It's pretty amazing that it took us this long to go for an emergency visit to the doctor...Sam has only gone for three/four sick visits in her life: at 10 weeks she had mucusy poo after a trip to Jakarta (sound yummy?), at 2 she went for mycoplasma and at 2 she also needed to get a doctor's note at the end of hand, food & mouth (she wasn't actually sick anymore - she just needed a note to be let back into school, so I don't really count this one), and I made Matt take her (against his opinion - he was right) for an infection in her finger when she was 3. She was on antibiotics once, for mycoplasma just in case - though they said it doesn't do much, most likely. She is a healthy gal - and she, thank goodness, hasn't had any accidents (yet).
Matt was away for the weekend. Sam had a low fever Friday (around 99), but I didn't think it was anything. She then started acting like a nut, got a runny nose and a cough. Saturday she had a fever around 101 and was coughing a lot. Sunday she had a fever around 103 and sounded AWFUL - terrible cough. Very runny nose. Oy. We stayed home all day, other than a quick walk to get some fresh air (yup - Elie is for sure gonna get this...exposed all day...). Sunday evening around 5:30, Sam said her face feels yucky, her ears hurt and her eyes hurt - "in a place in her head that you can't see" - and her fever was not going down. Shit. Nightmare. Sunday night. Public holiday the next day. No Matt. No helper. Shit.
I texted a few mom friends to see what they would do. Everyone said GO to the A&E - don't want to risk not having antibiotics...and it's a high fever. EVERYONE said to let them know if I needed anything - genuine offers.
Ok - so I am gonna go to the doctor. The wait will be two to four hours. Elie usually goes to sleep at 6:30. It's 6:15. He can't go with us anyway because he will go crazy in a stroller and I don't want him walking/crawling around the germiest place in Singapore (literally). SHIT!! I thought about my neighbors across the hall and their two maids...I brought my baby monitor to their house and asked if they would be willing to just keep it in case he cried for more than 20 minutes (chances were small) or if there were a fire (chances even smaller...) to just get him out. They were happy to do it, and we tested the monitor. No problem. THANK YOU!!!!
I decided to put Elie to bed and try to relax and think about whether this is the right thing to do. He went to sleep easily. I tried to relax. I was furiously texting with my neighbor, Mariana who lives 13 floors up and is SUCH a giving wonderful friend and Susie who has also been there for so many critical moments in my last few years. I decided I could leave Elie with the neighbors, leave them my door code and leave them Mariana's number in case he cried, she could decide what to do. It is one of the scariest things I have ever done - leaving my baby in an empty apartment for an undetermined amount of time...but I did it. Sam was a mess.
We took a taxi to KK hospital, which is probably a 20 minute walk and somehow because of how the roads go and all of the traffic lights, it's also about a 20 minute drive. We got there and it said that there would be more than a two hour wait. That's not so bad...
Meanwhile I couldn't relax. Mariana offered to leave her boys with her husband and go sit in my apartment, but I felt SO uncomfortable asking someone to do that, given that the maid across the hall, Mala, would probably be totally fine - and she takes care of our Kitty when we're away - we totally trust her and she is a good soul. I just couldn't believe my baby was in an empty apartment. Luckily Sam was a champ. She just watched people, we read books, she watched the cartoons they had playing...and about an hour in, Susie texted me that she was in a taxi on the way to my apartment. "How do I get in?" I would never have asked her to do it, but it really made me feel a million times better. Once she got in I did relax.
So - the ER experience here - now that I could focus on that - was amazingly efficient. I haven't been to an ER since a UTI in 2003 at GW hospital...so I don't really know how they work now-a-days, but it impressed me. You walk in and get a number (at 7:21). After about ten minutes we saw a triage nurse. Then you pay $98, a flat fee to see a doctor and for medications. We didn't end up paying because Sam had to pee (and I don't mess with timing for that...), so the lady said we could pay on our way out. Then you go to another waiting room (oh my god - the germs - I didn't realize I was such a germaphobe - I did NOT like the bumps on kids faces, the coughing, the super high fevers...). We waited there about an hour and a half and then we were called into one of 20 rooms (at 9:20). The doctor was very good with Samara, and surprisingly he was anti-antibiotic and other medications, unless absolutely necessary (not so common here). He said her ears were red, but they weren't raging with infection. He thought she had an upper respiratory infection and a flu, and that she should take paracetamol and ibuprofen for her fever, gave us a medication in case her cough keeps her from sleeping and just monitor the fever and let her rest, drink loads of water and get better. He said it could be over soon or could last another week. After we left his room, we go to the next station, where they fill the prescriptions in about three minutes. Then we paid (which again, we should have done at the beginning), we hopped in a taxi, and we were home. Sam was asleep by 10:30. Matt came home around 1.
As an expat, I always talk about what to do in case of emergency - with Matt, with friends...whom do you call when you need help? Plus, I'm SO bad at asking for help (though I'm better than I was, since my whole bed rest experience). I am SO SO SO thankful for my community of moms at City Square - two of them whom I contacted offered to do anything, and I know they would have. And I'm so thankful for Susie who knew when I really needed help that I wasn't able to ask for.
