Wednesday 29 July 2009

Sam's Cleared!

Yes! Sam is cleared of HFMD and can go to school tomorrow!!!! Hip hip hoorah!!!!!!!

Me have been planning what to do tomorrow since yesterday. Can't wait for Sam to go to childcare tomorrow, then I'll be free to go eat my fav pork cutlet at Tonkichi in Ngee Ann City, buy hubby's fav tomato bread, and perhaps visit the new Ion!

Ah! It's been a torturous week............esp. last Thurs night when Sam's fever peaked just below 39 degC, and Friday when his whole mouth was painful from the ulcers & couldn't eat and needed to be persuaded to drink his milk.

I'm only grateful this time he caught a mild strain, and thus didn't have full blown ulcers on his hands, feet & diaper area, just a few red spots. Oh, please don't ever let Sam catch HFMD again!!!!

Tuesday 28 July 2009

Things Sam are Afraid Of

I never quite understand why Sam is afraid of certain things.

Initially was the green monster in the toilet. I dunno where on earth he got this idea, but it was bloody difficult to convince him to shower in those days.

Then he would insist on closing the windows when we're wiping him at night, cos of the cockroaches that would fly in if the windows are open. No, we've never had cockroaches flying in through the bedroom window yet.

Recently he got this crazy fear of the Mona Lisa. No, I'm not joking. He's already recognized the Mona Lisa from his Little Einsteins TV shows, and for some strange reason he's got scared of it. Now he refused to watch that particular episode, and he's forced us to turn our Magic Cube (souvenir from Paris, shows various famous artwork in the Louvre on different sides of the cube) around so that the picture of the Mona Lisa wouldn't be visible.

Then surprisingly, when we saw a TV advert yesterday night regarding the Da Vinci exhibition in the Science Centre, he willingly wanted to go and see the 'big' Mona Lisa. Now I wonder how long this mood of his will last, and if we should pay to bring him to go see the exhibition.............

Saturday 25 July 2009

Hanging On......

I'm gonna lose my sanity if this goes on. Already I've lost my temper at Sam yesterday night, after trying the whole day to get him to drink water. I've cajoled, coaxed, threatened (with scoldings, toys, & pain) and scolded him, and with exception to the last method, each time he would only take ONE sip of water.

I know it's painful for him to even drink water, but I can't possibly risk him getting dehydrated right???? Esp. if his fever just subsided! And it was with promises of ice cream (which in the end he only ate half a scoop) did he finish his regular sized mashed potato from KFC.

Later I'm gonna get more of the mashed potato, and also some baby food. Think that's all he can tahan to eat now, since it doesn't require chewing & hence less likely to trigger the pain in various parts of his mouth, though no matter what, it'll be painfuil for him the moment he swallows.

Irritating thing is, though Sam finds it difficult to swallow, he certainly has no problem screaming. Now he even cuts back on his speech & goes moaning all day long, but when things don't go his way, he still finds it okay to scream shrilly. And now he'll cry (complete with tears, red nose, & mucus) at the drop of the pin. It's driving me nuts!!!!!!

Thursday 23 July 2009

Getting Worse.......

Sam's fever got higher today. Refused to go down past the 38 degC mark. If it gets higher than 39 degC I'm gonna call the doc, cos he did assure me yesterday that only a mild fever is to be expected.

In the morning Sam was still quite okay: finished a whole piece of bread with egg mayo at 10 am, and willingly ate 5 cocktail sausages while waiting for his noodles. The problem came after his nap, his ulcers spread to his tongue and the side of his mouth (probably cos of his thumb sucking). By dinnertime he found it painful to eat solid foods, and I spent half an hour cajoling him to eat one slice of potato with his fav Yakult.

Can only hope now that this is the worst that he would be facing, cos I don't want him to find it painful to even drink. At least now he's willing to drink his "Ding Dang" & Ribena. Me considering making him banana milkshake tomorrow.......perhaps letting him try KFC's mashed potato.......anything to fill his little tummy!

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Hand Foot & Mouth Disease

I almost instinctively started to type the title of this post as "Sam is Sick". Then I realised I've already had previous posts of the same titles, so I came up with this boring, and also accurate, one instead.

Yep, Sam's got HFMD. This morning I still didn't know, sent him up the school bus after he happily finished half a slice of peanut butter sandwich.

So imagine my surprise when I got a call from the childcare centre 20 min later, telling me they found ulcers in Sam's mouth, so can I please fetch him to the doctor's.

Fortunately my tour today is in the afternoon, so I managed to get Sam to the doctor's & back before going off for my assignment. And the doctor confirmed Sam did catch HFMD, and now has to be quarantined at home for 1 week before going back to the doctor for follow-up. Only after he's been cleared next Wed can he go back to school.

Luckily for Sam, he's got a mild strain of the HFMD, so not likely to have ulcers on his hands. Actually, it had seemed a bit silly to trot Sam to the doctor when he's not having a fever, not feeling unwell, basically still his naughty self, except for some white spots inside the cheeks of his mouth.

In fact, when I received the call from the childcare centre this morning, we had thought Sam was too heaty from the ONE durian he ate yesterday, and my MIL even cooked barley water while we were at the doctor.

But, well, no amount of heatiness would induce normal ulcers to grow in the cheeks, I think. And by this evening, Sam had started to feel a bit of discomfort when eating dinner, so I gave him his oral drops. Which, by the way, he was fascinated with.....went babbling to his granny about this new medicine and the new method of drinking it (drops directly into the mouth, instead of drinking from syringe or cup or spoon).

And luckily I checked his temperature just before bedtime, cos he was running a slight fever by then, 37.8 degC.

