Shern's Rove Beetle-Like Wounds

Sometime last month, Shern came to me and told me that he has some wound on his leg at the back of his knee. I thought it was some mosquito bites and just applied some balm on him.

The following day just before school, he told me it hurt and when I looked clearly, the wound looked rather raw like this.

22 September 2016

And because he told me it hurt him quite a lot, I applied some antiseptic cream and then bandaged it up so that he wouldn't knocked it or anything when he was in school, since the wound was at the folds behind his knee which made it even more painful because he needed to bend his knee to walk/sit/run.

22 September 2016

And then, I texted my friend whose hubby was his paediatrician and that was when the message came back that it may be infection and to see him if it got worse.

The following day, I some some blisters forming and the wound got more raw, that was when I panicked a little and straight took him to the hospital to see his paed. 

 

23 September 2016

And yes, doctor confirmed it was indeed wound infection caused by an insect bite and most probably by a Rove beetle, though he could not be 100% sure.

Rove beetles does not bite but their blood contains a strong toxin called pederin that causes burns on human skin. If you crushed the beetle, the toxin is released and absorbed by your skin.

And look at the mirror image of his wound and that the wound was at the back of his knee, he probably squashed the Rove beetle which caused his leg to be injured.

  

24 September 2016

So he was prescribed some oral antibiotics and also some antibiotic cream to apply. 

These were his wound conditions as the days progressed. (This is for myself to look back!)

It caused him so much pain that it was very difficult for me to apply the cream in a thin layer because it hurt him so much.

So using a cotton bud, I applied a rather thick layer on his wound, hoping to cause as little pain as possible.

And because of his injured area, the ends of his shorts tend to touch his wound. So he needed to wear his younger brother's shorts which were shorter so it wouldn't touch his wound. Hehe.

Poor Shern was kinda limping away as it hurt him so much to walk. But then when he saw friends or when he got excited, he could run though so I was not super worried! haha.

And he even wanted to go for his swimming lessons. He was limping while walking and he asked to go for his swimming lessons. 

I called up his paed who gave him the green sign to go if he felt like it because the salt/chlorine water in the pool would help to kill off the germs apparently!

In this photo below, you can see how deep his wound was. 

25 September 2016

26 September 2016

It slowly got better and the wound got more dry.

27 September 2016

28 September 2016

After about a week or so, the wound got really dry and was starting to peel off, though not the whole thing.

 

 

29 September 2016

30 September 2016

And then another week later, it got so much better.

 

4 October 2016

These 2 photos were taken just today and you can see that it is completely healed, just the scars left. 

 

10 October 2016

And so that was Shern's encounter with the Rove Beetle.
And nobody knew where he got it from; it may be at home or in school or during his other classes.
Well, just stay safe and pray hard that there are no Rove Beetles coming near you. The experience was a really painful one!

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 and His Frequent Urination

April 2015 - 5 years 10 mths

Shern came back from school the other day with different clothes and slippers. He then told me that he peed in his pants in school, during Chinese class because his teacher didn't allow him to go to the toilet because he just went not too long ago.
I listened to his side of story and then just shrugged it off. I knew these things happen sometimes. I told him was ok and that he should tell his teacher if he really needed to go. He nodded.

Two days later, we went out for dinner and that was when we noticed that Shern went to the toilet many times. Just from the time we paid the bill to walking to our car, which took us about 10 mins, he asked for the toilet 3 times!

Then only I started to notice how frequent he peed at home too. (usually I don't count how many times he pees at home. He doesn't need to ask permission to pee at home!). I checked and there was pee every time, not just drops but about 2 tablespoons of pee. Hmmm...So initially we suspected UTI. Called his peds to make appointment for the next day.

Shern skipped school the next day to see the doctor, and also because he told me he was scared to go to school as he needed to go to the toilet so many times. And thus, he refused to drink water, which I feared may make the matter worse. Poor boy.

At the hospital, he took a urine test for UTI. His urine test came out clear, which means it is not UTI. His paed suspected that his accumulated stools/poop may be blocking and pressing on his bladder, thus sending signals to his brain that he needs to go pee.
I was in disbelieve as Shern poos almost every day, though not a lot to be honest. A piece of poo or two only usually. Dr. Chiah said that was the problem. He does poo every day but only little, and then we thought it is ok. Thus the accumulated poo inside.
Dr. Chiah said apparently, this is a common problem among kids, where they gets so distracted and just poo a little as they can't wait to go out to play!

He tried to press him tummy to feel the poop, but Shern being soooo ticklish and laughed and tensed up, so the doctor couldn't feel anything.
And also the fact that Shern doesn't take any fruits at all, (he doesn't even like orange juice or orange ice-cream!), and almost no veg except for the french beans in his fried rice!

We also did Shern's last immunisation booster jab for polio (which we told Shern doctor was checking for ants in his hands. Yes he really didn't know it was an injection!), and Shern declared that this felt better than the tickling. And doctor said this was supposed to be a more painful jab because it was injected into his muscle. Weird kid.

And so his doctor advised us to try to release all his poo in his tummy (he prescribed some stools softening meds, and revin enema to instantly remove all his poop for once), before checking for further tests which needs x-ray and blood test. I agreed.

And sure enough, after pumping the tube in his backside, 6-7 stools came out. But then his condition did not improve yet. We went for Yamaha class the next day with him going to the toilet 10 times in 1 1/2 hours including traveling time!

Shern went to school and I did write a letter to his teacher informing his situation so that they understand him. No complains from Shern after that.
But Shern was sad that his 'bladder is spoilt'. He told me that he already prayed to Jesus to make his bladder strong again but why Jesus never listened to him?
I told him that Jesus only helps those who helps themselves, so he must do his part to drink more water, eat more fruits and vege and poo poo often.

Texted his paed and he assured me to let him try for 3 days, and then see how he fares before we make another decision. On the 3rd day, his condition improved, and his need to go to the toilet decreases. I'm sooo happy for him, and he is happy too.
Shern did improve quite a lot. From a totally no fruits person, and now he eats apples, starting from a slice of apple a day, to today 5 slices of apples! Big improvement indeed for him!

And so this is a little lesson for me and for us all.
That is not enough if he poos every day, we must see the amount of poo! :)

Anyway, I'm glad my big boy is now ok. And Shern has been telling his teacher that 'my bladder is now stronger already because I am eating apples!'

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.