Jules in down with HFMD - it's like a never ending cycling of viruses hitting the home - I'm honestly getting really drained and tired.
It started about 3 weeks ago with Dad coming down with a really bad cough and refusing to see the doctor - which drove me really angry. It was no surprise that our daughter - who was none the wiser about her favourite Gong Gong's cough still insisted on snuggling up close with him - came down with a cough for the very first time. It was a matter of time that both the hubs and myself caught the bug and so did my younger sis. One week into Dad's nasty cough and Mum and our helper were the only strong soules left standing. Thankfully, Jules recovered from the cough in about 2 days. While the meds helped, I think the wonderful Eucalyptus oil that my sister-in-law D introduced us helped a great great deal (I'm going to make sure the younger sis and her friends brings a luggage full of these back for us when she goes to Melbourne and Sydney in July!) We adults on the other hand won't doing us great (maybe I should start drinking my own breastmilk!). Having completed my course of antibotics, my throat was still sore and my cough had gotten worst. The hubs and sister weren't any better so off we were at our dear Doctor L again and were were all sent home with a stronger course of antibotics. At this point, mum was starting to get a scatchy throat and by Day 10 of Dad's evil virus, she was down with a full blown flu and an eye infection to match. Our helper had a narrow brush with this highly contagious bug and thankfully managed to cure herself with a few spoons of pi-pao-gao. Day 16 and we looked like we were all finally on the mend except for Mum who was still recovering from her sore throat. So just as I thought we could all finally have some restful sleep and the hubs could join us back in the bedroom for a good night's sleep (he relegated himself to sleeping on the sofa outside cos he was coughing so badly at night), Jules suddenly came down with a fever on Thursday evening - Day 17 of this crazy virus.
We monitored her for the whole of Friday as the fever hovered around 38.3C. I held back sending her to her to Dr V cos I thought it was teething related since she was drooling badly and kept putting her fingers in the mouth. Plus her molars have also been sprouting up everywhere. But when her fever hit 39.3C in the evening - I panicked! She has never had fever this high. I gave her a suppository and we spent the next hour sponging her all over to bring the temperature down to 37C - it thankfully stayed that way till the wee hours of the morning when it climbed up to 38C again.
We whisked her off to Dr V first thing on Saturday morning. We explained the symptoms she had and before she checked her throat, she did say there could be a few causes - dengue included. But once she saw her throat she confidently confirmed it was HFM. The dreaded 4 letter word I wished I didn't have to hear. There wasn't much medication she could prescribed lest for some oral drops to help numb the pain. We were given strict instructions to make sure she stayed hydrated - at least 800ml to 1 litre of fluid of any sort in a 24 hour period. Lethargy, not drinking, not peeping enough and we would have to admit her to hospital to be on drips. It all sounded very scary to me.
The rest of the day was quite a nightmare. We literally had to force feed her milk with a spoon. She won't sit on her high chair and only wanted to be carried. I think the amount of tears she shed yesterday was more than all the tears she has ever shed since her birth. My poor baby has never cried so much! I was totally heartbroken seeing her in so much pain and having so much difficulty swallowing her food, it brought me to my tears. We offered her ice water, apple juice, cold ribena but nothing appealed to her. Thankfully she would still nurse so I just nursed her to sleep for her afternoon nap. In the evening, we had to put her in her pram and walk round the neighbourhood with her distracting her with the birds on the trees and doggies in the park while feeding her some chicken soup. It was such a stressful day - like her milk bottle strike days were back to haunt me. She literally spent the entire of last night latched onto me nursing all night. I was all for it - anything as long as liquid was getting into her body.
This morning, I woke up to a sweet post on Facebook by my younger sis who sent out a prayer request to pray for her little niece. It was the sweetest thing and it brought me to tears (again). And true to His form, God has heard our cries, Jules was clearly better today. She was back on her feet dancing, not as needy as yesterday and found enough energy in her to even play on her own and brew me some tea in a cuppa. She stills needs some cajoling with drinking her milk and water but it's definitely much better than what we had to deal with yesterday. I put honey water into her favourite water bottle and she actually willingly picked up the bottle to sip it throughout the morning. Praise the Lord for hearing our prayers. I'm praying things are uphill from here.
She's gonna be home for the next week at least till Dr V gives her the all clear to return to school. And just to make sure she gets all the TLC possible, Mama is staying home with her and Papa will try take some time off work as well. If having us around is what it takes to make her feel better then we'll do just that.
She's a trooper and I know by God's grace, our Jujubee will get through this and build up the immunity to fight off all these nasty viruses.
What a 3 weeks it has been! It's not over but trusting in God that things will only get better - for this too shall pass.
Pray with me please.
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| Hang in there baby ... you'll be dancing like you always do soon enough! Mama pinky promise |
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