Discharged and back home

Today Victoria was discharged from hospital. Her mood yesterday was better and she enjoyed the company of her Mama Yeh Yeh, and Popo who took care of her at night.

Apart from eratic moody moments, and her uncooperativeness during the physiotherapy, her spirit seems lifted and less emotional. She loved walking round the ward to kill the boredom and we spend a great one hour or more at the indoor play area just outside the ward too, where she ran and jumped, and climbed and watched other kids play.

During lunch and dinner yesterday, I asked her to pray for the food. She prayed, saying (not word for word, though), "Dear God, thank you for the food, I pray for my hand that you heal it, for my cough and phlegm please take it away, and for Daddy that you bring daddy home early to spend time with Mummy so that Mummy will be happy (haha) and for Mummy that you heal her (I'm not sick, but I think that's a nice thought) and for Heh Heh that you take away her cough.... (the rest I forgotten)... In Jesus Name, Amen."

This is the coolest prayer I heard. The faith of a little girl. I'm sure God heard that prayer.

Today, her lungs have cleared but the phlegm is still there, the cough is less. Doctor said she is safe to be home, and prescribed her with oral antibiotics and flu medicine, nasal spray and ventolin.

She had two special visitors today, her teachers from school (Ming Choo and Chai Hoon) and Pastors Benjamin and Sally (all the way from Seremban). They prayed for her.

Her next checkup is this Saturday, and maybe an X-ray test next Monday or Tuesday, depending on Saturday's checkup.

I took this picture before we left for the hospital on Tuesday. We had a short but enjoyable painting session and she painted these herself. The same on 31 August, when she was first admitted for acute gastroenteritis, she did some painting before going to the hospital.

Look at my hand! It is "injured". It was very very painful when the doctor and nurses put this on for me.

A brief happy moment for the camera.

This is the door to my room, C525. She joked with Mummy last month that she likes the "Monkey room" when William was admitted, and now she's got it.

Taken on the second day, helping herself to the nebuliser (when the nurse was not around, of course)

Colouring in her room. We did, "Bob The Builder" together.

Admitted again

Victoria was admitted today for mild pneumonia. She had flu, cough, a lot of phlegm and sometimes fever for the past 2 weeks. She seen a doctor a week back in Seremban, who gave her 7 different types of medicine ie mucosolvan (for phlegm), durotus (for cough), singulair chewable tablets (for breathing), zyrtec (for flu), paracetamol (for fever), ventolin (for breathing and cough) and cedax antibiotic. She's finished everything except for the flu and fever medicine, and yet, the cough, flu and fever still persist, and we've been almost worried sick ourselves.

So yesterday evening I called her paediatrician at his house since it was after his clinic hours, and described all Victoria's symptoms and medication. He said to ask her to come in today.

This morning Victoria's cough improved slightly and her nose is not so runny, but better to still see the doctor. We arrived his clinic at 12noon, and again ran through all her symptoms. She went through an X-ray test, which revealed a lot of phlegm on the left side of her lungs. Daddy came by as soon as he got news of condition. William and maid was with us.

Doctor diagnosed her with slight pneumonia.

She was admitted. We did all the usual admission papers. So much dejavu.

We are back to ward C5, the children's ward. Her room is C525. Shortly after "checking in", she was requested to the treatment room to draw blood and put a needle in her veins. The procedure was traumatising. You could say that after been through it once, she'd be braver, but my little girl was more afraid and more emotional than ever.

I held her, and could hardly hear myself admist her cries. I dried her tears, and held back mine. The two nurses held her tightly as she struggled. When it was all done, the doctor stroked her face, consoled her that it's over and there's no more pain, then he bend down, and kissed her forehead. He calls her "Sweetie" and I know he cares.

At that point, I could not hold back my tears, and the doctor said, "Now your turn to cry."

An hour later, the physiotherapist came in, and needed to perform some form of massage and therapy to loosen the phlegm in Victoria's chest. She became emotional, and fearful. Victoria only cheered up a little when she was asked to jump as high as she could. I joined her as an encouragement.

Shortly after, the nurse came in to administer nasal spray, oral medicine and antibiotics through her veins. Victoria again, became very emotional and fearful. No consolation nor amount of hugs and explaination can convince her. I did the nasal spray for her, and also gave her the two oral medication as she refused to allow the nurse to do it.

