~~~~~~Lilypie Fifth Birthday tickers ~~Lilypie Second Birthday tickers~~~~~~

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Ordeal 瀚月的一周苦难记

It has been a terrible week for Mei Mei. The week started with a light-hearted Sun morning at the Wong family. Mei was a bit feverish in the afternoon, so that I brought her to one GP. As it was merely starting, there was nothing conclusive and a few fever & cough medicine was given. The symptoms were not obvious except for the temperature. We still played a fair bit on Monday and Tuesday. Fever was not subsidised, so I brought her to another GP, who declared that the lung was clear, and same medicine continued with Flumicile added to loosen the phlegm.

On Wed night, things made an ugly turn, and I was waken up by Mei Mei's cry. When I held her in my arm, she was literally a hot pot. I had to convince my medicine-aversive hubby that things was not rosy at all and we had to bring her to hospital. We settled for a specialist, as I did see his point that there would be trauma in hospital. We landed at Kinder Clinic at Gleneagles on Thursday morning. Dr Gong is new to us, but he seems a fine doctor to me. Temperature taken at 39.9 degree; Paracetomal given immediately even before Dr Gong has arrived; tests ran and a relief to know influenza is excluded; Nebulizer given to clear the airway. Then we sat down, and Dr Gong gave the option of hospitalisation vs monitoring at home. Panic, I opted for hospitalisation. To date, I still couldn't tell whether it was a right decision. My pool little girl has gone through such an ordeal in the hospital until she has stress induced motion every time a nurse enters the room. My heart aches...

Contacted insurer, obtained Letter of Guarantee, admitted. Another choice between single bed vs 2 bedder room. Luckily my company covers up to single room and guaranteed bills.

Ward West 9, Gleneagles, bed 935.

Thursdays afternoon: Mei Mei had difficulty to breathe as the phlegm was simply too much and too thick. Trauma No. 1: Nurses came to inform that they had to perform suction, in order to clear her airway and get phlegm for culture. My girl was forced to lie down, wrapped by bed sheet to restrain arms/legs swinging, catheter inserted, thick phlegm out, tears out, hers and mine...

Thursdays night: Mei Mei could barely sleep for more than 5 minutes in a row, as she would cough herself up. With Nubelizer, phlegm was loosened and there were large amount in the whole airway. She was either not able to cough out and triggered vomiting, or phlegm coughed out from nose and mouth and sad mum was covered by both vomits and mucus. I held my girl the whole night. The first night that we were all together by ourselves since Jun, where Han Jin had taken over Mei's place after the China trip. I always thought of having a big bed, so that I can have both my kids to me at night. Paracetomal, Neurophine, Volaren suppository, all given, fever was still out of control. At 5am, temperature turned 40.4 degree.

Friday morning: Trauma No. 2: Nurse called Dr Gong at 5am. It was then decided that antibiotics was required not only by oral, but also through IV. 7am, Mei Mei was brought to a procedure room, again, bed sheet wrapped her with just one arm out, for the IV. Ever being a nurse myself, I had days that giving IV to more than 20 kids in one morning. It was a job to the doctor and nurse involved. It is a heartbreaking moment for the parents involved. Mei Mei cried, mumbled, 'Mum, hold me, get up, auntie go, Mummy, help..'. I couldn't help her out, instead conspired with the medical staff to hold her down. I strolled my fingers through her hair, and tried to calm her down. She gave in struggling, just staring at me with tear-welled eyes. My poor girl, how sorry mummy is.

Dr Gong came at 8am and explained that Bronchitis had gone deeper, pneumonia might be looming. After the IV drip, we were wheelchaired to X-ray to check on the severity of lung infection. I had to go back to work for half day for some urgent project UAT testing. Daddy took the slot in the afternoon and testified Mei Mei was a bit better in the afternoon. Auntie Imelda was there during the day, helping out quite a fair bit, to relieve me from holding Mei as she now only sleeps on me or Imelda. In the evening, Han Jin came to visit and Mei was very happy to see Gege came and played in the corridor. Her mood was much lighter whenever Han Jin came to visit.

Friday night, the fever was largely under control, hovering around 38 to 38.5. She sleeps better, so did I, under her. She was terrified with nurses, and we agreed that I would take the temperature and tell the nurses instead of them coming in. At medicine rounds, we either played hide and seek in the corridor or ran a bit after each medicine given. For nubelizer, I played 'who wants to be an elephant' with her. I also picked up my nursing skill to adjust the nubelizer volume and resolve IV drip collusion, all to prevent the sight of a nurse to Mei Mei.

