Shern's High Fever and Splitted Chin with Stitches!

Last week was the week when both my kids were down. So it was a stressful week for all of us.
As mentioned, it started off with Khye having swollen upper lips and fever, but on the same night itself Shern also also had a temperature.

Shern's fever was mild initially, so I just gave him PCM before sleep and to just monitor him. The next morning, his temperature was on the borderline, so I allowed him to skip school for the day, and to see how it goes.

And from then, his temperature soared higher to above 39 dC. Even PCM could not bring it down. Not even 4 hours after PCM, it went up to above 40 dC, and thus we gave ibuprofen to bring his fever down. So on Wednesday, we decided to bring Shern to see his peds.

21 April 2015

And just 10 minutes before we were about to leave for the hospital, Shern had an unfortunate accident. He stepped on Khye's clothes (my bad, which I left on the floor as I was showering Khye) and he slipped and fell on the floor, chin down and splitted his chin!
And it was quite a big split/cut and surprisingly not too much blood.

22 April 2015 - photo taken while waiting to see the ENT doc

And since we were already almost on the way to see his peds, we just went straightaway.
First we saw the peds regarding his fever. In the clinic, his fever was not too high, only about 38.3dC as he just took PCM a few hours. He saw his chin and said the cut was quite big and referred Shern to ENT specialist. I was surprised because I didn't know ENT doctors do these stuff. I thought it should be plastic surgeon or something.

22 April 2015 - While waiting for his turn to see Dr. Oh

When it was finally his turn, Dr. Oh said biogel won't work for him and he definitely needed stitches. To tell the truth, my heart sank a bit when I heard that. I asked if the stitches used would be the dis-solvable kind, he said he could use that but he didn't recommend that because it would be a slightly longer healing time and also a more visible scar line. 

And the doctor asked me if Shern would cooperate. If he does, then he would do it straightaway and procedure would take less than an hour under local anesthetic. If not,then he would treat it as a surgery which means he would prep a surgical room, and Shern would need to fast for 6 hours and put under general anesthetic. 

I told him it should be no problem and we would try to do it the easier way, but I told the doctor not to scare him and just tell Shern that he needed to clean the wound. The doctor agreed. 

This is Shern in the emergency room downstairs after being prepped, and while waiting for the doctor to come down. 

While waiting, Shern said he was very cold and was shivering. I took out the jacket for him to wear. And that was when I checked his temperature and found that he was having high fever of 39.5 dC! No wonder he was shivering!

I quickly told the nurses there and they gave him PCM.   

The doctor then came. 

So my brave boy was having high fever of 39.5 dC while being stitched up! Poor boy!

 

22 April 2015

No photos of him being stitched up because I was busy holding the hands of my little hero.
Dr. Oh was really gentle with him, and he was trying to distract Shern as he gave him 3 jabs of anesthesia on his chin to numb him out.
Shern said a big 'ouch' on the first jab and after that his 'ouches' were not so loud, which means the anesthesia was working. haha.

The doctor used a sterile cloth with a hole which covered up Shern's eyes n face with the hole at his chin which was actually a good idea because besides protecting Shern's eyes over the bright light, it also covered up his vision and that Shern couldn't see that the doctor was suturing his wound with a thread and needle! That was why Shern did not freak out!

It took the doctor about half an hour to finish suturing 5 stitches on his chin!
This is Shern after having 5 stitches on his chin! 

 

22 April 2015

The nurses outside the room was surprised when he saw us walked out the door.
"Finish already ah? Wah, so clever, no sound at all! What a brave 5 year old!"
I was mighty proud to hear those words. :)

As it was almost 1 hour after his last PCM by the nurse in the ER, Shern's fever instead of coming down went up to 40 dC! So I quickly took him back to his peds room to check if something needed to be done as he was really having high fever! (and I knew it was not because of his wound).

Dr. Chiah gave him a dose of ibuprofen, and then suggested that since we were there, why not go for a nasal swab and also a blood test to rule out Dengue fever, and Influenza type A&B. I agreed since this was already the 3rd day of his fever.
I was a little afraid that Shern was having another long battle viral fever which happened 2 years ago with super high temperature that would not come down!

