KKH - That's where Caleb stayed over the weekend. He has hospitalised for Croup. For those of you who have not heard of Croup, (according to the KKH website) it's a viral infection of the vocal cords, voice box and windpipe. It is usually part of a cold. Swelling of the vocal cords cause hoarseness. All children with croup have a tight, low pitched "barking" cough.
So it all started with our dear Yeeyee inviting our family over to her house last Saturday to celebrate CNY. We had lots to eat and the children had a lot of fun. However, the next day, Yeeyee called and said that Nic's down with fever, a bad throat and stomachache and asked me to check on Caleb. She too could feel the onset of a sore throat and her stomach was churning. Well, I checked Caleb for fever, he was ok on Sunday but on Monday afternoon, he started running a fever that was about 38.5 degrees. He complained that his throat hurt slightly and he had a stomachache and diarrhoea. We brought him to the GP who said that he had wind in his stomach and his throat was slightly red so he gave him some medicine for wind and diarrhoea but nothing for his throat coz it looked like it was recovering. Well, over the next few days, Caleb's fever went up and down but most of the time it was averaging 38.5 degrees.
On Thursday Caleb's throat starting sounding worse and he was looking lethargic and still feverish. We decided to bring him to the pd on Friday morning to seek a second opinion. Caleb's pd diagnosed him to have the same viral throat infection as Nic and gave more medicine for Caleb to take. However on Friday afternoon, Caleb's condition continued to worsened. He took a nap and when he woke up, he looked really bad, he was really cranky and upset and when we took his temperature, we realised that it had gone up to 39.8 degrees. We managed to bring it down after giving him more fever medicine and soaking him in the tub.
Friday night was the worst for us coz by then Caleb appeared to be in a lot of pain. He was crying all the time, he couldn't sleep and kept clutching his throat and telling us that it was very painful. We could tell that he was very tired and in such great discomfort. His voice was hoarse too and he had this loud, hollow cough and his breathing was very noisy. Other than carrying him around and giving him as much water as he could take, me and Daddy really didn't know what else to do. We felt quite helpless and a great deal of heartache seeing him in pain. Well, I did give our pd a call at night coz I was worried that he had developed bronchitis coz he was breathing so noisily. Pd was quite shocked to see how fast his condition deteriorated and told us to bring him to see her again in the morning and advised us that if he had difficulty breathing, we have to bring him to A&E.
Well, we got through the night (it was really long and tiring) and when Daddy brought Caleb to see PD in the morning, she checked and said his lungs were clear (so no bronchitis) but he seemed to have trouble breathing so she sent him to take an xray of his throat and lungs. The xray revealed that there was a tissue in his throat that was swollen and it caused his airway to narrow and he was breathing noisily coz he's actually having difficulty breathing properly. Me and Daddy were really clueless that our son was having difficulty breathing and all this while we thought he was wheezing. Anyway, she advised that we go to A&E immediately and said that he will probably have to be hospitalised coz if his throat infection continue to worsen and his throat tissue continues to swell, it might block his airway completely and cause him to suffocate. This would be fatal if it happens at home.
So off we went to KKH and after seeing about 2 docs, we were admitted. We were later seen by more docs and finally the senior pediatric consultant came and diagnosed him with Croup. And so Caleb had to stay in hospital till his fever came down and show signs that he could breath normally. By the way, this is not the first time that Caleb has Croup. He caught it in Dec but somehow the symptoms seemed slightly different and he recovered very quickly. All the docs that saw him agree that the symptoms that he displayed were not classic Croup symptoms so it was harder to diagnose.
Well, after staying in hospital for 3 days, Caleb got discharged this afternoon. His fever is gone and he's breathing normally now. He's on the road to recovery and just has a slight cough and running nose.
Upon reflection, I'm thankful for a couple of things:
1) That God saw us through and watched over us. I thank God that although Caleb had such clueless parents who did not recognise that their son was having difficulty breathing, His hand of protection was over us and saw us through especially that tough Friday night.
2) For Daddy. Daddy has been extremely patient and "paternal" towards Caleb. When Caleb fell sick, we had to separate Sarah and Caleb to make sure that Sarah doesn't catch the virus. Since I'm Sarah's milk machine, naturally I had to focus on Sarah while Daddy focussed his attention on Caleb. So Daddy was the one bringing Caleb to all his doctor visits and Daddy stayed over in the hospital with Caleb. Caleb has been very cranky and unagreeable the whole week but Daddy has done an excellent job managing and caring for him.
3) For Grandpa, Grandma and Chek Chek. Grandpa and Grandma have been very supportive and took turns to stay at home with Sarah whenever I had to rush down to the hospital to spend time with Caleb. And they also took time to visit and occupy Caleb, and gave me and Daddy a little timeoff to rest and recharge. Well, Chek Chek did what he was good at... chauffeuring Grandma and Grandpa around :p
5) Family and Friends. We had many family and friends who visited us at the hospital, prayed for us, checked on us everyday on Caleb's progress. I'm thankful for the concern and encouragement that we received.
4) I'm also thankful that what Caleb has is just a one off infection and that he can recover fully. I felt really helpless and a great deal of heartache watching Caleb suffer in pain and discomfort over the last few days. And it was very difficult for us to manage Caleb when the doctors or nurses tried to draw blood from him, hook machines on him and examine him. I cannot imagine what it is like for parents with children who suffer from chronic illnesses. It must be really tough for them emotionally to watch their children suffer and physically draining to care for them.
Enough of the heavy stuff... tomorrow... when we have the time... we shall post up Caleb's hospital photos!
