Khye's Swollen Upper Lips a.k.a Gingivostomatitis

Ok, both kids are down. But let me first talk about Khye.

It started off on Sunday evening, when Khye woke up after a nap at Ah-Ma's house feeling really grumpy. I shrugged it off as I thought it was one of his grumpy days. We then went to Tesco and he was alright again after having a McD cone. Yes, he ate the cone only without the ice-cream.

That night was a nightmare. I put him to sleep at around 9.30pm and since then he woke up EVERY 15 minutes to 1/2 hours and whined and cried. Initially I just patted him back to sleep and he did sleep back but to wake up 15 minutes later to whine. I took his temperature and it was cool. No fever.
After a few hours of this, I got irritated due to lack of sleep and that Khye wanted me to pat and sing to him (imagine me singing the whole night!). So I kinda raised my voice and scolded him. Of course he cried louder.

In the morning, I surrendered and woke up at 7.30am together with him and went downstairs. And that was when I saw his upper front lips were swollen.

20 April 2015 - Khye with swollen upper lips

And then I was wondered if that happened because I offered him my boobs just a while ago. But the swelling didn't subside after 1 hour and that was when I got worried.
I then felt bad that I was kinda harsh to him last night. He must be feeling really poorly. :(

Decided to bring Khye to the peds to have him checked out.
Khye as usual was bawling his eyes out in the doctor's clinic as he is scared stiff of doctors.
Dr. Chiah saw his swollen upper lips and after some thorough checking of his throat and mouth and body,he said Khye has gums infections or also known as Gingivostomatitis (a combination of gingivitis and stomatitis). The infection leads to him having fever.
Apparently, this is quite a common infection among children.

And because of that, he recommended antibiotic (2nd time on antibiotic. 1st time when he was 2weeks old and had a swollen 'lil toe) and also antiviral. Initially he suggested to try out antibacterial meds and see if it takes its course, but then since he has quite a high fever then (38.7dC at the clinic!), it is better to take both. I agreed seeing how uncomfortable Khye was as he didn't sleep the whole night and he didn't eat well as well.

Look at my poor baby (still with very swollen upper lips) having a long afternoon nap after he got back from the hospital.

 

And the same day evening, Shern also fell sick and ran a high temperature. (will blog about this in a separate post

Coupled with the antibiotic and antiviral, he was also prescribed antihistamine meds, and of course PCM if needed and also an oral gel to ease his swollen gums if he refuses food. Even the doctor told me this is a lot of meds for a kid!
I told the doctor how difficult it is to feed Khye meds and he told me top priority is the antibiotic and antiviral and PCM if fever. The rest are secondary.
So in the end, I just fed Khye the priority ones. :)

Khye tends to vomit out the meds if I force him to eat while crying. So now I put the meds into his Yakult or Iced Milo and he drinks all up happily.
Certainly made feeding meds more easy, especially with so many meds to feed to an unwilling patient.

 
20 April 2015

The next day was a little better, although he was still having mild fever. But his lips were still a little swollen, though has subsided quite a lot compared to the previous day.

 

21 April 2015

However he slept well that night and after that, no more frequent waking ups like the first night. 

On the 3rd day, things were definitely much more brighter for this little boy, with no more fever (less than 38dC) the whole day although body is a little hotter than normal to the touch. But his appetite did came back slowly, eating half a bowl of rice and some fruits.

22 April 2015

And as of yesterday, he was all well again. No more fever and appetite was definitely back!
Look at him posing for my phone nicely. Lips are just a teeny 'lil bit swollen, but other than that, he is all well!
Looks like this little boy is all ready for school on Friday!

  

23 April 2015

Another learning process for me as a mummy. 

I didn't know Gingivostomatitis/Gingivitis can be quite sickly too.

And now the next blog post will be about Shern as he fell sick too almost at the same time! #lifeasamummy #beingamummyisnoteasy 

Stressful Times

It was a really crazy month.
Both my kids fell sick. Not just the normal flu and cough, but a full-blown-super-high-fever-kinda sick!
It was enough to make me go crazy.

It all started with Khye.
He was having mild fever for about 2 days and then it went off after taking PCM. And after a few more days, the fever came back, and this time with a vengeance.