And so off Shern went to the lab for a nasal swab and also took a blood test.
He got a little uncomfortable having his nose swab but it was done fast so ok, and as for the blood test, the staff nurse who did it was fast and Shern just gave a loud 'ouch' and it was done! Shern thought the nurse was 'catching some bad ants that bit him' (yes, that was what I told him! haha). 

So there you are, my brave little trooper having done 5 stitches on his chin, a nasal swab, and a needle poking on his arm, while battling high fever....all in 4 hours! 
What a brave boy he was right!
Total hospital bill in 4 hours = RM1.5k+!

 

22 April 2015

Results for the blood test won't be out for 2 hours so we went home to let Shern had some rest. He ate a sausage bun while waiting, and I was glad he finished the whole bun. 

But back home after a nap, a few hours later, my poor boy vomited out the bun which means his body did not digest it at all. 

He was still feeling poorly with his temperature soaring up again to 40.3dC! I was really worried about his fever then.

But luckily he was drinking a lot of water, and that he had no problems taking medicines, unlike Khye, which certainly made my life so much easier.

22 April 2015

As for the following 2 nights on Thursday and Friday, his fever still persisted (above 38.5dC) but depended less on ibuprofen, only on PCM, so it gave me a little hope.

23 April 2015

Then one of our friends came by on Friday and lent us some essential oils and a diffuser. I see no harm in trying that. So on that night, Shern's fever spiked to 39dC once but then it came down later and he had no fever throughout. 

So either the essential oils worked, or the antibiotics he had been taking (3rd day then) was finally working. Whatever it was, I was thankful that his fever got better after so many days!

A few days later, I changed the plaster on Shern's chin. It was then that I took a photo of the stitches. Shern saw the photo and asked me what are those black-black thing on his chin. I told him it was some blood residue. lol.
Then I replaced a new surgical plaster for him.

 
25 April 2015

Then last Saturday, which was 10 days after his chin was being stitched up, I brought him back to see Dr. Oh.
It was on a Saturday, where doctors' clinics were open for just half day, and boy, it was a long 3 hour wait to see the doctor!

In the doctor's clinic, the below conversation follows:
Shern: We waited so many hours for you, you know. You need to work faster next time!
Dr. Oh : Oh, I'm so sorry it was such a long wait. 
So today, we are going to take out the plaster and clean your wound ok?
(I told the doctor not to tell him it was to remove the stitches)
So I am going to give you dab it a little dab with something cold.
Shern: Eh, not cold also.
Dr. Oh : Ok, I will need to touch you to clean it ok? (He started removing the stitches)
Shern: Ouch, your touching is like pinching me. Please be gentle ok.
Dr. Oh: Ok, I'm so sorry, I will be gentle. 

It was funny. All was well and in about 10 minutes it was all done.

There was actually a screen where the patient could view the entire procedure on how the doctor removed his stitches, but I requested the nurse to turn it off. No point letting Shern see and scaring him!

Dr. Oh said his wound was healing quite well. It still has a little crust which will drop out in a day or two and some redness due to the removal of stitches. He put a normal plaster over it which he said we could remove it later to air the wound.
He prescribed some cream for the scar, and that was all. No more meds needed.
So this was Shern once out from the doctor's clinic. Total fee paid RM344.20.

 This photo was taken 3 days later. You could see the wound is really healing really well.

4 May 2015

So this is the story on how my eldest son got his chin splitted and stitched up while having fever of 39.5 dC!

Total damage = RM1.9k + scars + heart attack!

And in that 1 week, Shern lost 2kg. Precious 2kg of weight gain gone. He is now back to only 18kg! :(

Boys will always be boys! And I'm gonna have 3 boys soon (four including the hubby)! 

So please, people, pray for me for a stronger heart! :)

Update: The light scar 2 months later.

Shern's Cycling Journey!

I'm so proud of my son today.
Why? Because Shern can now ride a bicycle without the training wheels!

Shern started out riding a bicycle with the training wheels at about 3 years old. He only did a half-round pedal cycling initially. Haha.