Tonight Daddy takes the night shift in the hospital, where else I need to take care of William at home. Again, the house is exceptionally quiet without our darling Victoria.

We miss her everytime she's away. She asked for Mummy to stay on with her in hospital, and I wish I could, yet William needs his feeds as well. Tomorrow I will be in the hospital the whole day to watch and accompany Victoria, while William rests at home, cared by the Maid and Mother-in-law who came up today.

God, can you hear me?

Welcome home, Daddy!!

Victoria got a piece of sand art in her goody bag on her last day of school. We did it in the afternoon (it was also my first time). She was very excited, and very happy with the result.

Not knowing where to put it, I decided to stick it on our main door entrance as a surprise for Daddy when he gets home very late that night because after work, Daddy had to attend his class. Normally when he has class, he gets home nearing midnight feeling hungry and very tired. And by that time, we would all be in bed sleeping or preparing to sleep.

Victoria was really excited with that. We even did twice a role play of Daddy driving his car back, pretending to unlock the grill door and getting a pleasant surprise!!

Daddy didn't see it at night, though.

He surprised us by coming home in the afternoon instead. ;)

Playing with his food... then zzz

William had his usual rice cereal dinner, but was exceptionally playful. While I had my own, the maid fed him, and we were both entertained by his "saliva" antics. Naturally, he didn't eat much.


After dinner, he wanted to ride on the stroller, so the maid pushed him around the dining hall and kitchen area, while he chewed his teether. I moved to the living hall to finish my dinner while watching Mr Bean cartoon. Then I realised he was exceptionally quiet, and asked the maid how is he.

Guess what? He fell asleep.

The visit to Tangkak

Some church friends recommended this doctor who practises in Tangkak, Johor, and known for healing many people with allergies, without using needles or blood tests. His method, known as the muscle test, is very unconventional and we understand that he learnt this in UK, where else the method originates from Germany.

The decision
Initially, we were sceptical, like many others, and half wondered if he is some sort of medium, or miracle doctor, but the friends who went there testified that he is an authorised doctor, who is also a (non-practising) lawyer. So, after many thoughts, we decided to give it a try. Because she still showed signs of ezcema now and then, which takes weeks to heal, and we know there must be something else which she is allergic to, or maybe we've not done enough.

The journey
So yesterday we made our journey down to Tangkak, which is an hour and half drive from Seremban. Hubby, mother-in-law, Victoria and myself, together with Heh Heh went. After breakfast and packing some cereal snacks for her, and all the food stuff which we'd like the Doctor to check, we left Seremban about 1030am. Victoria was excited and playful in the car. She knows she's going to see a doctor, and we briefly explained what the doctor will do ie asking her to hold some specimens and lifting an arm.

The procedure
It's a funny procedure, and one that not many can believe without seeing. I didn't. After a brief check on our family history on allergies, and Victoria's admission this year for acute gastroenteritis, he started the test, very quickly by asking her to hold test tubes, sometimes one at a time, sometimes 2 or 3, while Daddy placed his hand on her head, or holds her hand, and the other arm lifted horizontal. The doctor then tries to push Daddy's horizontal arm down, while Daddy tries to resist. Despite Daddy's strong arms, if the arm falls, then we know Victoria is allergic to the specimen in the tube. If Daddy's arm stays up and horizontal, then there is no allergy. Apparently, this has to do with the energy within us.

Victoria was cooperative albeit a little impatient and restless in the middle, and sat on my lap while Daddy puts an arm on her. Half way through, I volunteered to be the one lifting the arm so I can experience it myself too. I tried to resist, and kept my arm very firmly up, but when there is a food she is allergic to, my arm fell. Shocking!

The shocking result
Victoria was tested for many food stuff, and even spray like Shelltox. Amongst many others, these food stuff were tested... eggs, wheat flour, yeast, milo, biscuits, mango, japanese rice crackers, ice cream, mint, chicken, fish, shellfish, mango, grapes, orange, apples, pear, cow's milk, soya milk, sardine, pasta, bread, beef, kiwi, dust mites, pet dander, and even Heh Heh!

