All About Your Child

Received a call from the Polyclinic an hour ago for the test results. Just completed lots of phone calls.

The most important one was to the school. I shocked Keatkeat’s teacher when I broke the news to her:

“Both Cheng Keat and Cheng Bing did the swab test. Upon doing it, the doctor had said that Cheng Keat’s saliva sample was not sufficient, hence the results would not be accurate. Cheng Bing’s sample was sufficient and it has been proven H1N1.

The doctor mentioned that its impossible that the ‘starter’, which is Cheng Keat, did not have the virus. The poor sample was the cause of the negative results. The doctor is very sure that Cheng Keat has H1N1 too, now that Cheng Bing is confirmed.”

The teacher’s reply: “Oh dear. Cheng Keat is one of the last few who is down. Two weeks before he was on MC (medical certificate), there were already students who were away for 10 days and they still came back to school with running nose and cough. They came back just because the MC period was over. So Cheng Keat is definitely not the ‘starter’, but someone else. Someone…. whose parents did not report that its H1N1.“

“My boys were lucky because they were the first 5 who went to the polyclinic on those 2 days. Hence they were given the swab test. Each test cost $300, which is fully paid by the government. So I guessed those children who were sick before Cheng Keat probably didn’t get the chance to do the swab or they might have gone to the General Practitional, who obviously would not be paying the $300.”

“Please give us a report for the test results……”

So tomorrow I’ll be going down to the Polyclinic (to collect the report) again for the 4th time in a week!!! Once for Keatkeat, second visit was for Binbin and TODAY I drove Allan down.

Allan’s health had a sudden turn for the worse. Migraine. Fever. Super Sore Throat and Cough that makes him gagged. He does not have appetite to eat. Could hardly walk in a straight line. Has been lying down ever since we came home……

*Deep Breath*

The doctor told me that he could almost 100% confirm that Allan has H1N1 too, even without any test. So 3 confirmed H1N1 in my house and I am still on my feet, still eating my daily never-fail-to-make-me-happy chocolate.

I have survived for 8days…. Whoo-Hoo!!! Will I continue to survive? Or the worse is yet to come?

A war of 3 against 1…..what are the chances of winning?

Remember what I said yesterday? Both were down with fever, but as usual, the weaker one had it first and is still the one being affected. Binbin, my mighty strong boy, who catch the temperature later, is completely well already since 6am this morning.

Allan and I woke up every 1+ hour to sponge the two little one. So you can imagine our eye-bags. *grin* Its such times that I am thankful I didn’t get what I wished for — 4 children. *wink* Our effort were ‘appreciated’ and rewarded with a perfectly healthy Binbin when the sun rose this morning.

But Keatkeat got worse. First it was just fever, then running nose came ‘running’ over, followed by vomitting after nightfall and cough didn’t want to miss the party by appearing uninvited in the morning.

Brought Keatkeat to the polyclinic with a 39.5 Celsius temperature. The youngest member in the sea of the sick. After examining him, the doctor said “High Chance. It could be H1N1 (swine flu).” He apologised for letting us wait while he do the necessary paperwork for my elder boy’s case.

He moved on to proceed with the saliva collection procedure, but it was not a good take, ‘cos KeatKeat kept gagging. After which, he turned his body towards us and gave a 2-3mins speech:

“The saliva sample was not a good take. So don’t rely too much on the report. The report will be out in 7 days. If it is H1N1, we will inform you. If you didn’t receive any calls from us, then its not.

Every test cost $300 and is paid by the government, hence it is not for everyone. Its only for the first 5 ‘possible H1N1’ patients who come to the polyclinic everyday. The test is for survelance purposes, not so much to confirm if the patient have the swine flu or not.

The sample will help researchers who are working very hard round the clock on this epidemic.

There are already 90,000 people affected, imagine that number multiply by $300! *eyes rolled*. So your boy happened to be the 3rd patient today who have a high possibility of having the swine flu virus.

Here (in my town, not country), 80% are down with H1N1. It happened to drop to 60% last month. Still, its quite a high percentage as compared to other towns.

H1N1 is not as scary as what we thought it was. Most patients recover by the 3rd day, just by taking normal medication. Nothing special will be given unless your child has asthma and younger than 4years old.

I am giving your son a 10 days MC (medical certificate) stating ‘Influenza-Like Illness’. You will need to inform the school so that the teachers will be on the alert, for the benefit of his classmates.

Even though your younger boy is well now, I do suggest that you keep him in view for another 2 days before you send him to school, just to be sure.

Fever is a good sign, because flu loves cold environment, so the body’s immune system acts up by raising the body temperature to kill the virus. So fever is not that bad a thing, other than you will have a lethargic child.

Keep the child in a well-ventilated environment at all times. Don’t bring down the temperature too much. Simple sponging and lots of plain water would be good enough, so that heat can be passed out through urine.

When we prescribe the medication for fever, its not so much for bringing down the temperature, but rather to ease the discomfort felt by the child.

Since Mommy will be taking care of the sick child. Mommy and the sick child will be in one room, away from everyone else in the family. If your son refuse to wear mask, Mommy must wear a mask. If there is a need that the child wants to leave the room, a 2 meters away distance from other members would be good.

That is because the virus is present in saliva. If your son talks and saliva is spitted out accidentally, the person next to him can just get the virus by inhaling the virus let out in the air in the ‘spitted’ saliva.

Hence please stay at home for the full 10 days even though the patient is well before that. ‘Cos the virus is still present in the saliva for the next 7 days after fever has subsided.

This is not to protect yourself, but rather protect the stranger standing next to you if you leave the house. If that person standing next to your son has diabetes or stroke, by inhaling the virus, the person might just die due to complications; which is what has happened to the cases of death in Singapore. They were NOT purely due to H1N1 virus, but rather due to complications with other sickness.

So Daddy and the younger one (if after 2 days of wellness) can continue their usual routine so long as Mommy is the ONLY ONE taking care of the sick boy. Please do NOT change care takers, because if both of you are sick, who will take care of the younger one?

Now, there is one VERY important thing. If any of the 3 symptoms happen at any time, you must call 995 for the ambulance immediately.

1. The fever kept rising, no matter what you do to keep it low.
2. The child is no longer aware of who you are or where he is.
3. The vomiting continues non-stop.

Please do not take risk. The moment such signs show up, please call 995 immediately.”

Before we leave, he passed us a piece of paper printed on both sides, with the title “Instructions to patients of suspected Influenza A (H1N1-2009) on Home Treatment.”

*Phew* That was a lot of info for us to absorb man!

So, we want to be socially responsible beings, hence like what we did for Binbin, when Keatkeat had chickenpox; Binbin will be at home till his elder bro is well enough to go back to school. This is what I call brothers-sticking-with-each-other-in-sickness-and-in-health. *wink*

The only upset is we would be missing my FIL’s birthday celebration, for the first time, next Saturday. I called MIL to inform her and apologised to FIL too.

So the boys will be back in school on 1 September 2009, which I think is really silly. *eyes rolled* ‘Cos the school will be taking a one week break on the 5th. So they will be in school for only 4 days. *sigh*

*Please forgive me if there are more grammer or spelling errors in this post. Not having a complete 2 hours sleep is the only excuse I have.