one painful night

Joseph has had fever since Thursday 4th September. He is not very cooperative when he's sick - refused medicine, won't let me sponge him and wouldn't even let me check his temperature with the digital ear thermometer.

We spent all Saturday in church and he was just lethargic, napping 3 times in total. On Saturday night, our 8th floor doctor-neighbour-friend came over with her stethescope to check him. Apart from slightly enlarged tonsils, she couldn't find anything else wrong with him.

He fell asleep at 8.30pm and then woke up at 11pm crying. I found him burning hot. I estimate now that his temperature must have gone beyond 40C because he was hotter than last night when his temperature was 39.8C.

Yesterday morning (Monday), he woke up happy without any fever. We made a visit to the paediatrician anyway since Joy-Anne was having flu. Just like our dr-friend, the paediatrician again found nothing wrong with him.

In the afternoon, his fever came back. After a dose of paracetamol at 2.30pm, he was happy for the rest of the evening until at about 8.30pm when the fever started again.

At 10pm, we decided to take him to Pantai Hospital. He was slightly delirious and did not put up any struggle. I was worried sick because he just kept saying, "mama...help me...."

I requested for a blood test to check for dengue (even though he didn't have any rash) and any other infection. So the poor boy had to be wrapped up in a blanket, held by mama and papa while doctor and 2 nurses took blood from his left hand.

They then wrapped up his hand so prevent him from pulling out the line, in case they needed to test again. We waited for about an hour for the results to come back.

Reading "Billons of bugs" book borrowed from DUMC Children's Church library while waiting for the results.....he wanted my head on his, and I had to hold his left hand, while hugging him too. Unfortunately I only have 2 hands, so he settled for just putting his left hand on my lap.

The results came back at about 11.30pm - all normal. No dengue. Doctor said it's probably some potent, unknown virus. So we could go home.

waiting to have the bandage and line removed

Joseph was very good and didn't move at all while the nurse removed the bandage and the line.

He was much happier when we left the hospital because the fever dropped to about 38.6C after a dose of paracetamol.

see my plastered hand....I can go home now.

This morning - Day 6, he woke up grumpy and very manja....slightly warm. I'm glad to say he took the medicine without much fuss. I can feed it to him alone - which is a very big improvement considering it used to take 3 persons to feed him medicine. I hope and pray he recovers completely soon.