And we found out that, she was more allergic to eggs, a little allergc to mint, and quite allergic to yeast. The level of allergy to eggs, mint and yeast was also tested. She is also to avoid grapes and all insect spray like Sheildtox. We are told to use the electric mat instead. On her allergy to mint, the doctor suggested that she avoid using all toothpaste for these 2 months, and just brush her teeth with water.

No allergy to Heh Heh, thank God.

Unfortunately, because yeast and eggs are found in many other food, she still has to avoid them. Favourites like roti canai, tosei (in case there is yeast), sausages, japanese biscuits, pasta and buns are to be abstained in the meantime.

The good news is that she was found with NO allergy to wheat flour, chicken, ikan bilis, oats and dustmites in this test. Victoria was happy when she heard that she can eat wheat flour and chicken. But in the car, she asked me what else did the doctor say. I told her, "well, you can't use toothpaste coz there is mint in it."

Victoria then asked, "Then how I brush my teeth?"

"Well, the doctor said you should just use water" I answered her.

Then she replied, "This doctor ahhh... (shake her head)... not good lar."

Haha, she made me laughed.

The antidote
The doctor explained that in our body, there is this negative and positive energy. Something like yin and yang. A balance. He is not a chinese sinseh, but a western trained doctor who did a special study in allergy from Kings College, London because his wife and son had allergy then. So, there is no medicine prescribed. Just an antidote made from saline, placed in a machine which he showed us, to neutralised the negative energies from the allergens. I hope I understood these correctly. It still doesn't make any sense to me, but in the clinic itself, I was told to give Victoria only a drop of the antidote. Instead of a drop, my clumsy hand squirted a few drops into her mouth, and then she was asked again to hold the tubes with the allergens. This time, Daddy's arm held still.

Wow. Can I call this a miracle? Not yet. She is given two small bottles, and we are told to give her two drops a day, once in the morning, and once at night.

Because the level of bad bacteria, called the Candida, is exceptionally high in her guts, she was prescribed probiotics (same as Pantai Hospital) but these are cultured in Holland, supposedly better for children and more pure. Best consumed at night, on an empty stomach.

Lunch
We spent a good 45 minutes with the doctor. The bill came to RM400, very reasonable considering that that includes the probiotics and the antidotes. Then we went for lunch nearby at this beef noodle shop, recommended by the nurse. The bowl was small, the noodles were yummy and I had 1.5 bowls, Victoria had the other half, Daddy had 2 bowls, and mother-in-law had one. Each bowl cost RM5 and that's not cheap, considering Tangkak is such a small place lar, and the portion is not a lot.

What's next?
The next visit is two months down the road, probably before Chinese New Year. In the meantime, we are to avoid food stuff with eggs and yeast for Victoria, and we will stop using insect spray. This makes a little sense coz all these while, every night, I've been diligently spraying the room before bedtime, with Sheildtox to rid the mosquitoes, without knowing that I'm actually spraying "poison" for my little girl. The only consolation is the Austin Healthmate air purifier in the room which runs throughout the night.

We will continue to abstain Victoria from food with wheat flour, chicken, cow's milk and ikan bilis (things which contradict with the hospital's blood test report) for this two months. The probiotics prescribed may initially cause more ezcema in Victoria, purging the toxins, but we are told that it will subside. Then we can reintroduce these other food stuff to Victoria.

As for the highly contradicting result on dustmite, I asked the doctor why. Can't get a conclusive answer, but we can only think that she may have overcomed the allergy which is really really good news, or that the vaccuuming of the mattresses and room on the day before, helped.

To reduce the bad bacteria in the guts, she has to reduce intake of all sweet food, food with colourings and flavourings. I think that's good advice, not that she's taking alot of sweet stuff in the first place.

God
In all things, we believe God will heal Victoria. A few days back while applying cream on Victoria's arms, she told me that the itch on her legs have healed. I said, that's great.

Then she said, "You see, God healed me."

I end this with that.

While you were away in Genting last week...

... Mummy went out for lunch with an old friend. It was fun catching up, while Maid took care of William who napped a short while. Then we walked around looking for Christmas decos, and maybe some presents too.

But since this was so preliminary, I only got three bags of hanging decos and kept it for Victoria to open it when she returned.

Here's the stuff. Am thinking of putting them around ribbons along the staircase.

Victoria hanged them on each of her fingers, and I put one each on her ear too, which she thinks is really funny, but refused to let me take a picture of her!