Now we just need poor Sam to get better. We need Elie to not catch it. I need to get better (sore throat and cough for the last 2.5 weeks...), and Matt needs to not catch anything with a compromised immune system (he just went on a crazy long plane ride for a super short visit). Here's hoping...
Matt was away for the weekend. Sam had a low fever Friday (around 99), but I didn't think it was anything. She then started acting like a nut, got a runny nose and a cough. Saturday she had a fever around 101 and was coughing a lot. Sunday she had a fever around 103 and sounded AWFUL - terrible cough. Very runny nose. Oy. We stayed home all day, other than a quick walk to get some fresh air (yup - Elie is for sure gonna get this...exposed all day...). Sunday evening around 5:30, Sam said her face feels yucky, her ears hurt and her eyes hurt - "in a place in her head that you can't see" - and her fever was not going down. Shit. Nightmare. Sunday night. Public holiday the next day. No Matt. No helper. Shit.
I texted a few mom friends to see what they would do. Everyone said GO to the A&E - don't want to risk not having antibiotics...and it's a high fever. EVERYONE said to let them know if I needed anything - genuine offers.
Ok - so I am gonna go to the doctor. The wait will be two to four hours. Elie usually goes to sleep at 6:30. It's 6:15. He can't go with us anyway because he will go crazy in a stroller and I don't want him walking/crawling around the germiest place in Singapore (literally). SHIT!! I thought about my neighbors across the hall and their two maids...I brought my baby monitor to their house and asked if they would be willing to just keep it in case he cried for more than 20 minutes (chances were small) or if there were a fire (chances even smaller...) to just get him out. They were happy to do it, and we tested the monitor. No problem. THANK YOU!!!!
I decided to put Elie to bed and try to relax and think about whether this is the right thing to do. He went to sleep easily. I tried to relax. I was furiously texting with my neighbor, Mariana who lives 13 floors up and is SUCH a giving wonderful friend and Susie who has also been there for so many critical moments in my last few years. I decided I could leave Elie with the neighbors, leave them my door code and leave them Mariana's number in case he cried, she could decide what to do. It is one of the scariest things I have ever done - leaving my baby in an empty apartment for an undetermined amount of time...but I did it. Sam was a mess.
We took a taxi to KK hospital, which is probably a 20 minute walk and somehow because of how the roads go and all of the traffic lights, it's also about a 20 minute drive. We got there and it said that there would be more than a two hour wait. That's not so bad...
Meanwhile I couldn't relax. Mariana offered to leave her boys with her husband and go sit in my apartment, but I felt SO uncomfortable asking someone to do that, given that the maid across the hall, Mala, would probably be totally fine - and she takes care of our Kitty when we're away - we totally trust her and she is a good soul. I just couldn't believe my baby was in an empty apartment. Luckily Sam was a champ. She just watched people, we read books, she watched the cartoons they had playing...and about an hour in, Susie texted me that she was in a taxi on the way to my apartment. "How do I get in?" I would never have asked her to do it, but it really made me feel a million times better. Once she got in I did relax.
So - the ER experience here - now that I could focus on that - was amazingly efficient. I haven't been to an ER since a UTI in 2003 at GW hospital...so I don't really know how they work now-a-days, but it impressed me. You walk in and get a number (at 7:21). After about ten minutes we saw a triage nurse. Then you pay $98, a flat fee to see a doctor and for medications. We didn't end up paying because Sam had to pee (and I don't mess with timing for that...), so the lady said we could pay on our way out. Then you go to another waiting room (oh my god - the germs - I didn't realize I was such a germaphobe - I did NOT like the bumps on kids faces, the coughing, the super high fevers...). We waited there about an hour and a half and then we were called into one of 20 rooms (at 9:20). The doctor was very good with Samara, and surprisingly he was anti-antibiotic and other medications, unless absolutely necessary (not so common here). He said her ears were red, but they weren't raging with infection. He thought she had an upper respiratory infection and a flu, and that she should take paracetamol and ibuprofen for her fever, gave us a medication in case her cough keeps her from sleeping and just monitor the fever and let her rest, drink loads of water and get better. He said it could be over soon or could last another week. After we left his room, we go to the next station, where they fill the prescriptions in about three minutes. Then we paid (which again, we should have done at the beginning), we hopped in a taxi, and we were home. Sam was asleep by 10:30. Matt came home around 1.
As an expat, I always talk about what to do in case of emergency - with Matt, with friends...whom do you call when you need help? Plus, I'm SO bad at asking for help (though I'm better than I was, since my whole bed rest experience). I am SO SO SO thankful for my community of moms at City Square - two of them whom I contacted offered to do anything, and I know they would have. And I'm so thankful for Susie who knew when I really needed help that I wasn't able to ask for.
Now we just need poor Sam to get better. We need Elie to not catch it. I need to get better (sore throat and cough for the last 2.5 weeks...), and Matt needs to not catch anything with a compromised immune system (he just went on a crazy long plane ride for a super short visit). Here's hoping...
No comments:
Post a Comment