1 Nov 2013

Khye had high fever for 1 week to be exact.
After having high fever until day 4, I took him to see his paed. The doctor was a little concern because it has been four days of high fever. His temperature read 39.1 dC although he had just taken PCM 2 hours before.
So his paed asked to do a blood test and also a urine test to check on Dengue Fever and the rest.

So Khye was screaming murder in the lab room, my poor baby.
Dengue test came back negative, and the doc said it should be just a viral fever and it would pass. But his temperature continued to soar. At home it was so difficult because my Khye hates taking meds orally.
He would scream and would not swallow. And as the meds trickle down his throat, he would cough and then he would try to vomit it out. Yes, that's my Khye. Sigh.

So many a time, he ended up vomitting out the meds, and then we would have to feed him again. And so another round of battle with Khye and meds.
And even then, I still needed to sponge him down as his fever would always be above 39 dC, and sometimes even above 39.5 dC which is very worrying.

And at night, those were sleepless nights for me as I kept waking up every half an hour to check on his temperature. As you know, during night time, our body temperature rises a little more so I was worried that it would get too high.

I would be ok if Khye was still all active and such. But to tell the truth, he was not. He was being very lethargic and clingy and refused to play by himself on the floor. He only wanted to be carried all the time. He was not being his usual cheerful self.

There were times when he was ok when the fever went down for a few hours. He was smiling happily.

27 October 2013

But those hours were short-lived. Once the temperature shot up again, it was all grumpy and moody face again. :(

26 Oct 2013

We went back to the doctor on Day 6 as fever was still there, and this time the doctor got more worried and he asked for a second round of blood test. I had no choice but to agree. Results came back negative again and I got very worried because the doc didn't even know what caused the high fever.

On Day 7, Khye was still having fever and I got so stressed up I cried. I cried because I was so worried about my baby. Worried because I have not encountered such high fever for so long. And I cried also because I was so stressed up.

And suddenly, miraculously, the fever was gone on the night of Day 7. Just like that. After having high fever every day for the past 1 week, it was all gone after Day 7. Phew.

14 Nov 2013

And then about 2 weeks later it was Shern's turn.
Initially, it was just a low-grade fever for a night. And then he had some discharge on his right eye (which I think was passed to him by my aunt who had conjunctivities). So we took him to the doc. He was prescribed eye drops and we also noticed he had a warmer than usual body temp (about 37.5 dC) but no fever yet.

However, he got worse at night and his temperature soared until 39.5 dC but after PCM it came down. So we brought him back to see his paed. His temp was still 39.1 dC even after PCM just an hour ago. We went home with a bottle of ibuprofen, just in case.

14 Nov 2013

But afternoon came and he got worse. His temperature was still 39.6 dC even after ibuprofen 1 hour ago. And it was not even night time yet. And Shern was shivering there and feeling bad.

So I knew I needed to bring him back to see the doc again.

As I suspected, doc asked him to be admitted as his fever is really high. I agreed because his fever was quite uncontrollable. So high even after meds.

This was Shern standing on the height chart, waiting to be admitted.
By the way, we waited 2 hours for us before we were admitted to a single room in GMC.

15 Nov 2013

Shern was quite brave and only bawled for a while when his paed himself poked his hand and inserted a cannula on his left hand. And he also took some blood to check for Dengue, Influenza A&B, etc.
This is Shern giving us a wide smile when his fever got under control.

Tests came back negative on Dengue and Influeza. White blood count went up and doc suspected bacteria infection. So he was put on antibiotics. It was the first time ever Shern was on antibiotics.

Shern had it really bad this time. His fever shot up until very high, it was mostly above 39 dC even after meds. And PCM didn't seem to be able to work at all, he needed ibuprofen. And even then it was still high. I had to keep sponging him to bring the temperature down. It even went up to 41 dC once and gave me quite a scare.

Night time was worse, I had to check his temperature every 1/2 hourly. And on the 1st and 2nd night at the hospital, his fever couldn't come down even after 2 hours after ibuprofen. It was still above 39.5 dC. Shern was already shivering but he was asked him to lie down on a cold pad (hoping to bring the fever down) and I was sponging him non-stop. It was difficult to keep sponging him as he was cold and sleepy and cranky. Who wasn't when the fever goes until so high!