So now I'll be stuck with the little bugger for one entire week............in addition to making sure we don't share food with him, have to think of ways to occupy him for 6 more days without him stepping out of the house. Sigh!! Why can't Sam be those super-healthy boys who never fall sick??????? I should never have thrown away the used syringes after he recovered from his phlegm 5 days ago!

Tuesday 14 July 2009

1st Funky Friday

Every Friday, Sam's childcare centre will have Funky Friday, where the children do something special in accordance to a pre-decided theme.

Last week was their 1st Funky Friday, and Sam's class had a picnic. Yes, the picnic that caused his slight stomach upset I complained about in the earlier post. After discussion with his teacher we decided it was probably due to the 2 glasses of orange juice Sam drank during the picnic, since he wasn't used to such large amounts of juice at one go.

Anyway, the photos to Sam's exciting picnic can be viewed here: http://www.slide.com/r/l70eKXDy6z98j9dQ2RRvx3OxgSoDV3eK?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original.

Will try to attach the links to the photos of last week later, after I've survived this stressful work week.

Sunday 12 July 2009

Why So Much Junk Food?????

I don't understand why on earth Singaporean parents like to give their children junk food to bring to school. I never had such problems when Sam was in KL with all the expatraite parents of various nationalities.

My complaint? Sam had a 'picnic' in school the Friday past. We parents were told we can pack some snacks for the picnic, for the children to eat in addition to their usual teabreak food prepared by the school.

Well, I packed some Ritz biscuits, which were not totally consumed by the kids, cos they have more interesting goodies, including Oreos and jelly. I only know of these 2 items cos Sam had Oreo crumbs on his mouth when I came to fetch him, and his classmates were still popping the jelly directly from the containers.

Thanks to the apparently totally unhealthy picnic, Sam lost his appetite for dinner that night. At night he complained of a slight stomachache, and continued to have bloated stomach all of next day, ie. yesterday. By nighttime I realised he had a low fever, which fortunately subsided after 1 dose of medicine at night and doesn't not appear to be the onset of the HMFD that's spreading in his school.

Really, why must Singaporean parents give such unhealthy foods for snacks??? Admittedly, my Ritzs weren't terribly healthy either, but at least I try not to give Sam all-chocolate biscuits, and the jelly I buy for him are the Japanese konnyaku ones that claim to contain fibre & real fruit juice. I myself even cut down on my fav potato chips in an attempt not to let him eat so much of the titbits.

That's not the only example of unhealthy snacking. For my Friday's tour, the primary school specifically asked not to have the break in MacDonald's, and the students are to bring their own snacks.

Well, the teacher-in-charge boarded the bus with a large plastic bag full of Mamee, which he distributed out to the students even before we reach the destination! So during breaktime, the students ended up buying & eating Pocky and potato chips. What's the point of not going to MacDonald's then???????

Really, why can't the children of today snack on buns, cakes & sandwiches like I used to when I was their age??? I'm not even asking for healthier choices like apples & other fruits. Even if we mums are too busy to pack a cooked lunch for our children like what they do in other countries, there're always healthier snacks available.

I now recall a boy from another tour - also Primary 4 - where he chose to eat the peanut butter sandwich his mother packed for him, & exchanged part of his meal with a friend who was packed CoCo Crunch. And get this, they were having their break in MacDonald's, where his classmate ate 2 Fillet 'o' Fish in the 20 min break! Now I can only hope that I can manage to bring Sam up to like the healthy foods too when he's older!!!

Monday 6 July 2009

More Photos of Sam in School

After staying at home for 4 days, Sam finally went back to school last Friday, where he apparently enjoyed a variety of activities, judging from the photos received from the teacher - bless her for working on a Sunday - yesterday night:

http://www.slide.com/r/f3MDgOLk4T_4acKvVuNiMEmrEePWgyWG?previous_view=lt_embedded_url

On a sadder note, there's now a 2nd confirmed case of HFMD in the childcare centre, fortunately not in Sam's class. Still, I'm letting Sam take one tablet of Vit C every morning, just to help boost his immunity system. Keeping my fingers crossed........

Saturday 4 July 2009

My Wordpress Blog

Haven't had any posts with the label "Finally a Woman" for a long while, cos had started a new blog (yes, another one) in Wordpress. That one will mainly focus on my work-related posts, and also some of my random thoughts on current affairs. So if you're interested in me, myself, you're welcome to http://tanhui2.wordpress.com. ;)

Would Sam Catch HFMD?

Had been near impossible to blog with Sam around the house. Yesterday had finally sent him back to childcare after 4 days at home, mainly cos I had to work in the afternoon.

Otherwise, the teacher had actually advised keeping Sam at home till he doesn't require any medication, cos the centre had confirmed its 1st case of Hand Foot Mouth Disease on Monday, and children with weakened immunity system are thus encouraged to refrain from going to school.

So now I'm starting to behave like a paranoid mum, checking Sam constantly for any signs of fever, trying to guess if his refusal to finish his breakfast is a sign of impending illness, or if he's just being difficult.

Most irritating is that his phlegm still hasn't cleared after 5 days of medication. Fortunately it seems to be thinning. I don't want to have to bring Sam to the doctor again for antibiotics, though I'm sorely tempted to do so, just so that he would recover faster and I wouldn't have to worry like that.

And I know my worries are in part on behalf of myself, cos if Sam gets HFMD and can't go to school, I'll have trouble going to work, which is all the more important to me in the next 2 weeks as I have 3 assignments & also training for the HeritageFest tour. My in-laws can't be relied on taking care of troublesome Sam for an entire day, my mum just recovered from flu herself, and there's always the danger of passing the HFMD to Tiffany, who fell sick earlier this week too.

Maybe tomorrow I should go temple to 拜拜, just for ease of mind & to pray for patience to stop myself going paranoid!