Another Hospital Visit

So now it's Heidi's turn to be hospitalized. There is no escaping the fact that all three must, at one time or another, stay in the hospital for reasons other than their being born.

It happened on Friday. Well, actually, it happened one or two weeks before that, I should say. She had these big round red spots on her body, especially the arms and legs, that faded in a day or two, but would be replaced by new ones. It freaked out the care givers at the Infant Care, but what freaked them out further were those that appeared on Thursday. It prompted them to make a call to inform me at work: She's got these red patches on her face. The next day, the red patches had spread such that her face, from the eyelids down, was an even red and slightly bloated. Her eye lids looked puffy. Yes, she does not have eyes like dishes to begin with, but I was quite sure they weren't these small either.

Coupled with a mild temperature, the doctor at the polyclinic (whom I had to see in isolation as the nurses were afraid what she got would be contagious) referred me to A&E. So off I went, after giving her her breakfast cereals at home. The A&E doctor was also cautious. After asking me quite closely about her medicine and food intake, and finding nothing that could be a possible allergen, she recommended that Heidi be warded, to be seen by more specialised doctor. And so it began.

I should say I did not particularly enjoy it. The only good thing was it kept me away from the household chores, so I really could not make myself busy on them. I used the hospital's patient clothes for Heidi. They were a little large, but she looked so active I couldn't feel sad at all seeing her in them. I wanted to take a particular picture of her with one fore arm leaning on the cot bars, standing up so that her head was above the barriers, and her rashes sort of fading but not quite, in the baggy clothes. She looked so grown up then, like an idler leaning forward against a fence in a field. But alas, I had no camera with me. So anyway, I need not wash any clothes of hers. As for me, as Heidi would not let me out of sight, I could only do a quick wash when my parents came with Jianming bringing a change of clothes for me on the evening of day 2.

As the environment was new, she was excited, couldn't sleep well, and didn't want anybody else to carry her. Oh, the nurses were not required to take care of this patient. Mummy took care of everything, even the administering of medicine (just for the runny nose and phlegm). I went to the toilet once when I could not bear it anymore, and I could hear her cries as the hospital staff tried their best to sooth her and carry her.

There wasn't any place for Heidi to crawl or toy to play with. I asked a nurse where I could bring her to play. She pointed to the back of the ward helpfully. Upon reaching it, I found it's a dismal space of some children's table and chairs, one tattered toy that exercised your dexterity by making you move beads along some rods (the kind hospitals and clinics everywhere seem very fond of displaying as THE toy for bored kids to play with, and which were seldom touched by them) and a television that was always switched on, at Channel 8, watched by usually an old lady or a bored adult, but seldom the kids.

So poor Heidi had only the cot to move in, since she could not walk yet, and I could not condescend to let her crawl on the floor. Day 2 morning, a guy came, bringing some toys and said he wanted to guess her age by assessing her development milestones. Heidi pounced on the toys like someone deprived. And I too, was eyeing his toys even before he opened up the transparent box containing them. I remember a completely different experience, some three years ago, that her brother went through in another time zone. What is a Children's Hospital, if it doesn't have a play area and proper toys for the most important customers?

To tell the truth, Heidi probably did not have to stay in the hospital. In the same ward as Heidi were: a boy who could not breathe and had to have his throat cut so that air could get to his lungs; another whose arms needed to be propped up by wooden planks and did not seem as if he could move on his own - his limbs looked that weak; a baby younger than Heidi who required milk to be fed thhrough tubes, another boy who seemed to be slow in development and suffering from high fever. All of them lay in bed all day, hardly getting up at all.

Heidi stayed for two nights there: the doctors wanted to observe and make sure her fever had subsided, her rashes had faded or stabilised and her coughing was better, before discharging her. The morning the doctors came to do the rounds (and there was a group of doctors, I think some were new and learning), one lady doctor told Heidi softly, "Goodbye. Grow up strong and healthy." I guess it's always a welcome change to be able to discharge the little patients with a light heart.

So we were discharged with the diagnosis 'Erythedema Multiforme', which according to Wikipedia, is "a skin disorder of unknown cause". Which is as much as can be said for the whole experience there. Question marks ruled.

As it was some while since I last wrote the above, I should also update about Ethan. Well, Ethan has had this hoarse voice for the longest time (well, about 3.5 years). I think it happened one day when he was 2 years old plus, he had a cold, and his voice was hoarse. And we waited for him to recover. Then we gave up waiting.

Recently, we have taken to telling him to stop shouting. He can't seem to control the volume of his voice. One night on our way home a few weeks ago, I noticed that apart from straining his vocal cords to speak loud and high, his voice was also fading some what. Concerned, I suggested getting a referral to see a specialist and surfed the net for hoarse voices in children. It does seem to warrant some attention.

So one day, while Jethro and Heidi were having their developmental assessment, Ethan went to see a doctor to get a referral. The following Monday, Jianming brought him to see an ENT doctor. The verdict - vocal cords nodules. According to Jianming, the doctor thought the slight abrasion at his voice box could be the cause of the hoarse voice, and his loud talking could be the cause of the abrasion. So, he's to take a medicine that would reduce the acidic secretion at his voice box, and he's to go for speech therapy to learn to use his voice properly. I hope we may get to hear his kiddy voice again.