His paed even came to see him at 3am in the middle of the night, checking for other symptoms such as Kawasaki disease, etc. He showed no such symptoms though. But it was good of the paed to come to check on him.

Look at the amount of PCM and ibuprofen he took on the days in the hospital. And this list was not even completed yet.

Some of the times, when his fever came down (usually only about 2 hours before it spiked up again), he was all smiley and happy like these.

Enjoying bread dipped in creamy soup on the first day in the hospital. After that his appetite went downhill and he ate very little. :(

We bought him a cheapo toy truck from the store downstairs. It was such a poor quality toy, very flimsy and I think totally not worth the RM20 we paid for it. But there was not much choice when we're cooped up in the hospital.
Good thing is he was happy with it.

 But most of the times, he was like these, with either a cool hanky or a Kool Fever on top of his forehead, for I kept on sponging him down.

And by the 3rd day, Shern was put on drip because his fever got too high and used up a lot of water in his body. Although Shern drank a lot of water initially, I realized that he seldom went to the toilet. And when he did, his urine was very yellow and his lips cracked. So his paed decided to put him on drip.

It was such a pity seeing him confined to a machine with just a short wire length of freedom, but we had no choice. He was sad not being able to run as freely. But the drip was for his good. And slowly his urine was less yellow.

Doc did a blood test for Mycoplasma bacteria and it came back positive, and so Shern was put on another antibiotic for that. Doc hoped that would be the cause of the fever, and not multiple bacteria infections. We would just needed to wait and see for the antibiotics to take its course, and to wean off the fever.

It was difficult for me too as I took care of him in the hospital mostly (Pho-pho tried one night to relieve me, nut Shern bullied Pho-pho and wouldn't cooperate to take meds, etc), so it was mostly me.

I was in a difficult position because Shern needed me in the hospital, and Khye too needed me (need my breasts actually lol). Khye can now eat some solids, but he wouldn't drink much water. He wants nen-nen only and not milk in the bottle, but fresh from the source, lol.

It was actually not funny then. I was all stressed up because I needed to be at two places at the same time. Both my kids needed me then. But then I needed to prioritize and so I stayed with Shern. And then hubby or dad would bring Khye to the hospital downstairs and I would let him latch for 1/2 hr twice a day. I bathed and washed and scrubbed my hands vigorously before carrying Khye, hoping that whatever germs won't be passed to my baby.
The other times I would just express and throw away. I needed to breastfeed Khye so that he would not be dehydrated and he gets his liquid intake. The last thing I needed was for Khye to also fall sick.

So I was also very tired and with lack of sleep and very stressful. And guess what, that led me to have yeast infection at the end of the hospital ordeal. Sigh.

Anyway, back to Shern. We killed time in the hospital doodling on white board, and also with home made activity sheets. It was really boring times in the hospital.

We dared not venture out from our hospital room too often, because I was afraid of other illnesses (heard our next door rooms patients had Dengue, H1N1, etc...sounded scary!) because Shern's immunity system was low then and might be easily infected.

So most of the time, he would just stare outside our hospital room window, staring longingly at the outside world and spotting playgrounds and cars and beach, etc.

But once a while,we would just walk near the lifts where there was a big panel of windows showing a marvelous view.

He had a new friend to accompany him in the hospital from a visitor, our neighbour. Thanks Aunty Su Li.

And after that on Day 6, he got better. Fever for only twice (one low grade fever, and another time high fever) the whole day and then we got hopeful.
That night he had no more fever and so doc gave us the green light to be discharged. Yay!
7 days in the hospital and we were going home!

This is Shern in his carseat in the car on the ride home. He konked out in the car too. But it was alright. We were going home!

So this sums out the stressful times on how both my kids had high fever for a week each!
Needed to document this down as this is part of life, and part of us growing stronger as a family.

And now we are back to our home sweet home. And Khye is so happy to see his mummy 24 hours a day again! lol.

And thank you all for your prayers.

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!