NO Welcome!

The Little Man and his Loyal Slave recently battled it out in the car on the drive home from play-school last Friday. When I saw that he had drunk less than a third of his water bottle for the entire morning (which really was very little), I immediately blurted out "No more mooncakes, no more goodies!".

When no absolutely remorse was shown, it was time to inflict a more painful punishment. I checked his tupperware at the traffic lights and found his goodies that his friends had given him; there was a half-eaten Japanese rice cracker and about 13 Honey Stars. His favourites! (You see, the Little Man tends to savour his goodies slowly. After finishing the food that I give him to eat at school, he would very often take the little fish biscuits or other biscuits that the school dishes out to the students during breaktime. He would eat half at school and take the rest home to eat after lunch or at tea time.)

Without hesitation, I popped his precious rice cracker in my mouth. Suddenly, there WAS a reaction. He struggled to break free from his safety belt. I had to do a double take of the wretched look on his face as at that very moment, I actually had visions of Hulk Junior (minus the green colour) breaking free in my car! I then popped a mouthful of Honey Stars and told him "If you don't drink your water, you don't get to eat your goodies...". At that moment, I could not rationalise with a 44 months old kiddo that not enough water + mooncake every night + very hot weather = a very sore throat/fever/cough.

As soon as I took the last mouthful of Honey Stars, I very politely said "Hmm...that was delicious. Thank you very much." .
His immediate reply astounded me "NO Welcome!!"
I continued on... " Don't finish your water again tomorrow, ok? ... then, Mummy will have some more goodies to eat tomorrow."
Clearly upset and not about to be further defeated, Hulk Junior answered back with tears glistening in his eyes "NO! I will eat all my goodies in school!"

I have had no further visions of Hulk Junior since that incident.
It is however interesting to note that since that day, I have noticed that the Little Man's tupperware has come back completely empty, devoid of even crumbs, for the last 5 school days! When I recently saw evidence of seaweed (coatings from the rice cracker) on the tupperware cover, I questioned him and he admitted gobbling up the goodies his friends had given him at school before I picked him up. As we are best friends once again, he says he will share the goodies with me again. I am still waiting...

~Jottings from the Loyal Slave.

Post-publication Note:

On a lighter note....

As the girls are revising for their upcoming exams, I was busy testing No. 2 on her synonyms when No. 3, the Little Genius decided to contribute her two cents worth.

Question: What is the synonym of "Dull"?

Before No. 2 could even answer, the Little Genius in all her eagerness shouted out "CURRY!"

She looked a little disturbed and embarrassed when we told her the answer was "Boring". The poor gal had thought I meant "Dhal"!!

A Blistering Time

We have just been through eleven long and tiring blistering days!

It all started on a routine school morning. The girls were getting ready for school when Kiddo 2 started whining that she was feeling very tired. Upon checking, we found that she was running a slight temperature. So Kiddo 2, with her big, dark, eye-bags, was immediately ordered to get back into bed and stay home for the day. Of course, this only made her whined even more. Little did we know then that, that would only be the start of the blistering time that lay ahead of us. By the end of Day 1, Kiddo 2’s temperature had begun to get more aggressive and she lost her appetite. Not one to waste food, Mr T ate up all her leftovers without hesitation even after receiving dirty looks from his wife, as eating off a sick person’s plate is never a good idea.

As the next day was a weekend, Mr T and I took turns to check on Kiddo 2’s aggressive fever almost every hourly, throughout the night. Whilst Kiddo 2 was having her breakfast on Day 2, we noticed that her feet and hands were covered in rashes. My first thought … argh!! .... chicken pox! But then, I reasoned to myself that it looked more like rashes, rather than little poxes AND she already had her chicken pox vaccine years ago. It couldn’t be measles either, as she too, had already been given her vaccine for measles. Then suddenly it dawned on me ..... rashes on hands, rashes on feet…

As Mr was away at the office, I quickly delegated the preparation of lunch to my personal assistant and dashed Kiddo 2 to the paediatrician’s clinic for a formal diagnosis. As soon as the Doc shone her torch light into Kiddo 2’s throat, we saw the red spots and ulcers in her throat. It was confirmed. We had our first ever case of Hand, Foot and Mouth (HFM) in either sides of our family. As HFM is caused by any one of a variety of viruses, there is no medication for it; just paracetamol to control the high fever. We just have to let the virus run its course and make sure the patient take in lots of fluid and have total rest. Doc said it would normally take about 7 days for the virus to totally clear. She also told us to look out for warning signals like severe lethargy, headache and vomiting as in very severe cases, certain virus strains could cause viral meningitis. If Kiddo 2 had any of those symptoms, we were told to immediately send her to hospital.