Saturday, things got better. We even went out for a limited tour in the hospital. The fish tank at Medical Center block entertained Mei a lot, and we sang 'Fishes, fishes, where are you' together. Normal medicine rounds, nubelizer, IV drip, and temperature controlled around 37 to 38 degree. Mei slept even better in her lovely green cot (probably the first time since birth that she had a near whole night in a cot) and I caught up some sleep on the sofa bed. I even read a little Straits Times while waiting for an update from the nurse. There was this motherly nurse for night shift who is very caring, and full of smile. A little gesture of always holding the door until it closes won my heart, as minimal noise was welcomed for Mei's sound sleep. A pity that I did not get her name.

Sunday morning, the IV was blocked when the drip was nearly finished. It has to be taken out before the antibiotics and saline goes into the tissue instead of vessel. The soft needle has apparently kinked since Mei became very active again on Sat. Dr Gong was called upon, and he decided to let us be discharged. In conclusion, he mentioned that there were early lung infection evidenced by the Xray and it responded well to the antibiotics. Mei was 80% recovered and we need to go back for follow up on Wed. We loaned a Nubelizer machine from the clinic, bagged our stuff, thanked the staff, signed discharge form, came back home, sweet home.

A summary assessment for Gleneagles West 9 ward: Satisfactory. Nurses are very nice and accommodating. Service staff are nice and puncture. Rooms can be bigger but have nice bathroom. Meals are delicious. The paintings in the corridor is a plus, cute, educational and loved by both my kids.

At home, we used my newly-bought Braun ear thermometer to measure Mei hourly. Temperature was below 37.5 on Sun, no fever medicine required. Temperature was below 37 on Monday, and was around 36.5 today. Oral antibiotics continued. Everything is rosy again. We are due for follow up with the clinic tomorrow, in fact, today.

It was such a relief that this ordeal has come to an end. As a mother, I don't know whether I had made all the right choice for my precious little one. But mummy try to make the best choice at all available means for my loved ones. Han Yue, Mummy love you so much! We work together to fend off any possibility of ordeal in the future, and Mum will always be there, sunny or rainy.


瀚月在Angelina家

周日(1月9日)
早晨,瀚月在Angelina家玩的挺开心的,流一点小小鼻涕。下午,妹妹有一点发烧,去了一家诊所,因为是刚开始,没有诊断,给了发烧和咳嗽药。

3 宝3连拍

周一 周二 周三(1 月10号 11 号 12 号)
拜一拜二妹妹症状不是很明显,我们其实也没有狠心逼她好好吃药。只是体温时高时低。回想起来,妹妹都是在晚上比较严重,可是我晚上没有跟妹妹睡,不知道情况。应该是更小心些的。周二早上,我还带她去另一家常去的诊所,医生也说肺部清晰,应该是病毒感染,体温应该在三四天内降下来。





周四 (1月13号)
拜三晚上我听到妹妹在哭,来到她的房间,抱起她,烫手的妹妹。挨到天明,和老公商量一定要送妹妹去医院了。老公是个对西医蛮反感的人,经常看了医生,却不让吃药。折中,大家同意带妹妹去看儿科专科医生。在鹰阁医院的龚医生诊所,妹妹的体温39.9度,护士很是吃惊,打给龚医生,直接先上了退烧药。医生来了,做了一些检查,决定住院。妹妹的痰很多很稠,做了几次雾化治疗,并不见好,呼吸都有困难。医生决定抽痰。很痛苦的过程,我可怜的女儿。
到了晚上,妹妹基本上不能睡超过5分钟,会咳醒。吐了3次。抱了一夜,放下的话,呼吸会堵住。我基本上是胃内容物和痰盂。早上5点,体温烧到了40.4度。护士打电话给龚医生,决定开始静脉点滴抗生素。

雾化治疗
可能太大了,速度很慢,再续。

Monday, January 17, 2011

Art Wall 瀚今的美术墙

We received the graduation photo for Han Jin's N2 class from Little Skool House by the Vista. Inspired by the art wall in Hong Feng's cluster house, I decided to put up Han Jin's art work for this year. Han Jin started Visual Arts class in LSH 3 months ago, and I do see improvements in his drawings.

He was very excited on his works on display and explained each drawings with details. I understood that the fish swims in dark blue sea; glittering Christmas trees has dangling jojo for hanging of presents?; the yellow house in the zoo belongs to our family, while the rest are the houses of our 6 neighboring families; Han Jin and Mum went on kite flying, though actually it was Dad who ran with him in the grassfield for the kite........

We also took out the dinosaur wall sticker, Han Jin's 4th birthday presents from Angelina, and pasted it on the wall. It was cute that there are exactly 5 dinosaurs, and Han Jin  has named each of them: the little one in front is the Brother Dinosuar, talking with the green giant Papa D, followed by Mama D with little red Mei Mei D in between, and lastly Aunt D.

