We're still sick

I am now also sick together with Sean. I am not sure whether that is a blessing or is worse that it is over the weekend. The doctors are closed but at least I have my MIL to help me with Sean in the afternoon. My hubby has been taking care of both of us in the morning and at night.

Thank you dear, I really appreciate that you have taken over the doctor duty, because I am feeling just too weak to do anything much.

Sean had added cough to his fever and runny nose. The poor boy cannot sleep because of his cough throughout the whole night. Hence, all of us cannot sleep too. I really hope he gets better soon. This is getting too long. Tomorrow we have to make another visit to the doctor.

Sean is sick

Sean has been having a high fever since Wednesday, so it's been 3 days. Luckily, he doesn't have the croup which caused him to be hospitalized last month. But this time the fever is not going away. We brought him to the doctor yesterday to get the doc's opinion, but again, whenever we go to the doc, he seems ok. He gets really hot at night, like right now.

Poor boy. I hope he gets better soon so he can enjoy playing again. Otherwise this worried mummy may bring him to the hospital again, but that's something I really don't want to do unless it's necessary.

The days after hospitalization

I mentioned that Sean was already bouncing around, pushing his boundaries and testing our patience. He was rather naughty from the moment we came back home. He was just literally bouncing here and there and was rather deviant when we tell him not to.

We went back to see the Pediatrician from the hospital the next morning just for routine check up. The doctor said he seemed ok since he was already gaining his voice back and had no more fever. He said that we did not have to finish the whole bottle of Prednisone syrup, which is a corticosteroid, and only had to give him for another day.

We were wondering what caused his sudden extra naughtiness. Maybe while he was sick he was obedient, now that he is feeling fine, he wants to do everything at once, and therefor the comparison makes it look like he was naughtier than ever? He really could not sit still, jumping on the bed and running here and there, just like an energizer bunny. He was very reckless and deviant.

However, once we stopped the prednisone yesterday, I noticed that his behavior improved. Today, his voice is already back and he is back to normal behavior. I strongly suspect that the prednisone was the cause of this particular behavior.

It is a good thing that we did not have to finish the whole bottle. The list of side effects of taking Prednisone is long and scary!


From About.com

Prednisone Side Effects

The most common side effects of taking prednisone include muscle weakness, osteoporosis, fractures, Cushing's syndrome, pituitary-adrenal axis suppression, growth suppression, glucose intolerance, acne, edema, hypertension, hypokalemia, alkalosis, cataracts, glaucoma, peptic ulcer, nausea, vomiting, headache, vertigo, seizures, psychoses, pseudotumor cerebri, and skin atrophy. Some kids also develop mood swings, become irritable, and have trouble sleeping when they take prednisone.

Most side effects, especially growth suppression, edema, and immune system problems are going to be worse with long term use of Prednisone and less likely with the short term course that most children take for typical asthma attacks or for relief from poison ivy, etc.

What You Need To Know

Although one of the more useful medicines in Pediatrics, especially when you see the dramatic effects prednisone has on a child with a severe asthma attack, it can have serious side effects when overused or misused and it should only be prescribed when it is really necessary.

Other important information:

• your child should not take prednisone if he has a systemic fungal infection or has a known hypersensitivity to prednisone
• call your Pediatrician if your child is taking prednisone and has been exposed to measles or chickenpox
• if your child has asthma and is frequently taking prednisone, then he really should be on a daily preventative medicine, such as Advair, instead

Sean was hospitalized for Laryngitis

Sean started having a mild fever on Tuesday night after swimming. It was mild so we weren't worried. On Wednesday night, his fever became very high. We gave him his medication and wiped him down. We immediately brought him to see his pediatrician on Thursday morning.

Mummy and Daddy took care of Sean on Thursday and sponged him throughout the day because his fever was still high despite the medication.

This video was taken on Thursday afternoon when he started losing his voice.



He started to wheeze heavily in the evening. I called the pediatrician who suggested that we bring him to the hospital to get the nebulizer. But before we brought him there, we went to nearby GP first hoping that he could get the nebulizer there because he didn't seem to be that sick. (Ok, I didn't know what a nebulizer was) The GP also told us to bring him to the hospital. So then we registered and saw another GP who was on duty who confirmed that he needed to stay the night.

