Karyn's first hospital trip

Poor Karyn had been having a fever that subsided and came back, on and off, for a couple of days. Subsequently, when we thought it had finally subsided, she started having diarrhoea. That got us very worried as she hadn't been eating much and had been slightly less active than usual.

Thus, at about 9 o'clock in the morning, we decided to bring her to KK Children's and Women's Hospital.

We didn't have to wait long before it was our turn at the triage. The nurse took Karyn's temperature, asked us some questions and gave Karyn fever medicine as her temperature was high again. Then she ordered a blood test for Karyn before we were asked to go to the cashier to make payment.

After that was done, we sat and waited for our turn for the blood test. I started to prep Karyn mentally for it. Told her that there'll be an injection and it'd be a bit painful but she'd be okay.

I think that mental prep talk really helped as the blood retrieval process was a breeze. When the nurse jabbed Karyn's finger and did some squeezing to get the blood into a test tube, all Karyn did was a wince and a gasp. And it was over and done with. All within 2 min. As she put a plaster on Karyn's tiny finger, the nurse praised her for being such a brave little girl and gave her a sweet. Not that she needed it.

She did kick up a little fuss and wanted to remove the plaster. However, I managed to convince her to leave it on or her finger would be bleeding. Actually the trick was me telling her to keep it on and show her Ah Ma that evening. Somehow, that prospect seemed to interest her a lot and so, she stopped asking to have it removed.

When we saw the doctor, he examined Karyn and asked some questions. He said that it was probably a viral infection with two options: admit Karyn for observation or we go back with the electrolytes and monitor the situation.

We decided on the latter as we figured none of us, and especially Karyn would be comfortable at the hospital. We could feed her the electrolytes at home and if her diarrhoea subsides, she'd be okay. If it didn't, then we'd have to send her back again.

Back at home, we fed Karyn the electrolytes religiously. It was quite a tedious process, she had to drink 30 ml every 15 min, followed by 30 min and then 45 min. As it is, Karyn's not the kind who likes drinking water. And to get her to drink that much at one go was quite a challenge. But for some reason that day, it was a breeze! Perhaps the electrolytes taste better than plain water.

Over a couple of hours, the electrolytes seemed to have taken effect. Karyn was back to her usual active self again. By late afternoon, her diarrhoea and fever really did subside. We even managed to bring her out for dinner.





















See, I have a plaster!















Who cares?























Act cute pose