Allergic Reaction

We picked you up from school yesterday as we were nearby, picking up daddy's car. Then after your shower when we returned home, you came to my room and whispered "Mummy.. I am moonface again.. ssshhh... don't tell daddy". So I opened the Tiger Balm and turned on the room light to have a better look and got a shock of my life.. it wasn't just on your chin, you had an allergy breakout on your chin area as well as your forehead. 

Later that evening, I realised that the rash had spread to the back of your body. Had to tell daddy and see what he thinks. He said to give you the antihistamine which Dr Mary had prescribed last time before we went to Perhentian. It was just half of the tiniest tablet. Took you a while to eat it, but certainly faster than the antibiotics!

This morning, you looked better and I gave you another half to eat.

In the evening, I received a missed call on Messenger and later saw this message:

We went home to discover your whole face was swollen. Called the hospital to check on the doctor available for night clinic as well as doctor on call in ER. Found that we wanted to see the doctor on call, so we ate dinner, showered then headed to the ER. Took a while before it was our turn to see Dr Khaw. 

He asked a few questions, checked your body and concluded that it was an allergic reaction as there were no blisters on your rash.. *phew*

He prescribed some medication, including something for what he deemed to be a prolonged sinusitis and then said that you should take a jab for the allergy. Then he left. The nurse came later to give you a jab which she said could be either given on the thigh or buttock. You opted to have it on your thigh. 

All done and then it was time to pay and wait a little for the nurse to come explain on how to take the medicines. 

Went home to give you the medicine (1 extra now on top of the antihistamine) which took a little longer and some scolding from daddy while I was in your room getting your clothes for school the next day. Then you went straight to sleep.

*By the way.. you cried when daddy said that you need not go to school tomorrow if your allergy did not clear.. It's Children's Day celebration and you were looking forward to the event

Evelyn goes ice-skating

At long last, you have your chance on the ice skating rink again. This time in Sunway Pyramid. You had spotted the rink when we came early this year, but had no opportunity to go. 

This trip, you were very good and patient with the changes in plans and today, we made sure to make it to the rink.

We left Denai Alam early this morning at 7.40am. After dropping Ko-ko off at college at 9am, we headed to Sunway Pyramid. As it was still early, we headed to the canopy walk to discover how the walk is for Ko-ko from college. Hey.. it was just a 5 minute walk. No wonder he hangs out here so often. 

We then went back where daddy paid for the two of you and off you went in to collect your skates and get onto the ice.  

Waiting for your skates

Slowly skating by holding the sides

I sat down in McDonald's for a drink before going for a walk around the mall. As it was early in the day and on a weekday, the mall was relatively quiet. 
Shortly after 11am, Ko-ko messaged me to say that he was done with the morning lessons. I told him to take a Grab over, but he opted to walk. He then went to have a look at you both skating before joining me at Zara. 

By then, daddy and you were done and we got ready to head over to Grand Imperial for lunch. As you were both already hungry, daddy ordered some items first while waiting for Ashley Kor-kor and Uncle Dennis to arrive. 

When they arrived, Kor-kor ordered more items and we ate and then headed back to Denai Alam. Ko-ko was too exhausted from the morning lessons and not well enough to attend the classes in the afternoon. 

We will be heading back to Penang tonight after dinner and dropping Ko-ko back to the hostel.

Wednesday Change in Plans

The plan today was to go have a look at an available room in Nadayu since we're around and Ko-ko was still on sick leave. We took at look at that room, and another unit which was available for rent soon, then walked around to look at the facilities.

Then we headed to Sunway Pyramid to have lunch. We parked quite a distance and walked to Ma Maison. We could not decide whether to eat here or Din Tai Fung. In the end Ko-ko said that he's able to eat here (maybe he knew you have been wanting to eat here since the last trip).

But when the food came, he could barely touch the food.