And then earlier this year, we took out the training wheels of the same bicycle and hubby tried to teach Shern how to cycle without them. But we were not successful. Shern got scared and was wobbly and didn't have the courage to continue without daddy holding his bicycle steady.
So we let it rest as Shern was not too keen to learn too.

7 Feb 2014 - Shern @ 4 yrs 8 mths

And then after reading up the benefits of having a balance bike, I decided to get one for Khye to have him learning how to balance at a young age. Hunted the whole Penang and in the end found only one bicycle shop who is selling balance bike for kids. And is the brand I wanted - First Bike.

Unfortunately the bike is still too high for Khye and it needed a lowering kit to make it lower before Khye could ride on it. And the shop didn't have the lowering kit.
So while waiting for the lowering to arrive (I ordered it online), I let Shern ride on the balance bike and hoping that he would learn how to balance on it soon.

And so in this half month, Shern had a go on it, and he enjoyed riding it. It was within days and only second time on the balance bike he learned how to balance more or less on it. I was rather amazed on how the balance bike somehow taught him how to balance on his own.

Shern's second time on the balance bike and he had so much fun it in!

1 Sep 2014 - Shern @ 5 Yrs 3 Mths

And now, half a month later, I noticed that he could balance really well on the balance bike.
After gaining some momentum in our rather limited space porch, he could balance and do more than a round in it without putting his legs on the ground.

Look at him.

And so we figured out he could have a try on his two-wheeled bicycle. Hubby helped him hold it initially to give him some confidence.
And just on his 3rd push, hubby let go his hands and we could see Shern cycling on his own. Whoah!!!

And I managed to caught it on video...how about that!

You can see that Shern is doing really well.
We gave him some tips like 'look straight ahead and don't look down', 'and just continue to pedal hard and don't stop' to balance better.

And oh by the way, I super recommend getting a balance bike as the first bike for your kids if possible. The kids will grasp the concept of balancing fast and really well with it, and it would be a smooth transition to learning how to cycle with the two-wheel bicycle in the future.
The training wheels serve no purpose in learning how to balance, so we are going to ditch those bikes with training wheels. :)

And that was how my eldest boy finally knows how to cycle a two-wheeled bicycle at 5 years 3 months!
And that is quite an achievement indeed!



p/s - I am going to write a review post (NOT a sponsored post btw!) on the balance bike soon, when I have the time.

Shern's First Piano Recital

Shern has been attending Yamaha music class since end of last year. It is actually piano class using the Yamaha syllabus.

Initially I found Yamaha to be a bit too academic and was reluctant to enrol him there.

But when we attended the trial lesson there, we found that it was actually pretty fun! 

His teacher is really a very good teacher, often giving the children small treats, such as stickers as a motivation, and yet is strict enough to mantain discipline in class.

And he makes the lesson so fun and interesting, with lots of actions and drawings! 

The only thing is that for 4-6 yo class, you need a parent/guardian to accompany the children during the 1-hour class. 

I can understand that because if without, there would be much banging of the keys on the electones.

It can be rather tiring to accompany Shern to class every week, but I choose to see the POSITIVE side of it.

It is actually bonding time for me and Shern. It is the only time that I am really 'Khye-free' and could concentrate on Shern, so I appreciate the driving journey there and back where I get to talk about lots of interesting thing with my very talkative son. 

Another is that I consider it as 'Buy one get one free' class. I pay for Shern to learn, but I get to learn as well! Hehe.

Anyway, Shern had his first Mini Piano Recital last Friday. It was nothing big, just his class performing in front of us parents on a real stage.

It was actually just for the kids to experience how performing in a recital/concert feels like.

But you could see all parents there feeling so proud of their kids, with their cameras, tablets and mobile phones clicking away.

So I was also there, with my camera in hand, proud of my son.

I'm proud that he can actually play with 2 hands in such a short period of time.

Here is Shern's first ever Piano Recital, him playing 2 short songs - Honeybee March, and Going On A Picnic.

