Hospitalized … again
April 6 2014
Last Sunday was supposed to be our happy family trip to River Safari with the grandparents. Yet, it turned out to be otherwise.
At midnight of Sunday, Matthew suddenly had a high fever onset of 39oC. Decided that it would take a while for the Ibuprofen to warm up to room temperature and Voltaren suppository would be a better choice, Matthew received one bullet. 2.5 hours later, the temperature was still high so we gave a dose of Paracetamol and this is also something which our PD had instructed us before, to alternate 3hrly between paracetamol and ibuprofen so as to prevent Matthew from going into a febrile fit.
I guess we just couldn't stopped it. Matthew had a febrile fit at 6.50am and all we could think of is to call for the ambulance. It was my 2nd time witnessing him entering into a convulsion and in all honesty, we panic. We couldn't think of the diazepam to stop the fit and could only manage the ambulance part.
It was short, less than a minute. The ambulance came quickly too, within 5 minutes from our panic phone call. We reached NUH A&E within 15 minutes. There and then, Matthew went into another fit again in A&E at 7.20am. Really shocking. But I knew what I needed to do, to stay calm, get out of the medics' way so they could resuscitate him.
We were booked in to NUH once again… admitted to Ward 47 once again. But we decided to go for a better ward. So we got upgraded to B1 ward 47A and it changed my opinion on NUH greatly. Was it a case of "money talk" or was it a case we got a great doctor?
Either way, Matthew and us as parents were less traumatised by the whole stay and medical treatment. The senior consultant Prof Daniel Goh is a wonderful PD and we really like him as he has a similar style as our own PD, Dr YY Yip. (side note: This round, Dr YY Yip was on leave again when Matthew had fits. Called it "suay" (bad luck) or what).
His team of junior PDs was attentive and patient. The ward 47A nurses were accommodating and Matthew soon was waving hello and byes, sending kisses to them. They all love Matt and Matt trusted them too.
So after 4D3N staycation at NUH, Matt was reluctantly discharged. He was still having high fever spike, other than that, he was very active. Prof Daniel Goh scheduled an early review for us so that they could still monitor Matt closely.
From this experience, we have learnt
1. Febrile fits for Matt doesn't have to hit a high temperature of 40c. In fact, his 2 fits came with 39.2c and 38.7c.
2. It seems that Matt's brain has a super low tolerance of stress when the body went into "fighting" mode with the virus. So the way forward for us is to build up his immunity.
3. It makes a lot of difference when you have a good doctor. It gives the parents the confidence and makes the child trust him. Matt trusted Prof Daniel Goh like how he trusted Dr YY Yip.
We are also thankful to Agape Methodist Church and the pastoral team. Pastor Vincent came with Stanley to pray for Matthew. The ladies formed a WA chat group to get updates so that they could pray for specific needs.
We will be back on Friday again in NUH to follow up on the lab reports and for Prof Daniel Goh and his team to review on Matt again. I feel Matt is in good hands despite Dr YY Yip is not in town.
Last Sunday was supposed to be our happy family trip to River Safari with the grandparents. Yet, it turned out to be otherwise.
At midnight of Sunday, Matthew suddenly had a high fever onset of 39oC. Decided that it would take a while for the Ibuprofen to warm up to room temperature and Voltaren suppository would be a better choice, Matthew received one bullet. 2.5 hours later, the temperature was still high so we gave a dose of Paracetamol and this is also something which our PD had instructed us before, to alternate 3hrly between paracetamol and ibuprofen so as to prevent Matthew from going into a febrile fit.
I guess we just couldn't stopped it. Matthew had a febrile fit at 6.50am and all we could think of is to call for the ambulance. It was my 2nd time witnessing him entering into a convulsion and in all honesty, we panic. We couldn't think of the diazepam to stop the fit and could only manage the ambulance part.
It was short, less than a minute. The ambulance came quickly too, within 5 minutes from our panic phone call. We reached NUH A&E within 15 minutes. There and then, Matthew went into another fit again in A&E at 7.20am. Really shocking. But I knew what I needed to do, to stay calm, get out of the medics' way so they could resuscitate him.
 |
| the plug on his right hand |
We were booked in to NUH once again… admitted to Ward 47 once again. But we decided to go for a better ward. So we got upgraded to B1 ward 47A and it changed my opinion on NUH greatly. Was it a case of "money talk" or was it a case we got a great doctor?
Either way, Matthew and us as parents were less traumatised by the whole stay and medical treatment. The senior consultant Prof Daniel Goh is a wonderful PD and we really like him as he has a similar style as our own PD, Dr YY Yip. (side note: This round, Dr YY Yip was on leave again when Matthew had fits. Called it "suay" (bad luck) or what).
His team of junior PDs was attentive and patient. The ward 47A nurses were accommodating and Matthew soon was waving hello and byes, sending kisses to them. They all love Matt and Matt trusted them too.
 |
| poor Matt |
So after 4D3N staycation at NUH, Matt was reluctantly discharged. He was still having high fever spike, other than that, he was very active. Prof Daniel Goh scheduled an early review for us so that they could still monitor Matt closely.
From this experience, we have learnt
1. Febrile fits for Matt doesn't have to hit a high temperature of 40c. In fact, his 2 fits came with 39.2c and 38.7c.
2. It seems that Matt's brain has a super low tolerance of stress when the body went into "fighting" mode with the virus. So the way forward for us is to build up his immunity.
3. It makes a lot of difference when you have a good doctor. It gives the parents the confidence and makes the child trust him. Matt trusted Prof Daniel Goh like how he trusted Dr YY Yip.
 |
| fruit basket from Agape |
We are also thankful to Agape Methodist Church and the pastoral team. Pastor Vincent came with Stanley to pray for Matthew. The ladies formed a WA chat group to get updates so that they could pray for specific needs.
We will be back on Friday again in NUH to follow up on the lab reports and for Prof Daniel Goh and his team to review on Matt again. I feel Matt is in good hands despite Dr YY Yip is not in town.
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