Warning. Seriously long post ahead. Miss Tang keluar meeting. Hahaha. Sila..
Alhamdulillah, Emma sudah di-discharge semalam, with an almost clean bill of health. Problem is the cough is still there. However the pediatrician said that the coughing would take some time to heal, and at least has gone down in just one week. Some children have it for almost three long weeks! Oh such torture for their parents, not knowing what to do ey?
Ceritanya bermula begini. Hari Selasa lepas, badan Emma mula panas sikit, but no fever. Batuk ada sikit-sikit, tapi tiada kahak. Hari Rabu pagi pulak Emma tak kasi aku pergi kerja. Tak boleh dilepaskan, pasti menangis. Takkan aku nak angkut je dia ke rumah Opah dalam keadaan aku berbaju tidur, kot? Hehe. Jadi kami pun baring-baring depan tv. Dalam 8:40 Zufri call aku tanya aku di mana. Aku katalah kat rumahlah, baru 7:40 what. Hahaha aku tak pakai contacts mahupun glasses. Kesimpulannya cuti sajalah. Bagus juga aku cuti pasal kadang kala suhu badan Emma turun naik. Aku pun lap badan dia dengan air suam (never use ice or cold water because it will cause her blood vessels to constrict and keep the heat inside. When u use warm / tepid water your blood vessels expand thus releasing body heat. Correct me if I’m mistaken) dan suhu badan dia normal kembali. Batuk semakin kerap, but still no phlegm.
Hari Khamis semuanya berjalan lancar. Badan Emma sedikit hangat, but also no fever. Khamis juga bapak aku, step mom aku dan Pipi Doo datang KL for a wedding. Kami pun ambil mereka di Pudu. Emma was fine then, but Papa and Zufri commented that she felt a bit warm. The thing with Emma is, she is usually much warmer at night and while sleeping as compared to pagi hari. Initially we all thought she was teething as her gums seemed a bit swollen. So on Friday before going to bed aku lapkan lagi badan Emma. Mungkin silap aku adalah aku biarkan Emma tido dengan hanya memakai diapers. Because I read that you should not bundle up your child when they have fever. Tapi mungkin juga kaedah ini tak wajar diaplikasikan sewaktu malam. Aku rasa sangat bersalah.
Tengah-tengah malam around 3 a.m Emma woke up screaming. A temperature check showed that she’s 39.1 degrees hot. Aku pun cepat-cepat lapkan badan dia dan susukan dia dan kemudian check suhu badan dia dah turun ke 37 degrees something. Oh lupa nak cerita yang aku juga turut memberikan Emma paracetamol twice a day since Wednesday, just in case.
Friday morning I decided to take Emma to a pediatrician near my home but the clinic was closed so we took her to a new clinic in SS2 (aku, Kak Peachy, Baby Shaq, Papa dan Pipi). Masuk-masuk je klinik nurse tanya aku bila last makan ubat demam. Aku cakaplah 10 pm last night. Dia jerit kat aku kau tau. “Anak demam panas, u tak takut ke dia sawan dalam kereta?!” or something like that. Usually I’d feel defensive but that day I felt so guilty. What if she really had seizures in the car? Oh Nauzubillah!
Kemudian dia check temp, was at an all time high of 39.4°! Cepat-cepat dia bagi Emma a higher dosage of Paracetamol to keep the temperature down. Bila dicek doctor (Klinik Dr.Oh di SS2) dia suspect Emma ada pneumonia and should be admitted to hospital that day itself! Aku sangat nervous because people die from pneumonia, don’t they? Sounds like a very deadly disease. I haven’t had time to google pneumonia yet, so I wouldn’t know if my fears are unfounded. Nanti aku update on pneumonia (and bronchitis) OK.
So I decided (I swear, I made the decision by myself) for Emma to be admitted to Assunta Hospital here in PJ Old Town. Was referred to Dr.S.T.Lim who was (in my humble opinion) a very good and funny doctor. Anyway, I think all pediatrician should be friendly and funny. Did an x-ray and the radiologist confirmed that it was pneumonia! Ack! Tapi Dr.Lim kata radiologists Cuma tengok x-ray film, dia tak jumpa patient. Looking at Emma, her breathing dan sebagainya, dia putuskan yang Emma has acute bronchitis. And it was viral (caused by a virus) which is much better than bacterial. Jadi ia bukanlah nanah tetapi cuma kahak.
Alhamdulillah.
Jika anda letak telinga di belakang badan Emma, you’ll hear a cracking sound everytime she sucks in air. Sekarang sudah semakin kurang.
She was put on IV drip the first day she was admitted because she refused to eat or drink anything (including breastmilk!). Dia diberi nebulizer setiap 4 jam, and one time she struggled so hard she tore the needle from her bloody hand (not a curse word, it was bloody). Since she was nursing regularly by then, the Dr. decided to stop the drip. Tu pun pasal aku request. Pun juga aku rasa pasal nurses takut pasal drip tu tercabut dari tangan Emma kan, takut aku complaint ke kan. Hahaha.
Malam tu kami tidur berdua, jam 4 pagi Emma terjaga batuk-batuk. Tiba-tiba nurse masuk, on-kan lampu dan kata, mari kita bagi dia gas sekarang! Hahaha sangat dedikasi ya. The fact that she heard Emma coughing was shocking enough. Oh btw, kahak Emma tak disedut. Aku ada tanya doctor, dia kata tak perlu because (in her words) the salur (bronkus, is it? Trakea? Atau esophagus?) is like a tree, and the bronchiole are the branches. Bila kita sedut, hanya sampai sini (menunjuk ke separuh dada) maka hanya sampai situ saja yang disedut. Phlegm berada di branches. No use kita sedut. It will go off on its own.
OK doc!
Four trying days later, Emma was discharged. Oh, the last night there, Zufri pulak fell sick. He threw up 4 times that night. Akulah yang penat. Mana dengan Emma lagi, dengan bapak Emma lagi. Semoga berdouble-double pahala aku. Hehehe.
Masa nak discharge pulak ada drama lain. Insurance decline, tak nak bayar. Oh gila. Lagu mana cek nak bayaq? Mujurlah ejen insurans kami yang dedikasi came to the rescue. Ada la insurance terms yang aku tak ambil tahu, Syat bayarkan dulu, nanti dia buat claim, bila claim dah dibayar aku bayar balik kat dia. Hehe. Dia kena lah jaga hati dan poket client, bukan? Terima kasih Syat.
Thank you all who came, who called, who commented, and who cared.