Flu again!

Victoria is down with flu again. She had a little bit of running nose last Monday morning, before going up to Genting Highlands for holiday. When she got back, she was still sniffing, and it was only very little and occurs only sometimes of the day. But last night, her sniffing became worse, and she was sneezing a few times!

I felt disheartened. Today is her last day of school, and I really want her to enjoy herself. She told me a boy in class sneezed on her head last week, but that's beside the point. Her falling sick makes me really scared. It reminds me of the nightmare we been through. That almost every holiday or long weekend, she'd be falling sick with flu or fever. Why? Is life so unfair to this little girl?

I pray God heals her. Sunday we plan to make our trip back to Seremban to spend a few days with the grandparents. She's really looking forward. She must heal. William is around, and he's not strong yet.

This morning, I've put on the Roboclean to disinfect the house, and last night after putting Victoria to sleep, William and I moved to the guest room to rest for the night.

Victoria's last day of school

This morning I sent Victoria to school. It's her last day, and she will have a small party in class with her friends. On the way there, I asked her, "Victoria, do you remember your FIRST day at school?"

She answered, "Yes."

"So do you remember how you felt that day?"

Victoria thought for a short while, then she answered, "I felt like crying." It was true, that time Victoria was very emotional everytime she goes to school. Can't blame her as she was only 2 yrs 9 mths old then, and have never been left alone without parents or family members before.

I asked her why and encouraged her to elaborate further, and she said, "because no Heh Heh to carry her."

Then I asked her, "How about today, your LAST day at school? How do you feel?"

She couldn't answer me. Finally, after some coaxing, she said, "I feel like crying."

Hhmm... is she joking? So I probed. And then this cheeky girl told me, "Because I never take bath."

Haiyaaa!!

Anyway, I hope she have a memorable last day in school, and will look forward to school again next year, when she won't be in the ECP aka Baby class anymore.

Crawling backwards and other stuff

Yesterday I saw William slowly crawling backwards. Just like his sister when she started.

He can sit a while on his own now, but will definitely "tumbang" if more than 5 seconds.

Very curious, very active when carried, and wants to put almost everything in his mouth to taste, especially the tv remote control and my handphone!

Have recently started to put up resistence when something is taken away from him. But a simple hug from Mummy will calm him back. : ) Phew.

Last Sunday

In the midst of all the usual hoo-haa and rushing to prepare to church, I manage to snap a few shots of William, who was already prepared and waiting. Here's the lil fella...

I can't really sit for long (yet), so I need some support, and my good friend Goofy!



Falling...

Gimme that camera!!

Ikano, Curve and Marche

Yes, it was Ikano "jump jump" again one weekend a couple of weeks ago. She's so predictable, if it's not IKEA, then it's to Ikano. It's good workout for her anyway, so we don't mind paying the RM8 for her to have a great time before her meal.

We arrived Ikano around 4pm, went straight to 2nd floor for "jump jump" at this Kidz Playzone (i think that's what it's called coz I never borthered to see the name), then walked over to the Curve for early dinner at 6pm. We chose Marche since we could probably get some food for Victoria there. Already I had their rostis in mind.

Before going in, we put her on the cow statue outside Marche, and she loved it.

I got you by the horns now!!

Yeeharr!!!


See Mummy and my blouse? It's almost alike!!

Dinner took a good 2 hours, then we went to Cold Storage to get some snacks for her. They sell these Marmite rice crackers (imported from UK) which she tasted before and kinda liked it. And they have other range of rice crackers and speciality food.

We walked around till nearly 10pm, then got back home really REALLY tired.

McD breakfast

Yesterday Victoria left for Genting Highlands with Popo, Gong Gong, Yee Yee, Yee Jiong and cousin sister Grace for a 2D1N stay at the Awana Resort.

I heard she's enjoying herself, and ate a LOT A LOT A LOT for dinner until her stomach become "BIGGER, and BIGGER, and BIGGEEERRR"!! We miss her, especially myself coz the house suddenly became so quiet without Victoria around. At night she called to say, "Mummy I want you"... aahhh...

This morning hubby suggested we go for dimsum breakfast or McD breakfast since we don't have to rush to send Victoria to school. So, we chose the latter, and brought maid and William along.

