The hospital nightmare...21 -25oct09

This is how it happened...

19 Oct - Carrie came down with high fever so we brought her to see the family doctor. She's given kids' panadol syrup.

20 Oct - Fever still didn't come down, we went to visit the family doc again. This time the doctor inserted the cream capsule from the butt to bring down the fever. Further she's given panadol and brufen for high fever. After we went home, her temperature did come down. But in the evening, the fever came back again and she had high fever throughout the night
:(

21 Oct - We went to the family doctor again and suggested doing blood test (suggested by hubby okie!) The GP actually told us that sometimes kids might have high fever for 3, 4 days and after that it will be fine. (Bullshit, better to be more careful right ?) Luckily we went to do blood test because it turned out the white blood cells count was nearly twice the normal count !! Which meant that there's some virus or bacteria in the blood ! Carrie was referred to KKH immediately.

---- At KKH A&E dept -----
We realised for such cases, doctors only have 2 objectives.
(1) Bring down temperature
(2) Find source of infection.

By then Carrie has very very high fever of 41 deg c, the doc gave her Brufen and we had to wait for an hour to see if its of help. Still, her fever didn't come down. Given another dose. Keep sponging.

To find the source of infection, Carrie also did an Xray to see if its pneumonia. Her lungs appear clear. Doctor then suggested getting hospitalised so they can monitor the situation for us and find the source of infection. That's where we start our 5 days, 4 nights stay in KKH.

------ Stay in KKH (21 - 25 Oct 09) -------
The Blood test. * ouch *
And doctors being doctors can be quite 'heartless' sometimes. I guess they are just so used to poking needles on human body or even cutting them up that they sometimes miss out the human aspect of 'feelings'. Especially a mummy's feeling for her child. Here's the conversation I had with the doctor.

DOC : We need to draw blood to do blood test
MUM : But we did one already at the polyclinic.
DOC : We need to do MORE blood test (*replied in cold manner as if to shut me off*)
MUM : Ok, but why do you need to insert the tube ? (The type of tube where its inserted into your blood stream for drips)
DOC : In case the blood test come out and we need to give antibiotic.
MUM : Can't antibiotic be given orally ? (well.. as a mum, i need to explore other painless alternatives right..)
DOC : Given through bloodstream is faster
MUM : But we only need to do that after blood test right ? We might not need to do that if blood test is fine right ?
DOC : Ya. But if we need to do that after blood test, we then need to poke her TWICE (* answered coldly again *)
MUM : let me think for a while

Doctors left the room, tears just started rolling down my cheeks, my heart ached for Carrie that she had to go through this. And worse was, I would not be allowed to be with her. Carrie was anxiously clinging to me by then. But yet i had to bring her into the room and pulled myself away from her while she cried for me. The nurses then took over to hold her down. For the rest of the procedure, I could only stay outside the room and let my heart be broken when I could only hear Carrie crying and screaming. She must have thought how could mummy abandon me to strangers and let me go through such pain. These thoughts just swamped my mind and my tears just kept rolling down. I'm really heart broken. She kept crying "i want mummy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" "ARGGGHhhh.. (scream of pain) I want mUmmy !!!!!!!!!!!" (I won't be able to forget her cries even till now i will still teared whenever i recall this)

Finally after 20 minutes, the doctor came out and told me its done, they were just taping up the hand. Briefly, i saw my little girl lying there with nurses holding her hand and she looked so tired from crying and still sobbing away. Its another 5 minutes (which seemed forever) when the nurses finally carry my baby back to me. By then my Carrie was already so tired, her back was all wet which i don't know if its cold sweat or sweating from fighting off the nurses. As i saw the tube in her flesh with her hand all taped up to a soft board, my heart ache even more for my 2 yr old baby. I put her to my chest and keep telling her "its ok now, its ok now, mummy is here." My tears just kept rolling again uncontrollably even though i tried to stay as calm as i can. I covered her up with a blanket. She had stopped crying now but is still sobbing hard to catch her breath. Slowly, she fell asleep in my arms. I put her down on bed and i could start breathing a bit myself.

