of them.


Khye didn't even want to play much. He was all quiet and grumpy and non-smiling and would just want to be carried all the time by me. He was sticking to me ALL THE TIME.

And then came the dreaded news.
His diarrhoea didn't get any better. Khye was still poo-ing up to 8-10 times a day with very watery green stools. Doc said that was not good and he was pooing too frequently. He suggested to put him on drip with nil from the mouth to let him rest his guts.
I was heartbroken but I thought it would be better than to prolong the diarrhoea.

I knew it would be very difficult to settle Khye with the drip on and to feed him nothing.
Khye was already so sick and sad, and now I couldn't even offer him my boobs. I was so heartbroken I cried when they put him on drip using the cannula tube on his hand.

Look at my tear-stained face as I watched Khye cried himself to sleep. Sob.

It was also difficult to walk him around with the drip on, and I needed to push along the metal thingy, so we kinda stayed in our room most of the time.

Well, the bright side of things is that my Ergobaby really saved both of us during the hospital days. As Khye was stuck to me the whole day, I was thankful for my baby carrier which provided a relief for my hands and back.
And Khye was also snuggled close to me all the time, and so he was a much calmer and settled baby.

Another good news. Khye was off drip after 12 hours and we saw improvement. No more diarhoea and only a few loose poo. Phew.
And also no more fever after the first night. So we were good to be discharged after 3 nights in the hospital!

So, so, we discharged on Sunday morning, just in time to attend Shern's School Concert at noon.
Phew.
The responsibilities and things that a mum has to shoulder! *sweats

And oh, 2 hours later at home, Khye was all smiley again.
Khye gave us a 'half-smile' in the car on the way back to home sweet home!
29 September 2013



p/s - Special thanks to my hubby who helped us and accompanied us and bought me food in the hospital. Also thanks to my parents who took care of Shern at home while we could concentrate on making Khye well again. Thank you so much!

2 comments:

Serenely said...

Oh my! So drama. It's really tough when there are no clear explanations for any discomfort or illness our child is going through. Your little Khye is such a trooper for powering through the whole ordeal!

tanshuyin said...

Thanks Serene.
I'm so glad it's all over now.

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