SICKNESS AND STAR PAL

On November 3rd evening, Jonathan started showing signs of unwell again.  The vomiting started at lightly at 8pm.  At 9, we brought him to the GP and thought of giving him the jab.  But I remembered the last one he had (Maxilon or something) really made him hyper and he couldn't sleep properly.  So doctor said just stick to suppositories.

By 10pm, the vomting became worse.  And he continued through the whole night. On any other occasion when he is unwell, he would normally stop retching around 4am.  But that night on the 4th, he was still doing it right up to 7am.  Although not frequently but mostly on the hour or two. Vomit contents mostly dark brown.

We were contemplating to bring him to KK but suddenly remembered Star Pals and their after office hours on call. Spoke to the Doctor, who advised me to stop all feeds, even medication. He explained that Jonathan would not be dehydrated even without water for one night.

Doctor arrived within the half hour, checked Jonathan and decided to give him a jab. The injection worked and immediately the retching stopped.  I was told that the medicine for the jab was more to control the brain.  Previous injections at the GP were more for the intestines, to stop the tummy from churning.

Perhaps this is the reason why most of the time, even after receiving the jab from the GP, he would still be retching.  But I was glad that Jonathan finally stopped that morning.

And finally, both of us were able to have a good deep sleep for at least another hour.

Doctor further dispensed 2 other medication for Jonathan which we had to pick up from the local pharmacy.

Thank God for Star Pals!  We were just introduced to this program by Jonathan's neurologist who felt that this service will be beneficial for us.  And we only had one meeting with Nurse Serene.  I must say God really planned it all for us.

Dr Chong is a very gentle doctor.  He was very reassuring and although he had a meeting to attend that morning, he came to us first before going to his office.

He started Star Pals to help children with life-limit illness and special needs.  You can read the article about him HERE.

 Lord thank you for connecting us to Star Pals and thank you for blessing Jonathan with continued good health.

NEURO APPOINTMENT AND BUTTON CHANGE 23RD OCTOBER 2014

Thankfully Jonathan was willing to go to KK that morning on the 23rd of October. He didn't even protest. But I did tell him it was time for button change and he was alright with it. Normally it would be a struggle just to get him onto the buggy.

The waiting time for his appointment with the neurologist was almost 1.5 hours. The doctor said, "it was good to see Jonathan again after 1.5 years." Haha.

Review went well. We found out he is already 150cm tall. And that's almost my height! They will have to use a longer measuring tape in future haha.

After Neuro, we rushed down to surgery for the button change. I was happy that an experienced nurse was there. She always changes buttons at a fast and efficient manner. First thing she asked me was "Isn't he afraid?" Well...if he was he didn't show it. Our boy was as cool as a cucumber LOL. They know him by name and even after so many years they will still ask if he's nervous. I should have said I'm the nervous one haha.

I scooped him onto the bed, they got their things ready, applied lubricant around the stoma and then nurse said "sorry ah". The next thing I heard was a "pop" and a little grunt from Jonathan and done. All within 30 seconds. Very little bleeding. Thank God for that.

We fed him there. It was meal time and also in a way to test the button. Gave him panadol to ease any discomfort.

"Do you have any pain at the button area?", I asked.

He replied "no".

Thank you Lord everything went well. Till next year...