2nd major illness: gastroenteritis (with rash)

this year, chinese new year celebrations threatened to be more stressful than the usual relatives' gossip merry-go-round when leah's bout of gastroenteritis recurred with a vengeance.

but let's go back to the beginning: she first started having bad tummy pains*, vomiting and diarrhoea on thurs 8 feb. after a couple of days on diarrhoea medication she appeared to be getting better so i took her to her hospital paediatrician for her mmr vaccination (for which she was actually way overdue).

*that morning she was shockingly subdued and only wanted to sit bent over double, hugging her toes, whimpering.

her dr advised us to postpone the mmr and to substitute that with the chicken pox jab instead. so dd had varilux, and we were told to watch out for mild fever. her appetite was good that day and also the next day. but on wed 14 feb she started rejecting food again although she was still quite active. unfortunately, she had a crappy night and couldn't sleep well for long periods, which meant the same for me...it was all getting a bit ominous for our trip to singapore the next night, and i hoped she would get better the next day.

...naturally, that hope was dashed. leah was again off her food and possetted/puked a little bit after each nursing. she wasn't in very poor spirits but she would sometimes come over to lay her head down on my lap and hug me, looking a bit sorry for herself. i told myself that we would bring her to the dr's in singapore if things didn't improve.

the car journey down to sg wasn't too bad but just as we got to the singapore immigration checkpoint dd promptly puked --- her father, the wag, said his daughter was merely expressing his own feelings towards the city-state (we have a long gripe about the LTA and their regulations on Malaysian cars). we settled in very late --- around 2am --- and dd had a restless couple hours' of sleep after we tried to force Calpol on her, culminating in a large vomit at 5am. that jolted us wide awake and dh was all for driving to the nearest hospital or clinic.

we ended up going to a baby and child clinic in bishan a few hours later. the dr prescribed some oral vomiting and diarrhoea medicine and said that her gastroenteritis was responsible for all the violent vomiting.

that day (friday) dd was still vomiting but not as much after nursing. she was still a bit off food but her spirits were better. she got even better the next day (chinese new year eve) and was almost her usual bubbly, nosy, happy self. her appetite was still off but she seemed to have stopped vomiting completely.

thus we were caught off guard on "chu yi" (chinese new year day) itself when i saw that dd seemed to have developed a semi-spotty rash. i noticed that it was all around her knees and shins and a little bit around her wrists and forearms. she was still a happy little girl though and the strange rash was brushed off as part-mozzie bite and part-heat rash.

however, the rash spread an hour later when i put her on the potty. and she had pooed into her nappy: diarrhoea poo. seeing the rash conquer vast parts of dd made me very nervous and i panicked. we decided to send dd to a paediatric hospital immediately.

this new dr told us that the rash was likely the result of the gastroenteritis. she recommended antibiotic treatment but wanted to see the results of a blood test first. so poor dd's little finger was pricked the blood test; she howled and raged and glowered and howled and whimpered throughout the procedure.

we had to wait for the dr to ring back with the test results (it took about 1.5 hrs later) at home, but meanwhile dd got spottier and spottier till she looked like a right specimen for chicken pox AND measles. although one of the tests came back negative (i can't remember the medical term for it) the dr couldn't rule out a bacterial cause for the gastroenteritis, and thus instructed us to start the antibiotics medication (3.2ml of Klacid twice a day) asap.

thus it was that dd was at her most repulsive looks-wise (with that scary rash) for ALL her relatives and friends on the 1st and 2nd days of cny. her po po lamented that no one will believe how gorgeous she actually is, and this is after she had been touting her granddaughter's beauty to all and sundry.

the turning point was the 3rd day of cny with the rash slowly receding, turning a faint latte hue. she was in good spirits, quite bubbly and her usual dictatorial self (she'd utter, "buh?!" and demand to be brought to wherever she was pointing at.) she had stopped vomiting completely by then too and her appetite came back. the relief i felt is indescribable.

we went back for a follow-up check on the 5th day (thurs 22). the dr said that the antibiotics obviously worked ruling out a viral cause. we were told to continue the antibiotics till sunday (a full week).

it is wonderful to have my lovely, fun and funny dd back to normal again!