My katsu

In the end, we had to abandon plans to go ice skating for you. We had initially planned for you and daddy to skate while I walked around with Ko-ko and he could Grab back to the hostel if he got too tired. 

But in the end, we had to abandon the plan and head back home after lunch. He was feeling nauseous and you were good about the change of plans.  Such a sweet girl 💖

Big Tofu

You sent an early morning message on Sunday (well, early by your standards) saying that you had diarrhea. Then we chatted and I suggested that you ordered Vietnamese Beef Noodles by delivery. You did that and then I headed out to Adventist Hospital to bring Mei-mei for her flu vaccine. 

Just as it was her turn to see Dr. Mary, you called me to say that you did not feel well and that you felt like you needed to vomit. And 5 seconds later, you vomited (while in the call with me). By then I was in Dr. Mary's room and so we hung up. A while later, you called to say that you felt much better. But I suggested that I'd ask Ashley Kor-kor to bring you to see a doctor. So I quickly called Kor-kor and she said that she'd do that. 

Luckily Kor-kor also asked you to bring a change of clothes so that you could stay over at her place. We were so torn on whether to immediately drive over to see you. When we called you, and daddy asked if you wanted us to go see you.. you hesitated a bit before saying that it's not necessary.

But you did not seem to be getting better, so on Sunday evening daddy slept early so that he'd be in a good condition to make the 3 hour drive to KL. 

We woke up to have breakfast, and after packing up, we headed out to Eaton to buy some ang koo kuih. Wanted to buy kuey tiau th'ng from 7th street market, but decided against that when we saw the traffic heading towards town. 

Instead, we went back home to pick up the container and asked Chim Poh if she could buy "kai si hor fun" instead. She managed to, so we made a quick detour to Ipoh to pick up the noodles. We reached Kor-kor's house at 12.30pm, just on time for lunch. My heart broke to see how weak you were. 

You ate some of the noodles and slept most of the night. Then you had fever and in the evening, we brought you to a nearby clinic to see the doctor. He worried that it may be dengue so he did a blood test which turned out negative. Got MC for another 2 days and headed home. Took 3 hours to eat up 1/2 bowl of noodles. 

I slept in the room with you. At 3am, you were in pain.. in fact, I am not even very sure of when you started writhing (silently) in pain. Got you up to go to the toilet again and then gave you your medicines (including Paracetamol as the fever was back again). You seemed to be ok and managed to continue sleeping until today.

Well so far, you seem to be getting better and having a much better appetite. We've gone to your hostel to clear away the food, including the noodles you'd left in the room since Sunday (which messed up your table!!) and also brought back your clothes and bedsheet to wash in Kor-kor's place too. 

Hopefully you'll get better soon, our little tofu.

Swollen Mouth

It started off as a pimple in your nose. We didn't make much of it since it has occurred before. Daddy tried to squeeze it before dinner on Saturday (and you were crying and screaming about it). Then we had dinner and all seemed well.

The next thing we knew, you were down with a fever just before going to sleep. Gave you Paracetamol (after much persuasion), put on a fever patch and off you went to bed. By then, your upper lip seemed to have swollen and the fold on your (upper) lip seemed to have gone all crooked. Oh dear.

The next morning, you still had a slight fever and your lip seemed even more swollen. I could not decide whether to bring you in to see Dr. Mary. Having a fever meant you could not go to the Paediatric Clinic, instead you'd need to go to the Unwell Child Clinic. We did a Covid test to rule that out. In the end, I got Ah Ma to drop us at Adventist Hospital.

It was a long, long wait for Dr. Mary to come down. My heart sank to the ground when I heard her tell me what could have happened had we not brought you in. The puss could go to your brain. Then, it would be a harder thing to cure.

Thank goodness we had gone in. You were given a course of 5 days' antibiotics and ibuprofen, and also MC for 2 days. She had also reminded me that if your swelling did not subside the next day, we'd need to bring you in; otherwise, she'd see us on Tuesday.