Sean was actually still quite active, and I wouldn't know that his heavy breathing was something considered serious if we didn't see these doctors. His wheezing is called Stridor and he had Laryngitis - Croup, which is a respiratory disease.

So Sean had 2 nebulizer treatment at the Emergency Room, one for Adrenaline and another for Steroids before they took his blood for blood test and checked him in. We told him that he shouldn't talk because he needed to save his voice. He was very obedient and behaved beautifully.

This is picture of Sean in the emergency room. He had to cover his eyes because the steroid nebulizer can irritate the eyes.







They gave him 2 suppositories during the night and 2 more nebulizer treatment. By morning his fever was down, but they gave him 2 more nebulizer treatment, one each, adrenaline and steroids.

Sean was sad and a bit depressed. He wanted to go home. Poor boy, he had no voice, so his cry was silent.



Sam and I went home for a quick shower when Mum and Dad came over. We brought him a few toys. He was so happy to at least have a few toys.

We had the laptop so we could watch movies while he was there. But there was no internet so he couldn't play any games.


We asked the doctor to let us check out that day but he told us to wait until evening when he comes and check Sean's condition. He was stable so he said we could leave.

While waiting for the documentations, which took several hours, Sean fell asleep. When he woke up, he complained that his throat hurt. So we asked for another nebulizer treatment before we leave.

By this time, Sean is already so scared of being in the hospital. He didn't want the nebulizer anymore, but we told him this was so that his throat would not hurt anymore. He was crying the whole time he had the mask on. He whispered in his hoarsed voice, " Enough, no more." Poor boy. I was glad that he no longer had fever and we could leave that day.

He was so happy to come home. He wanted to do everything that he missed. He was so impatient to be able to play his games online, and then played a bit of Lego, and needed to touch everything in the room just to feel reassured that he's finally home.

This experience really taught me that we cannot treat symptoms such as coughing or wheezing too lightly. I would have probably wait until Friday to bring him to the doctor again if Mum did not say that the wheezing is not normal. I never thought that Laryngitis was dangerous. I thought it was something that would go away after a few days. I guess this teach me a lesson to be more alert next time.


Today, Sam and I had to rest from the whole episode. I had a mild fever and both of us were just exhausted. On the other hand, Sean is already bouncing around and pushing his boundaries and trying our patience!

From Wikipedia:

Croup
It is characterized by a barking cough; a whistling, obstructive sound (stridor) as the child breathes in; and hoarseness due to obstruction in the region of the larynx. It may be mild, moderate or severe, and severe cases, with breathing difficulty, can be fatal if not treated in a hospital

ear infection and bad cold

I have been neglecting my blog shamelessly. And now I can do a bit of blogging because everyone is out and Sean is with PIL out to the supermarket.

Firstly since we were Jakarta, we've all been feeling listless. The weather there was too hot and Sean was coughing and I was just tired from the trip.Then we went to the farm trip, which was really hot. After that, I just felt terrible every day. I think we all got a bit of sun-stroke. I was tired all the time. Sean wasn't feeling well too and so he was behaving quite badly and I just didn't have the energy to deal with it most of the time. The haze gave me terrible allergies which made me sneezzy and tired all the time.

Then on Sunday night, Sean had high fever, which turned out to be ear infection, and then I got a terrible cold. Totally blocked my nose and parched my throat. So it has been a sick house over here.

But some good things happen at least before the haze started.

PIL started bringing Sean to the park in the evening (before the haze started) and with the extra exercise, Sean behaved better. Once he expends all that energy, he's quite calm in the evening. He also starts playing more with the maid, and therefore mummy can do her work. Anyway, mummy just hasn't had the energy to play much with Sean.

But since the haze started, Sean hasn't been able to go for his daily run with Akong and Ama. And then when he has ear infection, he hasn't been going to school in the morning. So I've got this bundle of energy, with his chesty coughs, runny nose, and fever to entertain. Hubby is equally sick but not as bad, so he has been taking over nap and night duties. And when MIL comes home in the evening , she helps me with Sean.

