A & E Visit

Yesterday night was the longest night that I ever had.

Kel & I had switched off the lights in our room at about 10.30pm last night to make Daryl & Dawn sleep. I wanted to get up & do some work after the kids had slept. However, I was too tired & fell asleep soon after.

In the middle of the night at about 1am, I woke up all of a sudden. Then I heard Daryl mumbling, then a retching sound, then Kel jumping out of bed to switch on the light in our room. To my horror, I saw Daryl using his right hand to cover his mouth while retching. His pillow & his side of the bed was stained red with his vomit. I was horrified & went to his side. Kel immediately carried him out of bed & ran to the toilet where Daryl proceeded to vomit out his dinner. By then, Dawn woke up due to all the commotion. I tried to pacify her by feeding her. While feeding Dawn, I saw Daryl stumbled out of the bathroom. He walked to the bay window, climbed up the ledge, sat down in a daze & started to shiver uncontrollably. I was horrifed. I had never seen him behave this way at all. Thus, I unlatched Dawn & ran to his side. I asked him what was wrong & he told me that he's very cold. I took his blanket & covered him. Then I carried him to our bed & covered him with our blanket while carrying him in my lap. By then, Dawn was wailing her lungs out coz she was woken up & she didn't get to finish her milk feed.

Kel who was in the bathroom cleaning up Daryl's mess came out of the bathroom then. Apparently, Daryl didn't managed to puke into the toilet bowl, thus he had puked onto the floor, creating a mess. Kel helped me to carry Dawn. As Daryl felt very, very hot, he went to take the thermometer to measure his temperature. To our horror, his temperature measured 40.5 degrees celsius!! Kel passed Dawn to me so that he can go out to the kitchen to take the fever patch & paracetamol for Daryl. When he came back, I passed Dawn back to him so that I can stick the fever patch on Daryl's forehead. Daryl cried when I pasted it on his forehead. He kept telling me that the patch is very cold, so he wants me to take it out. Seeing him cry makes my heart break. My poor boy... Then I fed him the paracetamol. We were very worried as his temperature is so high. I sat there holding him in my arms while Kel carried Dawn.

About 10 minutes passed. Daryl still felt very hot to our touch. When we measured him again, his temperature still remain at 40.5 degrees celsius. The worse thing is, Daryl had started to mumble nonsense. When we talked to him, it's as if he didn't know that we were there. I told Kel that we should sponge him to try to bring down his temperature. As we needed help with Dawn, I ran out of the room to wake Asty up. Then Kel passed Dawn to her while we sponged Daryl.

Daryl seem to 'woke' up when we started to sponge him with iced water. He started crying & told us to stop. I also cried when I heard him crying.

The sponging didn't do Daryl any good. At 2am, his temperature still remain at 40.5 degrees celsius. It was then we decided to bring him to KKH's A & E department. I went to change while Kel kept sponging him. When I was done, it was Kel's turn to change while I packed my bag. I brought Daryl's health booklet & birth certificate along just in case...

When we reached the hospital, we were attended to immediately by a nurse. She assessed Daryl, then she told us to register at a counter, pay the consultation fees & wait for the doctor to attend to us.

During the wait, Daryl is very sticky. He refused to sit in the chair by himself & kept wanting me or Kel to hold him. After a 2 hours wait, we finally managed to see the doctor. He diagnosed Daryl as having a viral infection. Thus, he prescribed medicines for his fever, phlegm & runny nose. After the consultation, I am more at ease knowing that there's nothing wrong with Daryl. We walked to the pharmacy to take Daryl's medicines, then headed for home.

On the way home, Daryl told me that he's hungry. I was so happy to hear that. If he's hungry, it means that he's on the mend already. Thus, I asked Daryl what he wants to eat. To my surprise, he told me that he wants to eat porridge. Kel then drove around Bedok trying to look for a coffeeshop which is open & sells porridge. However, we didn't managed to find 1. I am not surprised. At 5am in the morning, finding a stall selling porridge is a like searching for a needle in a haystack. I told Kel to drive home so that I can cook for Daryl.

When we reached home, we found Asty sleeping on the sofa carrying Dawn. The notti gal must have woken up again. Haiz, when will she sleep through the night? Thus, Kel woke Asty up & carried Dawn into our room to sleep while I went to the kitchen to cook Daryl's porridge. While waiting, Daryl lied down on the sofa while watching Playhouse Disney. While waiting for the porridge to boil, I went to shower & change. I think Dawn must have some kind of sensor. She woke up just when I came out of the shower. As the porridge was cooking halfway, I carried her out so that Kel can look after her. When she saw her kor kor, she was so happy that she started screaming in delight. *faint*

Once the porridge was done, Asty brought it out for Daryl to eat. He only managed to eat 1/2 a bowl. However, I am very happy already. After that, Kel carried Daryl into our room to sleep while I carried Dawn in.

That concludes the end of our very long night.