I had Sausage McMuffin set and hubby ordered the Big Breakfast. A lovely 20minutes.

Later I will be meeting a friend for lunch, then back to the house to await the Queen (Victoria's) arrival in the late afternoon.

My new pyjamas by Popo

William received two new pyjamas by Popo yesterday. Since it was already washed, William wore one of it yesterday night itself.

He looked like a big boy in it.

My first Evita Peroni hair clips

We were at Midvalley one evening for dinner. Victoria has taken a liking for Japanese food so we've almost been eating at Jap restaurants for the past few outings.

So dinner was at this Yo Sushi place, which is overpriced for average quality of sushi. No biggie deal, just very cramp seats and insufficient air conditioning, and an inexperienced waitress.

Victoria had her Unagi rice, hubby ordered his beef bento set, the maid had chicken fried rice, and me... I can't remember. There were sushis here and there, but we didn't order a lot. However, the total bill came to RM130++ which is insane. We promised ourselves never to revisit the place again nor recommend it to our friends.

After dinner, I separated from the family, as they made their way to pick up some snacks for Victoria at Cold Storage and play games at Jusco. For me, I went for a quick shop at my favourite outlets. On the way to meet them later, I dropped by Evita Peroni to pick a scrunchy for myself. Then impromptu, I decided to get some clips for Victoria since she love to use mine.

So I picked two colours for her.

When I surprised her in the car, she loved it! Hubby told me that she wanted to buy a scrunchy too, and also clips for herself, and she even selected them, but hubby said no.

Somehow we had this telepathy thingie.

Me and my doll Heh Heh

The other day Heh Heh took bath. Periodically we have to give Heh Heh boiling hot bath, as adviced by the consultant allergist. Honestly, we should be doing this twice a week, but that will definitely see the end of Heh Heh before year end. So, Heh Heh is spared.

Everytime when Heh Heh takes her bath, I get Victoria's "consent." The other time she asked me, "then who is going to sleep with me?" and I said, "take Tishball" (who is this doll from Toys R Us which she used to like, but somehow dunno why resorted to physically abusing Tishball). She said, "I dun want Tishball."

"OK fine, then you take Bedtime Bear" (who is this soft light blue teddy bear given by a friend to brother William).

With that, she agreed.

Heh Heh dried with the good weather and strong sunshine. But after that, she wanted to dress Heh Heh up again.

I was feeling abit lazy to climb up the stairs to get Heh Heh's clothings, so I took Tishball, striped him, and wore the blue jumper for Heh Heh.


Victoria loved it.

For closed to 2 weeks, she refused to return Tishball's jumper.

Immunization for William

This afternoon we had a family outing... to the hospital for William's 4th immunization jab. He was scheduled to take this jab mid-October, but unfortunately he was admitted for bronchiolitis, so we deferred this till today.

He was due for his second Rotavirus vaccine, and his Hepatitis B, Triple Antigen, Polio and HIB booster, but because he is over 6 months now, there is no point taking the 2nd Rotavirus vaccine, which will not be very effective. So he has to skip that. He got the other vaccines, with just one jab on his buttock, WITHOUT CRYING, or even batting an eye! That's me boy!! (Actually, the nurse was not around, so the doctor told me to distract him with this really loud squeeky plastic fish toy, and talk to him) Hubby carried him.

After losing approx 1.3kg when he had the flu and bronchiolitis, he's now:

Weighing: 9.2kg
Height: 72cm
Head Circumference: 46cm

All on the very top percentile of the chart. Of course, I asked the doc if my boy is considered obese, or will have tendency to be obese, but the doctor said, nope, not at this age. Nothing to worry. But I say, he's not really a big eater or drinker, and I've only JUST started him on rice cereals not porridge... anyway, the doc said I can go ahead with porridge and more solids, but take it slowly as he is on high risk of getting allergy too.

So, I'll play safe. A lot of interesting articles on the internet, and I'll probably start him with vege porridge and non-citrus fruits. Ban the scallops and oysters and here's an interesting bit from the paediatrician... cod fish ranks the highest as most allergenic fish!

Rainbow...

Last night Victoria and I were doing some puzzles in her Bible Puzzle Book. We came to the story of Noah and his Ark. As I was reading, she interrupted me, but I told her to wait till I finished. A little agigated, coz I have taught her many times not to interrupt a story unless it is really urgent like if she wants to go pee.

