Tuesday, September 30, 2014

FIRST LUNG INJECTION AFTER SO MANY YEARS

And prayerfully the last too.

It started on Sunday (28th September) evening. He was making soft moaning sounds. Was drooling alot but after giving him medication, seemed fine.

I went off to my mom's as it was my turn to help with mom on the maid's day off. While there, I received a text from H that Jonathan was showing signs of being unwell.

Rushed home to find him with low grade fever. But escalated to 38.5° in the middle of the night.

This morning, instead of seeing a well rested kid, Jonathan began to look really lethargic. At the clinic, he started breathing heavily and the sound of phlegm coming from his chest area was really loud.

Upon seeing him, the doctor said he looked pale, perhaps we would like to admit him. He left us to decide and proceeded to administer the nebulizer to Jonathan. The nebulizer treatment opened up his airways and he became pink on the lips again. Airways were opened but his chest/lungs were still with phlegm.

Doc gave us 2 choices. Admit him at KK or return to the clinic tonight for a 2nd treatment since he was breathing better. We opted for the 2nd choice.

5 types of medications were prescribed for him. 2 types of inhalers are to be used.

Jonathan has not had a bad lung infection since 8 years ago. I don't know how it became this way although i could see he was already showing signs just a few days back.

Miraculously after the clinic visit, once at home, he started coughing out all the thick gooey secretion that were irritating his throat that caused the raspy crackling sound each time he took a breath. And after giving him chest physio, he seemed to be coughing out more.

I feel relief that he's able to cough on his own. I hate the thought of the suction tube going down his mouth and throat at the hospital.

He has protested even while hearing the discussion between H and I on bringing him to the hospital. But now, even though the fever is 38°C, he's resting and there's less sound coming from the throat.

I think it probably started because he has refused to sit on his chair lately and opting to lie down all the time. I should have been more firm. But since he was ok, it didn't occur to me that it would happened. I totally forgot about it. Huge mistake :(

Treating a child with special needs is pretty much a guessing game when it comes to medical treatment. With Jonathan, even though he understands and can tell us, he will tell you no pain, no discomfort and no problem just to avoid seeing the doctor or a trip to A&E. So it is also a guessing game to see if it's serious enough for urgent medical action to be taken. But funnily he will still tell me he needs medicine when he feels unwell. For this I'm thankful.

Last night we went for the first review at the clinic.

While he was pale and breathless in the morning, the doctor was very surprised that he recovered 50% compared to the morning.

The cough mixture he prescribed did help in a way. Instead of suppressing the coughing, this medication purposely made him cough more. That caused Jonathan to cough out all the phlegm and secretion.

Although it was a long and tough night with fever going up and down, from borderline to high of 38°, having to wake up every hour to check his temperature and making sure he doesn't choke on his thick phlegm was a little draining. He finally had a deep sleep at 5 am.

We still need to go back to the clinic daily for review until they discharge Jonathan. Thankful for our family doctor's who really takes care of our boy.

And glad we decided not to go the hospital. It would have been more tiring.

It's not the haze the caused it. He's been indoors but according to the doctor there is a strong virus strain that's going around. They have experienced a lot of patients with chest infection.

The chest therapy still continues. the inhaler therapy will also still continue. But as of this morning, I'm thankful the fever has subsided.

Now I have to handle the diahroea issue as the Augmenting antibiotic he's taking now causes watery stools. But I'm can't complain. Just have to wait patiently while giving him Lacteofort solution to ease the diahroea.

let this episode be over soon!

Lord, thank you that "by His stripes Jonathan is healed" 1 Peter 2:24

God bless!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

BLESSING FROM GOD ON 25 SEPTEMBER 2014

While feeding Jonathan this morning, halfway through the milk feed while I was pouring the milk into the syringe, he wanted to change a video clip. But instead of telling me, he swung his arm. Well...his arm hit the tube, it became dislodged from the feeding button and the syringe also slipped off from my hand. Milk splashed all over the mat where he was lying on and falling on me and the iPad. My arm and his arm were covered in milk. Naturally, I blew my top. This is not the first time he's done it. Well I can't totally blame him. H has been telling me to be more alert because that's what Jonathan has been doing lately.

 So....

I'm very very thankful that the Lord sent family to cheer me up. They are my cousins Meng, Tay Grace and Sharon Tay; and also so my brother Larry and sis in law Mary.

Sil Mary texted me to say they are making a special delivery.

And it came in the form of a big packet of Chey Sua fried carrot cake. The "delicacy" that I have been wanting to savor for a long time but have never found the chance to go down.

Thank you Lord for this timely gift of joy. Small as it may seem for some. But the huge gesture that came with it means a lot to me and touchd my heart.

Every mouth I took was punctuated with "oh my gosh...so delicious!" Sounds a little too much right? But that's what I felt with each mouthful.

Thanks cousins and brother and sil. The Lord used you to cheer me up. God bless you all abundantly.
I'm thankful that the rest of today will continue to be great today and won't allow anything to dampen my spirits.

If you want some really delicious comfort food, do head over to Chey Sua Carrot Cake stall at:

Toa Payoh Town Council, Lorong 2 Toa Payoh, Singapore 311125


 

TINGKAT MEAL DELIVERY SERVICE

We decided to try out meal delivery service after my sister-in-law mentioned to H about it. We have tried and tested a 5 day service from Kim's Kitchen. The food is nice and tasty. But somehow at least two of the 4 dishes have this sour taste even though the food is still edible. Perhaps it's because they have been in the plastic container for a prolonged time. And they have a sticker that says to consume between 3pm and 7pm.  But we usually do after.

So I decided to search online for another caterer.  This time we have a 5 - day trial fro Rajah Inn.  The food is not bad. Big portions for 2 persons. Slightly more than Kim's. But some of the dishes are a little bland, although mostly are not too bad. I don't mind their food actually.  Here are 2 days' food from Rajah Inn:

2nd day delivery. From top left clockwise: tao yu port with egg / meat balls / cauliflower with broccoli / spicy Korean style chicken.




Fourth day delivery . From top left clockwise:

After Rajah Inn, we decided to go for another caterer.  This time, it's Hong Choo Catering.  The food they provided were delicious.  But their portions were rather small.  Here are some of the food provided during the 10-day trial.







Actually Hong Choo's portions were ok.  But after the 10-day trial was over, I, being itchy, decided to try another caterer.

This time around, we tried Le Xin Catering.  Their portions are quite good although not as good as Rajah Inn's.  But the food was tasty.  They had 2 types of catering.  One was normal food and the other was Asian Delight.  Since we were doing a 10-day trial, I decided to opt for the Asian Delight for $135.  That means on top of the 4-dish course, they will provide any asian staples like fried rice, hor fun, mee goreng, etc.

Their disposabl food containers come sealed. That is why I didn't take a lot of photos when they are delivered.  But what I like about Le Xin's dishes is that they have dishes that other caterers do not serve like prawn fritter, black pepper pork etc.  And for the Asian Delight course, there will be an extra dish of either hor fun, fried rice, pineapple rice, etc on every Wednesday and Friday.  Here are some pictures:






We had mee goreng on the first Wednesday and on the friday we had Thai pineapple fried rice on top of the normal 4-dish course.

They are quite generous with the extra dishes.  2 packets of fried rice for 2 persons.



Now that we have tried these caterers, we have decided to stop for the time being. But if I were to continue, I may choose Le Xin or Rajah Inn again.