I wish this terrible cold of mine and Sean's ear infection go away. We'll be so much happier.

Darn.... I hate to be sick.

Combating Mollescum Contagiosum

It started with 3 innocent white head looking spots on his chin. I thought it was because we've been bringing him to Raju too often and all the free papadams were too oily for him. So I said... no more papadams! .... but they didn't go away. I tried using steroid cream.. but we felt we shouldn't be using steroid cream so liberally, seeing that we didn't even know what it was. Baby websites says that it could be a viral infection. Viral infection! That sounds scary!

Our paediatrician didn't know what it was, but said it could be viral infection. He said we didn't have to worry because it's not something dangerous, but recommended a skin specialist for a 2nd opinion anyway.

The skin specialist confirmed that it was viral infection and recommended scrapping each mollescum out with a curette to stop the virus from spreading. It's quite a painful procedure. By then Sean's mollescum had spread itself all over the body, congregating most on his chin, face, neck, chest,waist and thigh. So the specialist said he would give Sean something to make him sleepy while he does the procedure. He's still going to be awake and will struggle. Knowing Sean, it's impossible. He had more than a hundred mollescum all over his body. I think this would really traumatize him. He would scream bloody murder when we put him on the paediatrician bed to measure his height. I can't imagine how we would be able to stand his screams while he struggles as the doctor cuts away his mollescum. Shudder....

The other option was to put him under general anesthetic while the specialist cut away his mollescum. He hinted that he doesn't recommend this to his caucasian patients and muttered something about trauma. So anyway, he told us to think about it and get back to him.

Upon arriving home, we decided to do some research, now that we know what those spots are. It seems very common, and it can cover whole section of the body if not treated properly (looks awful!). It also last from a few weeks to years!!!! But one thing we learn that cutting them off doesn't mean that they won't come back and may leave scars on the skin. So at least we could rule it out because putting Sean under g.a. just didn't sit well on us.

Sam found several medicine online that promotes themselves as being pain-free ways to get rid of mollescum. We searched but they're not available in Malaysia, in fact, even in the States, parents are wondering why their doctors don't know about these. We ordered Zymaderm from Amazon.com. My.... it's an expensive thing for something so little. It's the express delivery cost that inflated the price, of course. =P

Mollescum usually gets spread through water. We still don't know how Sean got it, but we did these to counter mollescum:
1) Dry all Sean's clothes inside out in the sun to kill any virus on his clothes.
2) Wash his towels everyday
3) Change bedsheets often
4) Tried cutting his mollescum ourselves while he was asleep, but caused it to spread more! So we stopped that.
5) Wiping the affected area with alcohol swabs
6) Put Baby Buds First Aid lotion which contain Manuka & Tea Tree oil.
These didn't seem to work much, so in the end, we just

7) Put Calamine lotion to stop him from scratching
8) Put steroid & antiseptic cream to stop it from spreading.
9) Give him cod liver oil to boost his immune system.
while we waited for the Zymaderm to arrive.

Finally the Zymaderm arrived and we dutifully put it when he sleeps. After a week, the mollescum became very red ( which was expected) and Sean looked terrible! By then we've already started playgroup. I didn't bring Sean that week fearing that the other mothers might object me bringing Sean while he had a viral infection. Unfortunately, I didn't know how long it would take for the mollescum to go away, even with Zymaderm.

In the end, I asked the Playgroup coordinator for advice and she said it's ok to bring Sean. She said her daughter also has them and she hoped they would go away after she's 4 years old! What a relief. I really didn't want Sean to miss out the playgroup, now that we manage to get a place in it. But 4 years old is still a long way to go for Sean. I prayed for it to go away sooner than that.

Over the next few weeks, the mollescum slowly disappeared. Zymaderm really works! The chin area has been very stubborn because it's often wet from his saliva. But now we just need to wait for the dried spots go disappear. It has been very troublesome, but we are just very glad that we've found a pain-free solution to mollescum.

If you're going through Mollescum too, check Wikipedia.