My Dollie Baby

Subject: Racia in Hospital
Date: 24 August 2008 (Sunday)
Racia is 1 year, 5 months old and 3 weeks old today

Racia was admitted into hospital on Friday afternoon and stayed a totalof 2 nights at KKH! This was because she came down with a suspected case of Hand Foot and Mouth disease. Main suspected case was transmission o fthe virus from Gu Gu was diagnosed with HFMD earlier that week. Mummy hopes to blog all that has happened in this entry.

20 August 2008 (Wednesday)
On Wednesday afternoon after her afternoon nap. Nai Nai found Racia running a fever. Temperature was only about 38° at that time. Racia was immediately given Paracetamol and her temperature cam down. Mummy was on MC that day and was home the whole day. However that night, her temperature shot up to 38.5°. She was immediately given another dose of medication. Near dawn, her fever broke.

21 August 2008 (Thursday)
On Thursday afternoon, Racia's fever came back. She kept having recurring fever which peaked at 38.5°. Daddy came home early from work and brought Racia to Dr Koh in the afternoon. Dr Koh found Racia's throat infected and she was promtly prescribed antibiotics and more paracetamol. We were told to bring Racia back to teh clinic if she continues to have a fever tomorrow.

That night, Racia's fever peaked at 38.7°. Mummy was so worried and with Nai Nai immediately brought her to the bathroom to be sponged down. Racia kept crying throughout the entire sponging process. Mummy and Nai Nai managed to bring Racia temperature down to about 37.8° after the sponging. Mummy was so worried that she almost brought Racia to KKH A&E then.

Racia was crying throughout and Mummy wanted to sooth her by letting her breastfeed. Racia opened her mouth in an attempted to latch on but before she could do it, she gave out a loud cry and clamp her mouth shut. Mummy sense something was wrong. Racia tried to latch again and before her mouth could close onto the breast, she clamp her mouth and cried again. Then, mummy saw this white spot on her tongue. Mummy immediately got daddy to bring a torch and attempted to shine into and see her mouth. But Racia was uncooperative and she kept on crying. And at that moment, mummy feared that she might have gotten HFMD.

22 August 2008 (Friday)
In the morning, Racia was still running a fever and Mummy and Daddy immediately brought her back to Dr Koh for another assessment.

At the clinic, Dr Koh told Mummy and Daddy that Racia's tongue, walls of her mouth and her back of her throat was filled with ulcers. In fact That morning, her lips had two small ulcers showing, These ulcers seems to have appeared overnight.

Racia was diagnosed with HFMD. The weird thing however was that Racia did not show the typical symptoms of HFMD as she does not have any rash/blisters on her palms and soles of her feet. Infact, her body was covered with many small fine red dots all over. Dr Koh went on to say that some babies do not have rash/blisters. Dr Koh's advice was to admitted Racia to KKH if her fever does not come down. She prepared an admission letter for Racia.

Back home, Racia's fever refused to come down despite the medication. Worried that Racia will be dehydrated (she refused all food and water and could not even breast feed), mummy and daddy packed Racia's stuff and together with Wai Po, proceeded to KKH.

At the emergency section of KKH, Racia was assess by the nurse at the entrance and was told to wait for her turn. Mummy and Daddy waited close to an hour before it was our turn to see the doctor. Daddy was unhappy and criticised KKH emergency for not isolating us as ours was a HFMD case. In fact, we were free to walk around and we had to wait in the common waiting area where everyone else (and other babies) waited for their turn, thus putting the other children all at risk!

After assessment, the doctor assured us that Racia was not very severely dehydrated and she was to be admitted to the isolation ward. If her condition do not improve, she will be put on the drip.

Racia was brought to Ward 46 - Level 4 - Children's Ward where she was admitted.
The nurses at the ward were great! They are all so friendly and gentle with the children.

Her is Racia in her room having her dinner. She barely ate more than 2 spoonful and refused to drink from her straw cup. This could be because her ulcers were very painful. Doctor ordered an ice cream for each of her meals, but Racia refused to even taste it.
Racia was really listless and she wasn't her usually active bubbly self. Infact, she was lying on mummy most of the time.

Racia was given water from the spoon and cup instead. Infact, Mummy managed to successful train Racia to drink from a regular open cup during this hospital stay.