Blood test result came back and her white blood cells had increased again to 350. (at polyclinic its 320, normal kid is 180). Doctors couldn't give her antibiotic until they are sure of the source of infection. So for then, they could only keep giving panadol.

Mucus Test
The nurses did mucus test as well, phew... lucky thats an easy one. Its somewhat like a long cotton bud to do nose digging. No pain, No discomfort. Sent for test to see if its respiratory infection.

URINE TEST
Another test is the urine test. So again came the doctors who blah.. blah.. blah.. said they need very clean urine sample, hence the best way is to inject a tube direct into her bladder and get the sample from there. Easy as they said it. BULLSHIT. Here's our conversation.

MUM : Any pain for this procedure?
DOC : No pain, just discomfort. You can't be present in the room as its a sterile process (BULLSHIT again)
MUM : How long is the process ? (Heart getting weaker)
DOC : Very fast, about 20-30 minutes (BULLSHIT, YOU CALL THAT FAST ?!)
MUM : Can't she urine naturally and we collect the sample from there ? (Adults also use this method what !)
DOC : Well.. can also. But just takes time
MUM : Can i let her try urine on her own ? I'm just trying to minimize her pain. (firm tone)

I really didn't want my little one (who had just calmed down from the blood test experience) to undergo such fear again. It may be painless for the body but to her, its another experience of her mummy abandoning her again. NOoooOOOOooo... i couldn't live with such thoughts. I had to MAKE HER PEE.

A 2 yr old toddler being at the terrible two stage isn't going to be manipulated easily. We had to coax her patiently into drinking water. She will not understand why we have to make her PEE when she doesn't want to ! We used every method to make her drink whatever beverage we have. Water, Milo, Green tea...

And its not just about the pee-ing part. We need to catch the urine sample into the sterile container, we can't just let her pee into her pampers or into the toilet bowl or just let go in her pants, yes, it has to be into the container ! And before she pees, i must pour the sterilising liquid into the sterile cotton balls and use that to clean her wee wee part before she can pee ! Sounds easy ? Try it on a 2 yr old !

Its about 5 attempts in the washroom waiting for her to pee before its successful. And I had never felt so relief to see my baby pee. Finally, we handed that over to the nurses with much satisfaction.

THEN the nurse had to tell me this "I'm sorry to tell you but we need 2 samples. One to send for test, the other is to confirm the test." (win liao lor..) Fine. Anything to skip that bladder tube thingy. Just do it. So there goes another round of coaxing The story repeats itself.

And the result : URINARY TRACT INFECTION

Its actually a good thing that a source could be tracked down. If the doctors could find the source and the white blood cell level remained high, it could be leukemia which will be a million times worse !!! (thank god)

For antibiotic treatment, Carrie & I stayed in KKH for 5 days and was finally discharged on Sunday. So happy when the doc said we can go home !

There are many other details during these 5 days such as how she needed to be pushed around on the baby pram to get sleep for the first few days. How the ward got rowdy in the middle of the night with all many crying kids and babies (but i am proud to say Carrie is the only kid that is quiet at night ! She kind of just slept through all the noise !). Anyway too many details to write so i shall leave it to the pics. But don't expect good resolution, all pics taken with my mobile. Don't expect me to bring my camera and whipped it out for shots when I was worried sick right.. i only took these pics on the last few days of stay when she got better.

Carrie doing a cheeky face for the camera

On her hospital bed/cot with her breakfast !

Carrie sharing her toys with another 2 yr old girl

Her hand with the tube.. poor thing..

Carrie and Daddy taking a walk around hospital

Having our breakfast in the food court in KKH, as usual, she wants her share of food as well

Carrie doing a naughty act for mummy

Carrie cutting up vegetables single handedly (literally single handedly)

Cheeky face II

Cheeky face III - She did this pose for me when i asked her to smile at the camera..cute isn't it ?!

Last day in hospital after removing the tube on her hand

Carrie enjoying her porridge

Hee.. after removing the tube, Carrie still held her wrist straight in the air like she had to when she had the soft board and tube still attached to her hand.

Carrie is still on oral antibiotics for 10 more days after discharging from hospital. I am still keeping my fingers crossed. Pray hard for her if you can. I can't survive another nightmare like this...