Although with a 'lil hiccup at the beginning, I think Shern did a wonderful performance, and I was mighty proud of him!

After the recital, the children got a balloon each, and also a little gift from their teacher for being so brave and a job well done.
The children were all happy with their balloons and gifts!

Here are Shern's classmates, but here I obscured their faces as I am not too sure if the parents are keen that their kids' faces are on my blog. ;)

After that Shern got to try to play on the mini grand piano. Grand indeed!

 

It was a good night, and I am so proud of my big boy.
Way to go Yiu-Shern.
Well done!

Shern's Seedling Diary

Earlier this month, Shern came back from his Drama Class with a paper cup and 5 little seeds in it and some damp cotton wool.
I knew immediately they are bean sprout seedlings. I think everybody in Malaysia has done this thingy while we were kids in school, right?

He got pretty excited and told me that he needs to bring it home and put it in a place where there is sunshine and also to water it every day.
"Just a little water, not too much water ok" said Shern.

 
5 April 2014

And he also brought back a piece of paper in which he needs to update his Seedling Diary everyday. He would need to draw the progress of his seedling.

So every day, he would jot water his seedling, and then he would look at his seedling and tried to draw it on the squares according to the dates.

 

After 8 days, this was what he drew.
I found it really interesting upon seeing his drawings. I found that I looked at the seedling through his eyes.

He drew a sun on every square.
And somehow he drew a line on every square before he drew a square (for the cup).
I think he drew that because we always brought the cup to the table for him to see and draw, so I supposed the line was meant to be the table.

 

And he meticulously always drew five black dots to indicate his five seedlings.

And if you noticed, not only his seedlings grew bigger, but his cup got bigger too. haha.

And during the process, Shern learned many things:. He learned about:

• being responsible for his own plant. He knew if he didn't water it or take care of it, it would die. 
• what a plant needs to survive. He learned that a plant needs oxygen, water and sunlight to survive and grow big and tall.
• He also learned about being patient, as you can't just make a plant grow big the moment you water it. It takes time.
• He learned that this is where food (vegetable) comes from. 

So this was a life lesson well learned. 

I hope to grow more plants with him now that we've got a little garden. But first let me fix the garden first. ;)

Our First Time to Occupy Beach Street, Penang

It was our first time last weekend to the Occupy Beach Street event held on Beach Street/Lebuh Pantai every Sunday.

1 Dec 2013 - At Occupy Beach Street event

We woke up early to go there because I wanted to feel the cool morning fresh air. I didn't want to reach there when it was near to burning hot at mid morning.
Both kids were alert and happy to go kai-kai so early in the morning.

 

We reached at about 8.30am and the air was so fresh when we got out of our car. We saw many birds in the sky. It was quite a cloudy morning though and we hoped it won't rain so soon.

We parked quite some distance away, so lazy Shern 'jom-ed' the stroller, so I had to babywear Khye as we walked towards Beach Street.

Took a selfie family portrait of the 4 of us before we started our journey!

There were many activities going on, such as the Floorball Challenge, Magic Performance, etc.

Shern quickly wore his helmet, and his elbow and knee guards and rode on his scooter.
Khye was then plopped on the stroller.

We passed by the Street Market and saw many things on sale.

Love the stuff for sale on this vintage van. Didn't get anything though as I was too busy keeping my eyes on both kids as it was quite crowded nearby the Street Market area.

But as he walked past the Street Market, nearby the India House building, it was less crowded and Shern got to zoom away with some speed. He loved it because he got to zoom in the middle of the road, which is rare. And that made him felt like he was the King of the Road! haha.

Nearby there were some makeshift stalls with some games for the kids. They are free.

Shern had a try on trying to hit the cans down with a tennis ball. He did quite well, hitting 4 out of 6 cans.
He did pretty badly on the Angry Bird Attach though, missing all 3 targets.
Those who did better walked away with a lollipop, which Shern didn't. I'm proud that Shern now can accept defeats and thus did not make a noise when he was not given a lollipop. Good job Shern!

And then we went to search for my friend Kee who manned the Batik Painting booth in the Whiteaways Arcade building. Found him in one of the walkways leading to the building near the Subway. 