So I asked her, what was it?

Victoria melted my heart, when she replied very matter-of-factly, "Remember when William is sick, got rainbow in pantai hospital. Remember?"

Yes, I remember. It was God's promise to us that everything will be OK.

William is healthy and strong, and started on his rice cereals on 30th October (6 months, 1 day old). He will go for his immunization jab today.

Suck my toes

William loves sucking his toes when he is bored with his teethers. He "discovered" this hobby a few weeks back, and some old saying goes, "When a baby starts sucking his toes, that means he wants another sibling."

Well, too early, darlings. But it's fun watching him enjoy the pleasure of sucking his toes, whilst we adults would never, NEVER in our right frame of mind, do what a baby does.

Yummy yummy!

Watcha looking at?

Oh what the heck.

Can't resist these strawberries. ; )

Words

Victoria likes to talk now. Yet, she can be very shy with people she doesn't know, or hardly know, or hardly see. But it takes between half a day or one day to warm up with her, and she'll be almost herself. She was reserved and careful with stangers since she was a baby. But that is good in a way as she is a girl, it's probably not such a good idea to get friendly with everyone and anyone. (Also to note, when Victoria was a baby she will not allow any tom, dick, harry or jane to carry her)

It seemed like just yesterday that Victoria would pronounce some words in her own way. When she learnt to talk, she couldn't pronounce the letters "S" or "F" properly, and would end up saying words like "socks" as "hocks" and "fish" as "tish."

When she started calling Daddy, she called him "Te Te" and Mummy? Well, it was also "Te Te" but with a different intonation. We tried pestering her to call me, but she'd not.

One afternoon whilst driving out of a car park at Sea Park with Hubby, Popo and Gong Gong in the car, I was jokingly complaining that she has learnt to call almost everyone in the family except for me. Hubby tried to console me that now I wish she call me, but one day when she's older she'd be yelling "Mummmmmmyyy" and I wish she'd stop.

Then Victoria just called out, "Mummmmmmyyy" in imitation of her Daddy. She understood us.

We were stunt. I couldn't believe my ears. I think I asked her to call me again. But she wouldn't lar. That was around 2 years ago.

Now she calls me different names. She'd call me Mother (in an English way), or Mummy ahhh (in a very Cina way).

I even got a nickname from her... it's Mummy Heh Heh.

Maternity Clothes

Last night hubby was away outstation for work. William was already asleep and it was just me and Victoria. So I thought, why don't we do something different, and I look at the box of "old" clothes which I put away before giving birth, knowing that I won't be wearing them for sometime (due to expected weight gain). I've been meaning to take them out the past few months after getting back my old weight faster than expected, so this is an outstanding overdue "to-do."

Victoria loves sorting clothes. She likes going through William's, sorting out those that he can't wear anymore, and picking the choice ones for her favourite doll, Heh Heh. Now it's Mummy's clothes, and upon my suggestion, she excitedly agreed. But I gave her a condition. We do this quietly, coz we don't want William to wake up.

She happily carried piles of my clothes out from the container, and place them on the bed for me to sort out. I happily pick my favourite blouses out. Some of them bring back memories, because I used to wear them in my last job in an advertising firm. Since the container had some place, I look through my wardrobe and my eyes lay on my maternity wears. Slowly, I fold them up, all crisply ironed, and felt a tinge of sadness. Like closing one chapter in my life. How time flies. I remember these blouses, which hubby lovingly bought for me (as an investment) when I first had Victoria. They were fashionable from Modernmum, which gave me lotsa freebies in return.

Now I place them in the container and wonder (I think the grandparents would be interested in this...) if hubby and I will have a third child. Maybe not. Not in the current plans. But maybe after some years, if we miss the sleepless nights, and strollers, and all the baby stuff again... who knows. Will I ever wear these blouses again? They are still so new. But I'd look silly if I wear maternity blouses if I'm not pregnant, and I'd sink in them.

Some, bought from Dorothy Perkins are still good for my non-pregnant state. I keep them hang up, and I'll probably pop them on once in a while.

I look at William. He just turn 6 months.

I look at Victoria. She's 3 years and 7 months.

They are growing so fast.