My immediate thought was to quarantine Kiddo 2 away from the other kids. Mr T spoke to Yeh-yeh and Nai Nai who agreed that Kiddo 2 should be put into quarantine at their house. I dropped her at the Quarantine House before dashing home to pack her things into an overnight bag. As soon as I had cooked the kids’ favourite fishball noodles, I brought it over to Kiddo 2 at the Quarantine House, who by then was complaining of a very sore throat due to the numerous ulcers sprouting inside her mouth. I was literally drenched in sweat by the time I picked up Kiddo 1 and 3 from their Art Class.

At the end of Day 2, Kiddo 2 was covered in a combination of rashes and blisters on her fingers, toes, feet and lips as well as ulcers in her mouth. On Day 3, the Chief Matron at the Quarantine House reported that Kiddo 2 tossed in bed the entire night and constantly complained of her hands and feet being extremely itchy and uncomfortable. The rashes had spread sporadically through her body too. She struggled through her meals and obediently swallowed her food (soft food, obviously) through all that pain. On Day 3 night, the Chief Matron had to soak Kiddo 2’s feet in hot water to try and ease the itch and discomfort. When we left the Quarantine House on Day 3 night, Kiddo 2 looked rather down as her eyes averted our gaze and I could see little water droplets on the table at which she was sat at. The Chief Matron and her helpers (i.e. Mr T’s sisters) did their best to cheer her up in our absence. She understood the reasons why she had to stay at the Quarantine House.

On the home front, we pumped the other kiddos with endless rounds of Vitamin C, Echinacea, Manuka honey, Propolis, cooling Chinese herbal drinks and honey lemon, in an attempt to pump up their immune system. As the incubation period for the HFM virus is generally between 3 to 5 days, I started doing simple mathematics. The day before Day 1, in my haste to leave the house to pick the girls from school, I grabbed a bottle of Chinese herbal drink for the girls, but dispensed with the need to take 2 extra cups which I normally do, as I thought that they were all in the pink of health. Just 13 hours after they had shared that same drinking bottle, Kiddo 2 was ill. So I reasoned to myself that the probability of Kiddo 3 getting HFM was pretty high, as she has a weaker immune system, whilst Kiddo 1 should hopefully escape as she was stronger and much older. After all, we normally hear that it is the playschools and kindergartens that get closed down due to HFM.

At the end of Day 3, I noticed Kiddo 3 looking rather more tired than usual in the evening despite her having a rather long nap in the afternoon. My gut instincts told me that Kiddo 3 was the next HFM patient. I checked her temperature and suffered the beginnings of an anxiety attack! After giving Kiddo 3 a dose of Paracetamol and putting her to bed, I quickly chewed onto my Gaviscon Double Action tablets and had a cup of Anlene milk to as I could feel the gastric juices churning inside my stomach. It was another night of constant checking on Kiddo 3’s temperature as the fever was aggressive, constantly reaching 103 degrees, and even after inserting the suppository, the fever still hovered around 100 degrees for some time before returning with a vengeance well before the 8 hour mark. Kiddo 3 was asked to stay only in her room and to pack her quarantine bag in the morning.

Once Kiddo 4 came home from school on Day 4, showered and had his lunch, I quickly put him to sleep for his afternoon nap, before rushing Kiddo 3 off to our Preferred Paediatrician. On the way to Pantai Hospital, I receive 2 text messages on my phone from Kiddo 1 informing me that she too was running a high fever at school. Arghhhh! To prevent another anxiety attack, I did the easiest and most logical thing I could think of at that moment. I clicked the forward button on my phone and sent her message on to Mr T as soon as my car stopped at the traffic light. Coincidentally, as soon as I reached the hospital, Mr T called to say that he was about to leave the office to pick Kiddo 1 from school .

By the time I sat down at our Paediatrician’s waiting room, my nerves had calmed down and I strategised with Mr T on switching our home to be the Patients’ Home and the Quarantine Home to be the Safe Home. I would be in charge of the Patients’ Home whilst Mr T would take care of Kiddo 4 at the Safe Home with his parents and sisters to help him out. The Paediatrician prescribed Ponstan for kids as well as oral gels to numb the pain of the mouth sores. He warned that some patient may also get rashes in the bum-bum as well as the private area and joked that HFM really should be re-named Hand, Foot, Mouth and Buttocks disease. As soon as he said that, I had an instant flashback of my attack with chicken pox when I was 16. I literally had chicken pox everywhere where one could think of! No spot left untouched!