Picture of my teary eyed baby which I took to send to daddy

On Monday, you were not very happy to have to skip school, but ended up watching TV non-stop as I worked from home. In the end, I tried to encourage you to do something other than watching TV. So you took out the present you got from Audrey and spent the time in your room building the Sakura Tree Music Box. 

So many little parts to build

Brought up this Eevee rug which I had made before to cheer you up

You'd come to my room occasionally asking for help, but you built most of it yourself, including putting on the flowers and lights.

That night, you happily showed everyone. But when you went to Ah Ma's room, you dropped it. Daddy had to come to your rescue and fit back the part that had fallen off.

On Tuesday, your swelling had almost fully subsided. So you could go to school to attend your Festival of Lights celebration. 

The follow up check-up was good, but since there was still some swelling, you were given extra antibiotics to last up till Sunday.. yay (not!). 

Miss Moon-Face

Something bit you and this time on the chin. Your face got so distorted and from the side it looked like a crescent moon. The inflammation on your chin also probably caused you to have a fever. 

Yesterday I made an appointment to see Dr. Mary, but as I had to inform them that you had a fever they asked us to wait for Dr. Mary in the ER. Seeing that it was such a high risk place, and we will be there for quite a while being exposed to who knows what, I decided that we'd just skip seeing her. 

Luckily the inflammation had burst before we went to the hospital and last night, you also allowed daddy and I to press out as much of the puss as we could.  

Sneakily took this picture as you lay in bed

Today, your face is less Moon-face like. Almost back to normal. I'll need to buy the Vitamin E oil to heal that wound on your chin. 

Update on the Inflammation

Well, today we rushed over to the hospital as daddy was very busy with meetings and follow up needed for the escalation at work. 

It wasn't too long before we got to see Dr. Mary. She agreed that the (now called) inflammation is smaller. It was 2x2cm and now is 1.5x1.5cm. She asked if we would like to have it removed or go with another dose of antibiotics. We decided to go with the antibiotics first.. The removal process is not going to be done by her. Instead a surgeon will need to do it and she may need to go under local or general anesthesia!

Hopefully it will go off. Dr. Mary told us to squeeze the puss out if it ruptures. It may be painful, but better than going to see the surgeon. 

Let's hope for the best. 

Pimple, Boil or Insect Bite?

You had told me that you had a pimple near your right underarm and I had just not bothered to look at it, thinking it would go away on it's own. 

A few days later, you mentioned it again and when we took a look at it, there was a "head". So on Wednesday night daddy tried to squeeze the "pimple", but it turned out to be a very big growth... more like a boil.

It leaked out pus but you were in pain whenever we squeezed, so we left it and decided to see Dr. Mary on Friday morning. Luckily, daddy and I were on leave as we were going to have our Covid vaccination and you had no lessons as it was Report Card day.

Dr. Mary told us that it was an insect bite. She administered anti-biotics for 5 days and told us to go back to see her only if the swelling does not go away.

Well today, her nurse Rajesh called to check to see if we needed to go back to see Dr. Mary and I said it looked swollen still, so we'll be visited Dr. Mary again tomorrow.

Hopefully she wouldn't need to make an incision to remove the pus.

Fever

It was a day off for you kids yesterday. Daddy and I had gone out earlier to buy lunch for everyone before he headed to the office.

After I had showered, I went down to talk to Mei-mei and you told me that you were feeling a bit warm. You seemed perfectly fine right up to then. But the moment we went up and I checked that your temperature was 38.8 degrees, you started to cry and asked me not to let daddy know what you were sick. 

You didn't have much of an appetite to finish your lunch. Then when we were in your room, enjoying the air-con, I had to go back to my room as I needed both my computer monitors to work. Later you came to me and told me that you had napped.

But your fever did not really break. You made a big fuss each time you needed to take the medicine, I had to bribe you with a marshmallow. 

