While everyone is celebrating

we are home bound.

23 January

I came back from work early as Jonathan was going for a speech development assessment. I was home at 5pm and had my dinner. Matthew was looking well and we played for a while. When we left at 5.30pm, Matthew was having his dinner. He looked tired and wanted me to carry him. So I told the maid to let him nap after dinner.

At 6.30pm, the maid came and spoke to me in a panicky voice " Mdm... come home fast. Matt ... very sick "

I told the therapist that I needed to rush home and while in the car, my maid called again " Mdm... how long more. Matt very sick. Shake shake. I very scared "

My heart wanted to pop out by this. Her English was not good and in between, while trying to understand what had happened and what could be done, I was shaking myself.

When we finally got home at 7pm, Matt was lying on the bed. Motionlessly. He couldn't even stirred himself up and looked at me in daze. I took the thermometer, it was 40oC.

I rushed out with Matt while Darren gathered the necessary stuff and then Matt vomited in the car while I was trying to settle him. We went back up again to get him changed and it was only by 7.30pm, we got to NUH children A&E. The temperature had gone down to 38oC but he was looking dazed in his stroller.

Nobody attended to us and we had to wait quite a while at the triage. Even after I alerted the triage nurse that Matt could have suffered a seizure at home, nothing was done. There were a few patients and  clearly there was a shortage of staff. It was after repeatedly asking, a nurse came by with ibuprofen and then I alerted the nurse that Matt could have suffered a seizure attack at home. This time round, she quickly brought us into the observation ward.

We stayed there till almost 9pm and then the doctor came round to ask us a few questions on his questions. There, we were informed that Matthew had to be warded. So I drove home to pick up the necessary things while Darren stayed with Matt. It was almost 11pm that I received news that Matthew had been warded to the Pediatric Ward.

Thinking it was just an overnight observation and everything would be fine, I only packed enough to last for a night.

However... the next 24 hours, changed the entire situation.

Matthew's fever was up and down. When it spiked, it rose quickly to 40oC. Almost close to the end of 24hours, Matthew suddenly had another seizure which I witnessed it. He was suddenly shivering and then his temperature just went up so quickly. I noticed he looked quite "strange" with a jerking movement of his hands twice and suddenly, he fell backwards, eyes rolled back and he started convulsing.

Right there and then, I was terrified. I couldn't even talked properly and the medical team swamped in. He had a rectal diazepam inserted to sedate him, oxygen mask put on him. Suction was ready and the doctors put a plug on his leg to take blood for tests. It was all so fast and all so sudden and I started to cry.

his 2nd plug

The doctor explained that they now had to keep Matthew further in the hospital and a lumbar puncture to extract his spinal fluid was necessary to determine if his seizure was caused by meningitis. I asked the doctor to hold the procedure till Darren got back to the hospital.

the lumbar puncture

The next 72 hours, I was living in constant worry, anxiety and helplessness. I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat and felt utterly helpless looking at Matt.

The lumbar puncture was done on the 25th January early morning 3am. We were told to wait at the ward. When Matthew came out, he was shaking so badly, crying and babbling incoherently. Because of the pain and the high fever, Matt had gone cranky. It took almost 2 hours to soothe him and he finally fell asleep crying. I was exhausted. The next morning, his fever spiked again and I was so scared he went into another seizure that I broke down.

A staff nurse came by and gently tried to help me. She let me tested the water temperature for sponging and she carried Matt so I could have a chance to freshen up myself. Visitors started to come by and that morning, I drove home in a daze without even releasing the foot brake.

The medical team started intravenous antibiotics and Matt started to have very bad diarrhoea. He was terrified of the nurses and doctors. He was also terrific of diaper change. It became hard to change him with just one of us so Darren stayed over at night with me. My mum and maid took over the afternoon shift. I would go home when mother-in-law came in the morning and Darren would go home after my mother and maid arrived. It was exhausting for all of us.

The exhaustion was nothing compared to the "no answer" given by the medical team. After 5 days in the hospital, no one could still tell us what had happened to Matthew and his fever was still up and down. We requested for discharge after the spinal fluid culture came out to be negative.

We brought Matthew to our own PD at Gleneagles and Dr Y.Y Yip was concerned with the prolonged fever. He ordered rectal swab test which later turned out to be negative. So he wanted us to bring Matthew back on the CNY eve. That morning, Matthew still had a fever although his fever temperature was coming down. He gave us some more time to monitor Matt and instructed us to admit Matt if his fever continued to Saturday.

Back at home on the CNY eve, NUH called. The doctor told me that Matthew's urine culture was positive but they were not sure if it was a true positive or due to contamination. They had wanted us to bring Matthew back to A&E on that day for a repeat urine test. The doctor went on that it was unusual for a 13 month old boy to have urinary tract infection so they would check on his kidneys. After considering the odds and risks, we decided to let Dr Yip decide and also Matt's fever was coming down after a week long battle.

burning 40oC 

Then yesterday which was Saturday, Matthew went into a vomiting spell. He couldn't drink and eat. For the whole day, there was only 2 wet diapers. Darren wanted to send Matthew to KKH.

Thank God, his fever was gone and so was his vomiting spell. Tomorrow, we will head back to Dr Yip to get his kidneys checked out and as well ascertain Matthew's health status.