Getting Back to Normal

Both Abang and Adik are back at kindergarten this morning, HOORAY! And since they're both taking turns to annoy me and my voice has gone up in decibels, that's proof enough that things are getting back to normal after a week or being anything but.

What a week. It started last Thursday moring when the kindergarten principal called me at 0930 and said Abang was complaining his mouth hurts and his body is aching. I immediately fetched him from kindergarten and brought him home. At home I checked his mouth and it was full of little ulcers; there were also blisters on his legs, feet and hands. Daddy and I were concerned it might be hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD).

A quick trip to his pediatrician confirmed it. When the doctor mentioned that he might need a whole week to recover - and hence a whole week of school - I literally cringed. He tried to placate me by saying, "Well, if you notice that he's better maybe by Wednesday he can be back at school. But you have to make sure that the blisters and ulcers have cleared up."

Basically there's nothing much to do except keep him away from other kids to avoid infecting them with it and treating the symptoms, i.e. pain and/ or fever. The actual illness will clear up on its own. The doctor also mentioned to watch out for any vomitting or lethargy in which case we should bring him back to the hospital. Otherwise, it is ok and just try and make him comfortable.

We were worried that Adik might have it too, as he had a few ulcers in his mouth and complained of pain when he ate, but he didn't have any blisters or rash on his hands or feet. In any case, even if he did have it we knew what to do. So just to be safe, Adik stayed home from school too.


The weekend was quite bad for Abang, just as his doctor had predicted it to "get worse before it gets better", having fever off and on and getting more ulcers in his mouth and therefore not being able to eat. Poor Ant J suffered with Abang on Saturday night. But at least he was drinking is milk and cold water so that helped.

Then, on Monday morning, Adik woke up and vomitted. As he hadn't had anything to eat or drink yet, he basically wretched and wretched and threw up a bit of saliva. I gave him some MILO and after a few minutes it some of it came out. 20 minutes later, the rest of it came out. (Good thing we have no more carpets downstairs.)

Between Wan and me, we were either cleaning up the mess or the boy. By the time we took him to the pediatrician at 0930, he had thrown up 5 times.



The doctor couldn't find any ulcers in his mouth (I guess they'd cleared up over the weekend) and there were no blisters on his hands or feet so he suspected it was a "straightforward" case of food poisoning and not related to HFMD. Adik was given a suppository at the hospital and then prescribed some anti-vomit syrup to bring home.

On the way home he fell asleep in the car and continued for 2 hours at home, totally sound sleeping and without any stirring or interruptions. When he woke up, he looked so much better and said something like, "Adik no muntah already" while holding his hand under his chin. I said, "Well, don't you look like you feel better." And he said very happily, "Yes, I feel much better, Mummy!"

Silly Mummy with her wishful thinking assumed that the suppository had worked its magic and Adik was indeed better and so gave him whatever he felt like eating or drinking. He saw the bananas and wanted that. He saw the milk and wanted that too. I decided to add some plain rice with soup.

BAD IDEA. Bad, bad idea.

By the time he had all that he was all lethargic again and said he wanted to baring upstairs on my bed. So I obliged. Before I could say "Hang on, Adik!" I had vomit all over me AND my bed. Aaaaaa.... The cleanup process took ahwile as the offending items had soaked through the mattress cover and onto the mattress. So I cleaned him up first then let him sit on the rubber sheet with a basin and gave him instructions to "muntah inside there" if he needed to.

After that we had no choice but for him to nap on the single bed downstairs.

In the meantime, Abang was up and down - fever would come and go, and he would be whiny and cranky sometimes and cheerful other times. Eating and drinking was as and when it was not painful to do so.

The next day, Tuesday, Adik was still vomitting in the morning and we thought it would be a good idea for Abang to spend the night at Atok's house as a 'special treat' for him. By that afternoon Adik has stopped vomitting and seemed to be holding down all his food and drinks.

Wednesday was Adik's first day back at school. Abang was slowly getting better and by Thursday he only had one ulcer left in his cheek. We prepped him to set expectations with him about going back to kindergarten "tomorrow", i.e. today, and he replied, "I see lah, how I feel tomorrow." Yes, Abang was much better!


So today we had no issues packing them both off to school. Abang occasionally will eat like "normal" so that's a good sign in itself. Yesterday evening we were all playing in the garden again like normal.

Good thing Mummy and Daddy are going away soon for a much needed break since Daddy was home too while the boys were ill!