Taken down!

Keeping my son company in Mt. Alvernia

As I am writing this post, my son is lying beside me with a needle stuck in his left hand and a breathing apparatus over his mouth. He has been attacked by pneumonia and it looks like it is a serious case.

The entire thing started innocently enough. A fever was started on Tuesday night, resulting in a two day medical leave from school. On Friday, his fever subsided and we sent him back to school thinking that everything was alright. When he came back from school, a fever had developed again. We went to see a paediatrician and he was given antibiotics. We also started using Young Living essential oils as alternate medication. By Monday afternoon, it seemed promising. The fever had subsided. By Monday evening, it started peaking again and we decided that it was too crazy and went to to the 24 clinic in Mt. Alvernia hospital. 

The doctor in the hospital has decided that since oral antibiotics were not working well, then antibiotics needed to go through the bloodstream. This is the first day only, I am confident that he will recover and be back to his usual. Maybe he might even lose some weight!

There are a few things I have learnt over these trying times:

1. He seriously loves Japanese seaweed. Other children need to be bribed by sweets or ice-cream to eat their medicine. He is bribed by Japanese seaweed. That is good because Japanese seaweed is infinitely better than ice-cream. 

2. He hates medicine. It almost does not matter what medication is given. He does his best to avoid it.  We always tell him that it is for his own good, but he always tells us that that he cannot control it. His mind cannot handle the taste. He even chatters like he is deadly afraid of it. I am not sure how much of it is an act or real fear. But seriously, it drives me crazy.

3. I wonder if anything could have been done to prevent this - the thing is that he had days when his fever was non-existent during daytime. That is why he went to school on Friday and to see the Chingay parade on Saturday. Maybe on hind side, we should have kept him at home all the time? I do not know. I remember our generation used to be tougher last time - I think my son's absence from school from this bout of illness is equal to the total number of days I was absent from school for the first six years of my school life. 

4. We still do not know if Young Living essential oils works. My wife tried a method that worked on a friend's children. It seemed to work at first - after intensive oiling, he looked visibly tired, went to sleep and woke up with no fever. However, it spiked again after six hours. And we discovered that it was pneumonia, something I believe that requires more intrusive intervention than essential oils.

5. Hospitalisation is serious money. The tentative fee is $5,000. Fortunately for insurance. No wonder people always say that in Singapore, it is better to be dead then to be sick. So, remember to buy insurance.

I am seated on the reclining sofa that is going to be my bed tonight. I hope I survive the night. I suspect it will not so easy.

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