At dinnertime, Kakak cooked chicken moi-moi for you but you could not eat. Daddy even offered you ice-cream, but you could not finish that even. I had to give you a long, cool shower to try to bring down your fever. You even asked if you would be able to go to school the next day!

You slept on the bed with me and I woke up a couple of times to check on your temperature. In the morning, your body still felt warm, but you were back to your normal self: talking a mile a minute. That was the first thing Ah Kong noticed too when he woke up and saw you at the dining table.

One thing though is that you were scratching yourself profusely as you ate breakfast and your whole body was all red when you showered. And during lessons, you also complained about a consistent itch. So after lunch you had another shower an we slathered you with the aloe vera gel to soothe your skin.

I hope this fever and itch will go away soon. *hugs*

Fever Scare

Daddy and I had gone out to buy lunch and when we got back, we opened the door to a teary little girl. You told me that you missed me and that no one was around other than Ko-ko (who as usual was hiding in his room). Got a bit of scolding for being so dramatic.

In the afternoon, we were lazing in bed when I told daddy that you had dozed off. He thought that it was strange that you needed a nap. And true enough, when I touched you, you felt warm. Oh dear! You woke up when I tried to check your temperature with the thermometer.

The moment we said that you had the fever, you panicked. I guess it's true that you have a fear of contracting the Covid as you immediately said "But I didn't go out". We had to tell you that it could be the hot weather that caused you to have fever. 

Needed a bit of persuasion before you'd take the fever medication (thankfully I have spares in the cabinet!!) and then put the fever patch on you. You temperature was slow to go down, but it finally did.

You seemed perfectly fine other than feeling warm to the touch. Thank goodness!

Little Missy is Down... with HFMD

It all started last Wednesday when you called me to say that you had a fever. Dismissing it as nothing much, Ah Ma gave you medicine and we headed back home after gym. That evening, you told me that your mouth felt painful. It thought that was your usual complaint if you were exposed to something causing your allergy.

The next day, you stayed at home to rest after the fever. When we went home you complained again about your painful mouth. This time daddy heard you and asked you to open your mouth. Oh my goodness.. it was full of ulcers. So we rushed to the hospital and luckily we made it on time as the last patient and had to be isolated while waiting to see the doctor, just in case our suspicion was true that you had HFMD. 

We waited for a while before we finally got to see Dr. Mary. And she confirmed it. Yup, you had HFMD and we were given strict instructions on how to handle it (always wash hands.. and I think I washed my hands at least 30 times each day while taking care of you) and what to look out for after recovery (possible side effects).

I stayed at home on Friday with you and we were both isolated in my room most of the day. You were quite well behaved, either watching TV or sleeping. The weekend was also spent at home with you playing around the house. The ulcers must have been really painful but you didn't complaint much. The only indication that you were in discomfort was the lack of you talking and of course, loss of appetite. By Sunday, you were almost back to normal, being more talkative (even talking in your sleep!!) and eating quite well.  

This was how you looked on the weekend:

Still tired on Saturday

Feeling better on Sunday, fixing the jigsaw puzzle

P/S: Gosh little girl, Ko-ko was asking why you sit so unlady-like.. 

On Monday, after much persuasion you allowed me to go to work in office. Tuesday was a public holiday and I guess you couldn't stand being cooped up at home anymore. Thinking we were going out, you asked me why I dressed you in shorts and then started to pack your handbag to go kai-kai.

In the end, we decided to buy food home to eat as you still had some ulcers. But you came long with us just for the car ride.

Today you look 99% perfect with just 2 last ulcers to clear. 

Get well soon darling. *kiss*kiss*

Sick Again

Ah Ma called me at work to let me know that you had a fever. It was very obvious that you were not feeling well as you were wearing your jacket when she picked you up from school.