瀚今从小班毕业了,受了洪凤家美术墙和胡平家美术馆的启发,我把瀚今的美术作品都贴在了墙上。瀚今很开心的和我分享了每一张画作的故事,难得我腼腆的儿子很骄傲呢!瀚今四岁生日时收到Angelina的礼物:恐龙贴纸,我们也把它们贴上了墙。可爱的儿子可以描述出恐龙一家的活动:哥哥恐龙走在最前面,在和爸爸恐龙讲故事;妈妈恐龙和小小红色妹妹龙跟在后面;最后的是阿姨恐龙。


Last week, I stayed at home quite a bit as both kids were not doing well. I worked from home on Monday, and took day off on Wed though it was our FX hedging day (thank my immediate manager for being understanding and appreciate the flexibility). Things went ulgly on Wed night, and Mei Mei was admitted to Gleneagles Hospital on Thurs and was discharged today. I will update more on this string in next entry. Right now, let me finish Han Jin's art works.  Han Jin was kept at home from Mon to Wed as he was coughing, and we spent a little good time together before Mei Mei fell seriouly ill on Wed night. On Wed, Han Jin and Mum made stars together with the following steps:
1. Mum draws a star;                   2. Han Jin colors the star;                         3. Han Jin cuts the star;
4. Mum fine cuts the star;             5. Han Jin puts doule sided tape;              6. Han Jin puts up the star.

瀚今和瀚月上个礼拜都不舒服,在瀚月的情况还没有严重之前,妈妈和瀚今一起做了星星。妈妈负责画和精剪,瀚今负责填画,粗剪,放胶布,贴星星在墙上。值得一提的是:所有妈妈的照片都是瀚今照的,很不错呀!之前一直没有给过瀚今机会,看到贞霓的博客Angelina已经会照相了,所以瞒着爸爸给瀚今用爸爸心爱的照相机 :)

Star Making 一起做星星 Han Jin: You Are Mummy's Star in the Making!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Backlog cleared 全新开始


总算把上次的几个blog entries import 进这里了。以前的照片还在windows live, 去这里看,好吗?
http://cid-d8fe7871f3abc450.photos.live.com/summary.aspx?sa=959947845

这几个礼拜都做了什么呢?倒叙是比较容易想起来的。今天去Angelina 家,美味的食品,猪脚醋让我老公想起来我坐月子的时候 :)瀚今&Angelina 一起吃饭,做瑜伽,umm,Angelina是我们的啦,有照片为证,童鞋们不要吃醋哦!
昨天瀚今的Yamaha音乐课第一次开课,爸爸带去的。妈妈在外面看着自己长长的手指懊恼,就和妹妹玩自拍了!下午去拿妹妹的carseat,去朋友家的cluster house 吃饭,有大房子还是很好的哦:)

上个礼拜去了动物园,妹妹很有成绩的喂了长颈鹿,这几天一直不停得说呢!另一天,和朋友们去了Henderson Waves,瀚今和瀚月在桥上滑滑梯,不亦乐乎!

Finally cleared the backlog: imported the previous blog and uploaded the photos taken in past few weeks. However, the earlier photos still stays in windows live in link attached above.

Some photos for Mei Mei at playground and with her friends (Xiao Niu & Angelina have moved away, so recent photos at playground only have Qing Qing & Jia Jia):


Mei Mei at playground & with friends 瀚月在楼下和小朋友们玩


One of the days, we had icecream at Jia Jia's house and played her fancy toys. Look, Han Jin was definitely enjoying himself. Well spent time over the New Year leave, we went to Henderson Waves with friends on one of the days. Han Jin had his adventurous slide on the Henderson bridge and Mei Mei followed. Oops, she fell... Han Jin started cycling with the bike we bought for his 3rd birthday over a year ago. Yesterday, Han Jin started his music class at Yamaha, Mum did not volunteer to be the accompany parent, but felt slightly regreted so. Everybody, Han Jin and Daddy is going to play us a melody in near future! Bored outside Yamaha, Mum took a few photos with Mei Mei.

Henderson Waves 和佳佳家的冰激淋

妹妹和妈妈

Other days over the new year, we went to the zoo with Dou Dou family. Mei Mei and Xiao Niu took a photo together. Mei Mei was very proud of her feeding of the giraffe, and keeps mentioning it these few days. She would say 'wash hand over there' which stands for 'Mei Mei fed the giraffe with carrot, and the uncle asked Mei Mei to wash hand over there as the giraffe licked Mei Mei hand with saliva'. See, Mum is good at interpreting Mei Mei!