I asked Shern if he would like to try his hand on Batik Painting. He surprisingly said yes.
Well, Shern is not a very erm, artsy person. He is not very attention to detail and he hates colouring usually. But he likes craft.

But I must say that Shern did a very very good job.

Ok, first I traced a train picture of it on the cotton canvas. Then I tried to wax it for him using the canting tool as it was dealing with hot wax.
But somehow on that time, Khye was crying and bawling away so loudly that I could not concentrate and was rushing as Shern was eager to start painting.
So kind Kee helped me to wax the outline for Shern. He did a much better job than me definitely.

And at last it was Shern's turn to paint.
Kee explained to him the colour mixing and such and Shern was painting away.

Shern concentrating on his painting.

Shern working in progress...

The painting part, he did almost everything himself, with choosing the colours and such.

And the finished work is excellent!!!

Although it is a far cry from the work of the professional (the cute Mike from Monster Inc painting is done by Kee!), but I am still so proud of Shern's work!

Shern holding up his beautiful batik painting canvas proudly posing for a photo with it.

Shern went away saying 'Thank You Uncle Kee and Uncle San. I want to come again and do more batik painting on more trains!' lol. Glad he enjoyed himself so much.

Then we spotted some musicians playing some music while the kids had some free draw on the tarred road using coloured chalks. So Shern went to join in.

After that father and son went for a Chess Game.

It was actually hubby being the mastermind. Hubby instructed the moves, and Shern executed it. lol.

There was also a Miniature Gelwax Garden booth, but we did not particpate on that. Next time.

Then Shern spotted this Giant Snake and Ladder Game on the floor with the huge dice. And he wanted to play. So we let him try, but he kept on sliding down the snake and he was always at the bottom of the board.

Shern was one of the youngest players there.

And Khye got bored and sleepy, look at his bored piggy face. lol.

So I let Khye roll the stroller, which he loves to do (Khye cannot walk yet, just cruising around).

After that we sat on the pavement and he found a scrunchie on the floor, which he tried to kick it with his leg while sitting down.

Just a scrunchie and my 'lil sunshine was so happy playing and kicking with it for 10 minutes. lol.

Look at his happy face, while kicking it. :D

And then I couldn't wait anymore. The sun was out and it was hot then. And we were hungry. And Shern was still at the near bottom of the board. "_"

So I told him last 2 throws of the dice and we had to go. He obliged.

But he pleaded for a last ride on his scooter before we leave, and I obliged as well.
The crowd disappeared then as it was almost noon and was getting real hot. And Shern had fun riding on his scooter for another 5 mins.

3 of us waiting nearby as hubby went to take the car.

We tried out Roti Bean at Chulia Street.

Menu was limited with only Eggs Benedict with 3 or 4 different toppings or Eggs on Toast.
And the only drinks they had on the menu was their homemade Soya Bean original, or Soya Bean Special, which was with Gula Melaka and something. That's all.
We tried both and I feel they tasted almost similar.

I had the Eggs Ben with Salmon, while Hubby had with Turkey Bacon or something.
Photos look nice, but actually taste was just so-so.
I had nicer Eggs Ben elsewhere. The Hollandaise was a tad too sourish to my liking, but then I must them credit as everything was supposed natural and heard that the sauce was made using natural yogurt.
But salmon portion was pretty generous, and I like their bread. Fluffy and chewy at the same time, almost bagel-like.

Ordered the Egg on Toast for the kids, which was a big hit!

I actually prefer this simple fare as it was done really well. The toasted bread was good and I love the brown thing on the side which looks like a bread croquette.

Khye munching on some baby puffs and playing with the high chair while waiting for me to feed him his food.

In the end, koko Shern came to his rescue. He fed Khye some bread off his plate!
Yay for siblings! :D

Both kids konked out in the car on the way home at almost 2pm.

A very fun Sunday morning. I love bringing my kids outdoors and I really appreciate Penang having such outdoor-sy events. We will surely be back!

Oh ya, I'm still admiring Shern's Batik Paiting! It's really lovely! :D