We decided to bring you to see Dr. Mary as you had a bad cough which sounded very chesty when you coughed. As we were the first, it was over and done with within 20 minutes of the clinic opening. The problem was as you seemed to be having recurring fever, Dr. Mary asked us to have a urine test in case of urinary tract infection which she said was common for little girls who go to school and are not aware of the need to ensure the toilets are clean before use.

That was the challenge for the night. You had to fill up at least half of the bottle and I had to help you by holding the bottle to catch the urine mid-stream. The nurse advised us to give you more water.

After drinking 1/2 a bottle:
Mummy: Do you need to wee wee?
Mei-mei: Ok..
Results: A grand total of 3 drops of urine *cry*

Went to see the nurse and she laughed and gave us a fresh bottle.

After drinking even more water:
Mummy: Do you need to wee wee?
Mei-mei: No

Waited and waited and asked you to drink more water:
Mummy: Are you ready to wee wee yet?
Mei-mei: Ok..
Results: A grand total of maybe 5 drops. 

Mummy: Whyyyyy??? You told me you needed to wee wee??!!
Mei-mei: Yes, I did. But I cannot wee wee when you put the bottle at my down-down
Mummy: *cry*

Went back to see the nurse, and she told me we could top up if you wee wee within 30 minutes.

Gave you even more water... and after a loooong wait, you finally said that you needed to wee wee. And thank goodness, you managed to fill up a little over 1/2 of the bottle.

Total time spent at the hospital was 1.5 hours! What a long evening. Even more tiring and stressful than going to work!

Hopefully your results will return negative. We've got to see the doctor again tomorrow. Sighh...

Explosion

Miss Varghese called me at work yesterday saying that you were complaining of a tummy ache. This is the second time this year. Ah Ma had to go pick you up.

So I decided to bring you in to see the doctor. Unfortunately Dr. Mary was on leave. So we went to see Dr. Khaw. He did a check on you and noted that you had a bloated tummy.

When we went home, this was the conversation you had with Ah Kong:

Ah Kong: So? What did the doctor say was wrong?
Evelyn: My tummy has an explosion.
Ah Kong: Explosion?
Evelyn: Yes, explosion.

You told daddy the same thing when he got back that evening. Not sure where you got the word "explosion" from.. but it was so funny. I hope you don't tell your teacher the same thing today!

What a Week

Woke in the middle of the morning because I heard Mei-mei... amd you were vomitting in your partially sleepy state!  Both daddy and I got up to bring you to the bathroom, to let you finish up then to clean up both you (yup a shower including hair wash) and your messed up bed (which thankfully had its own protector).
We finally stumbled back to bed and slept till it was time to wake up to get Ko-lo ready for school. After that we continued to sleep. 

You woke up with a fever and so the whole day was spent making sure your fever was under control.

Two nights later as you slept in our bed, you decided to bomb the bed. Thankfully you were sleeping on your chest. You were having diarrhoea throughout the day due to reaction to the paracetamol and also wind in your tummy. I had woken up to check on you for fever and found the "explosion" instead.

On Sunday night, you were whinging in your sleep and I asked you to join us in bed thinking that was what you were whinging about. Instead you decided to vomit again. Daddy heard you this time and we had no choice but to let you vomit all over your pillow. This time while I showered and washed your hair daddy had to fight with the bed to change all the sheets as there was some which splattered on our bed. But after that incident you seemed fine.

Not Feeling Well

You vomited so many times on Friday. We had to try to get back from work quickly but it took us almost an hour to reach home i the Friday jam.
Got you all ready and headed to Adventist Hospital thinking there was night clinic. Too bad there wasn't any. So we headed to the Emergency Room.
We spent almost 2 hours to wait and see the doctor and to wait abit longer to see if you'd still vomit after taking the medicine. We finally got to leave at arpund 10p.m. making a stop to buy 100 plus drink for you.
You slept on the way home and continued sleeping until the next morning, only waking up several times for a drink of water.
Well to determine if you had recovered... just look at your happy grin when you realised that I wanted to take your picture on Saturday morning:

Scary Week

It's been a long week. When we thought that your fever was over it came back again... with a vengeance!!
As Friday was 5 days of fever we headed to the ER on Saturday morning to see Dr. Mary (it was not a working day so we needed to go there). As we waited to see her you had another round of diarrhoea.  The ER nurse kindly let me use one of the gurney in there to change you. I was shocked to discover that there was blood in your stools. Just as I mentioned it to the nurse, Dr. Mary walked in and also saw it. She looked grave as she mentioned that it looks like a bacterial infection rather than viral. As you also cried before you pass motion it indicated colic. You were prescribed antibiotics as your gut was infected as indicated by the blood. She said to expect you to have poor appetite due to the Flagyl antibiotics. You were not to take diary products and also sweet foods.
Your fever stopped yesterday and you no longer seemed to lethargic.  Today, you developed a rash and when Dr. Mary returned my call said it was a good sign. It meant you had Roseola and this rash is the end of it except to continue with the antibiotics still due to your gut infection. 
I'm glad it's something minor after all. Get better soon, darling.  *kiss*kiss*

Sick Evelyn

You've been down with the fever since Monday afternoon.  Yesterday Ah Ma called to say your temperature hit 39°.
As she wasn't too sure on administering the suppository,  I had to leave the office earlier. Went home to give you a long bath which effectively brought down your temperature but it went up again, so I had to give you the suppository.  Poor thing. 10 minutes later was the paracetamol.
We had a doctor's appointment to se Dr. Mary to make sure that you had nothing more than a ever. Daddy dropped us off thinking he had time to pick up some things from Cold Storage. Ended up after a big struggle to get your weight we almost saw Dr. Mary immediately probably because of your high temperature. So after picking the medicine daddy arrived to pick us.
Ko-ko was very worried about you.  He kept asking about you. This morning he kept wetting his hands to cool you off.
Again, this afternoon your temperature shot up and daddy and I rushed home to check on you.  Ah Ma had given you a bath while waiting for us. Then she tried to give you the suppository.  Your temperature for now is ok. Hopefully you'll be ok already.

What A Scare

Daddy, you and I were all down with the fever, flu, cough.. you name it we've got it. Good thing Ko-ko was fine. He was ever so helpful.  We'd sent him to sleep with Ah Kong and Ah Ma so that he'd not he'd infected.
Giving you paracetamol didn't seem to help with the fever. So we had to go in to see Dr. Mary. When the nurse checked your temperature, it was 39 degrees.  You had to be given a suppository.
When it was finally our turn to see Dr. Mary after a check she said that you seemed to have the influenza symptoms.  She needed to take a swab to confirm.  If yes then we'd need to give you the Tamiflu medication. We were shocked and worried as daddy pointed out that it was medicine for H1N1 flu.
Anyhow later tonight the nurse called to say the results was negative.  We were so relieved.

Go Away You, Haze

Even before the haze is actually visible, you are both showing symptoms caused by the haze.  Ko-ko started coughing and some mornings woke up with a bad sore throat. Mei-mei started with watery eyes and now runny nose too.
Hope the haze goes away soon and you'll both quickly recover. Muakkss.

Bye Bye, Evelyn's Fever

We were instructed to feed you the paracetamol until Friday morning, but on Friday morning you were still warm. So I had to give you a few more doses. On Saturday, you woke up with runny nose and a cough. Sigh.. Apparently it was to be expected.

We spent the weekend in Batu Ferringhi and you had trouble sleeping. But when we left you with Ah Ma while Ko-ko went to Adventure Zone, you spelt for most of the 2 hours. And then woke up feeling very cheerful.

Sadly the cough and cold would not go away. So Monday morning, we went to see Dr. Mary again. More medicine has to be given and until yesterday, you seemed to be getting better. Your appetite was not very good after the fever but seemed to be better since Wednesday again. Hope it all goes away soon.

Get better little girl..