For the next 3 nights, I checked Kiddos 1 and 3’s temperature on auto pilot. Alarm ring, drag self out of bed, open room doors, plop thermometer into patient’s ears, repeat same for 2nd patient; if necessary, give medicine. Once done, scrub hands with Dettol hand wash, dry on Mummy’s exclusive hand towel, drink water, reset alarm clock and crawl back into bed.

During the day on Days 5 and 6, Granddad chauffeured Kiddo 4 to and from school. After making sure that the girls were fine, I would scrub myself clean from head to toe and have a total change of clothes before heading over to the Safe Home with Kiddo 4’s lunch. I spent precious time with him, reading to him before putting him to sleep for his afternoon nap. Once the Little Man was asleep, I drove off to the girls’ schools to collect their school books so that they could still catch up with their school work during their week's absence.

I was totally knackered but I still religiously gargled my throat with salt water and scrubbed my hands with Dettol after touching my patients, before I ate, before I touched my face, etc. Mr T diligently prepared the Chinese Herbal drinks with the help of our personal assistant on a daily basis to pump up everyone’s immune system.

By the morning of Day 6, Kiddo 2 was well on the road to recovery. Her rashes had almost disappeared, and the blisters were almost dried out. She started sleeping well again as soon as she got home. Kiddo 3 who I had thought would be badly hit due to her generally weaker immune system, had surprisingly only broken out in some sporadic rashes on her hands and feet, with just a couple of blisters here and there. Her mouth had quite a few red spots, but only a couple of small ulcers. Perhaps it was due to the combined effect of her better water intake compared to Kiddo 2 and the large doses of Manuka, Propolis, Vitamin C and sheer luck.

Whilst Kiddo 3 only had a mild case of HFM, Kiddo 1 was continuously breaking out in mouth sores. The poor gal had huge ulcers filling up every conceivable space in her mouth as a result of HFM and perhaps in part, due to her still adjusting with her new braces. She dreaded meal times as she had great difficulty eating, taking over an hour for each small meal. Before going to bed on Day 6, she complained of discomfort “right down there” and asked me to check it out. The poor little darling had like a dozen little pimples growing there. Not wanting to make it too big a deal so as not to frighten her off, I told her that the Paediatrician did warn that the rashes and blisters could break out in those areas too, and asked her to just ignore the discomfort (easier said than done, I know, but what else could I do?) and continue to keep that area as clean as possible. Thankfully it cleared off in just over a day.

On Day 7, I woke up with a funny feeling in my throat. It was not painful, but the throat just felt tight and constricted. I took my torch light and nervously shone it into my throat. Lo and behold, I saw two tiny little red dots at the top of my throat. I thought my eyes were playing tricks with me from the lack of sleep. So I had my breakfast and went to check again. Yup, the two tiny little red dots were still there. No temperature though. Just before sending lunch over to Kiddo 4 at the Safe House, I decided to call Mr T to break the bad news that despite all the precautions taken, I was under possible attack from the HFM virus – most likely as a result of a weaker immune system due to the sheer lack of rest.

By the time I reached the Safe House ten minutes later, GrandDad and SIL were standing at the main entrance guarding the doors…essentially preventing me from having any contact with the Little Man. Mr T undoubtedly works very efficiently as he must have made that call to the Safe House to bar my entry immediately after my call. Having only been able to spend a little over 2 hours with the Little Man since he went to stay at the Safe House, it just broke my heart when I saw him running the opposite direction as he saw me approaching the main door to the Safe House. I passed the food over to GrandDad before turning around to walk home, feeling shattered at the prospect of being in seclusion for the next week, whilst my body battles it out with HFM.

By late afternoon, my soldiers were battling it out as evidenced by my high temperatures. Though exhausted, I tried to sleep but could not. I had been having trouble sleeping since Day 4 when my two favourite men moved over to the Safe House. Guess I am just not used to being in the big room all by my lonely self. The recovering patients were very sweet in that they volunteered to set their alarm clocks in the middle of the night to check on the latest patient. Everyone was sent to bed early on Day 7; it was one of those rare times when Mummy was ready for bed before her girls. But alas, Mummy could not sleep as she was shivering in bed despite having taken her medication earlier. She was also filled with worry that the Little Man could have been exposed to the virus as the Little Man had been with her, though only for a short period of time, the past two days.