Today, we went to Angelina's house for Mummy to learn some blogging tips, and we enjoyed ourselves very much with the lovely food and company. Han Jin played well with Angelina, from dining together, doing Yoga together and ended up in the bed together.. innocently. Thanks, the Wong family.

At the Zoo & At the Wong family 动物园之旅 & Angelina 家的美食和好友

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Christmas 2010 又是一年圣诞节

Another Christmas came and gone. I started a blog last Christmas and it became dormant a few weeks later. Hopefully, this one will last.

Well, some photos for this Christmas by HaoJun's Dad, another professional photograher (or 'to-be') in the neighbourhood. We joined the Christmas party by the local community on the eve, and a few mummies are helping out with the event as we are all volunteers in the local RC (or voluteers with a purpose, :)).

Christmas Eve at Community Party 圣诞夜社区晚会
 The next morning, the six families gathered at Sentosa beach. Kids played water in the fun pool and the beach; mummies and daddies took turns to break, either have a sip of beer (thanks for the beer, Dou Dou family), or help ourselves with the fruits and crackers; aunties also had a good time with their friends.

In the late aftenoon, we joined our neighbour for Christmas party. Very nice food, and lots of games to play. Did not take photos as mummy is busy with Mei Mei while auntie has her Xmas celebration with friends.

圣诞夜我们在社区举办的晚会中度过。圣诞清晨在圣淘沙海岸和六家的爸爸妈妈,孩子阿姨度过。圣诞晚餐在邻居家过,他们是基督教徒,有火鸡的晚餐还是蛮有味道的。

清晨的照片,爸爸们在喝啤酒,妈妈们在摆美,孩子们在玩水:)

Sentosa Beach 圣淘沙海岸

Friday, January 7, 2011

A moment with Mei Mei at west coast park

These are some older photos from west coast park trip, with the neighborhood family friends, taken by Ping, a professional photoghaher. :) Just noticed that Han Jin is not in the photos, while, our little buddy is somewhere in the sands, I guess. Daddy & Mummy enjoys a little sweet time with Mei Mei!

去年十月在西海岸公园的照片,妈妈和爸爸在好好享受与瀚月的甜蜜时刻!好动的瀚今应该在玩沙子吧!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Newly Created Blog

One of the new year resolutions I had is to build a family blog, which can post photos. Seems this one is working! Thanks Chen Ni for the tips. I will start with uploading a few photos. Have fun! Happy New Year!



Sunday, December 27, 2009

My Investment 我的圣诞节

26/12/2009 10:53:36 PM
 
To make my limited money works harder for me, I am starting to get into the practical side of the investment world. So far, I have not utilised my textbook knowledged. The Relations Manager at the bank I spoke to, was surprised to find out that I am a qualified CFA and ACCA, as if I should be at the other end of the table. But the fact is, I am really a newbie to investing my own money.
 
So today, I got 10% of my investable asssets into 6 unit trusts weighted heavily in Emerging Markets and balanced by a global bond fund, with a slight portion in commodities to pick up the yield. Yesterday, we bought the first car after I passed my driving test 2 days ago (while, it is expense rather than investment). Last night, I logged into my on-line trading accounts for the first time to trade some Singapore blue chips, but forgot my trading password and kept trying until my password was suspended. This afternoon, I called my friend at home to chat about investing property in Xi'An. I switched on the computer now aiming to search for property in Xi'an, but got diverted by a friend's blog, who is a supermum lived nearby and gave me a hand-made earpiece as the Christmas gift. I am scratching hard on my  head to think of some gifts for her... I can't do anything made by myself, not saying that I do not have the interest or skills, but just no mood and time now. I am all into investment this holiday season... my Christmas is not white or silver, but goldish.. :)))
 
这个圣诞节让我暖暖的,是两个unexpected 圣诞礼物。是附近的两个妈妈给的,一个是自己手工制作的耳环,晶莹剔透的草黄绿色的珠子;一个是Maybeline 的腮红,可以在我的颊上画出浅粉色的害羞。是妈妈们在提醒我多在意自己了吗?我的时间全部给了工作(间接的是为了家庭收入)和家人,之前爱臭美的我好像已经不在了。我可以绝对素颜地出门,no makeups, no accessories, no high heels... 虽然我也爱这样的自己,可是还是要考虑到别人的感受呀,特别是 the Supportive Spouse. 不可以变成黄脸婆呀Wink
 
我的圣诞节在一片投资的氛围中渡过,我终于学以致用了!Hurray!
 
谢谢你们,我的朋友!

Comments

ping hu - 27/12/2009 2:33:52 PM
http://www.tankinlian.blogspot.com/ read this blog before u make any investment in SG. btw, show me yr car? ^(oo)^