The entire saga worsened in the wee hours of Day 8 when I received a call at 3.00 a.m. from Mr T asking me to switch the house alarm off as he had to come home to get the Little Man’s fever medication and thermometer as he suspected that the Little Man was running a fever. By afternoon of Day 8, we were all pretty sure that the Little Man too had been hit by the HFM virus. Mr T had taken the day off work to care for the Little Man who had by that time become very whiny due to his general feeling of un-wellness.

I blamed myself for not being able to stay away from the Little Man’s magnetic pull. Mr T keeps telling me that I should “LET GO” more. Then I consoled myself that the exposure could also have been from Kiddo 1 and 3 as the general incubation period was 3-5 days. Mr T and his capable helpers did a great job in nursing the Little Man’s aggressive fever which lasted over two days. Thankfully my prayers were answered in that he primarily had rashes, and not too many blisters. Also, Mr T reported that his appetite seemed to be unaffected though he complained of pain in his throat and had to be continuously coaxed to drink water.

On the evening of Day 8 at the Quarantine House, we had to deal with an unexpected after-effect of the HFM. After Kiddo 2 had her shower, she came running over to me to show me that the skin on the upper part of her ring finger of her right hand had peeled right off as she was showering. My knees got all soft on me when I saw the crinkled up skin dangling off the tip of her finger. Kiddo 2 kept her cool whilst my body squirmed on the inside as I cut off a couple of centimetres of dead skin! To console Kiddo 2 (and myself!), I showed her the new baby soft skin under the crinkled up dead skin. The raw pink colour of that new skin was very akin to that raw pink colour that all new-born babies enter the world with! In the heat of the moment, it did not dawn on me to snap a picture for memento’s sake before snipping it off. By bedtime, the skin around her toes had also begun to peel off. This time, I did take a picture of it.

Since then, the skin around all her fingers and toes have begun peeling too. A quick check with our Doc confirms that it is quite common for skin to peel after the rashes have gone away. A subsequent check on the internet reveals that in certain cases the fingernails toenails can fall off too! Oh, gosh!! I doubt if I could stomach that!! Let’s just pray we just get blessed with new skin; don’t quite fancy seeing finger nails dangling off any of our fingers!

Going back to moi’, Just like Kiddo 1, I struggled through my meals on Day 9, taking over an hour to eat just half of the quantity of my usual meal. Huge ulcers had developed deep in the throat, and by the sides of my tongue as well as under the upper lips. Chewing each bite of food felt like a knife sawing through my tongue and the burning sensation in my throat just made it worse. It was exactly like how Kiddo 1 had described it. Each of my fingers was filled with an average of 15 bumps, pimples and blisters of varying sizes. Pointer and Tall Man were the most badly hit on both hands with each having well over 20 blisters. This made washing hair a torturous affair as I had just cut my nails a few days ago; hence my blistered fingers had to do the scrubbing. I was also still having trouble sleeping alone at night; either I kept automatically waking up ever so often, or the blisters would mysteriously start to itch up in the night, or I just simply could not sleep though I was tired. My usual sleeping partner was also having trouble getting a good night’s rest as his new sleeping partner would be twitching and tossing here and there and making all sorts of noises throughout the night.

The girls happily returned to school on Day 11. Not too sure about Kiddo 3, but Kiddo 1 and 3 were very eager to return to school, to their friends and to normalcy. With the girls back at school and with me still being ordered to rest at Quarantine House whilst my Little Kutu was under the care of his grandparents, the house was strangely quiet and with no school runs to do and with lunchtime catering services suspended, I was given that rare luxury of doing anything I wanted for most of the day. The sound of my favourite classical music filled the house whilst I got my faithful computer out and began typing my thoughts away. I must admit that it was simply wonderful to just have that pleasure of typing away without anyone going "Mummy, Mummy".... to distract my thoughts away; instead I just had Vivaldi's Four Seasons accompanying me for two entire days!

Now on Day 12, my skin feels all tight where it had stretched due to the blister attack and rough, hardened bumps are everywhere as the blisters have dried out leaving me with wrinkly, hardened two-toned (original colour plus the darkened red colour caused by the blisters) skin. I comfort myself in that there is a possible silver lining behind this whole episode. At thirty plus years of age, I may well be getting new baby-soft skin once the skin starts to peel off like Kiddo 2’s.

I have also learnt my lesson the hard way.

No sharing bottles.

Don't try to be superwoman.

And learn to let go of Little Kutu more.

Perhaps all those vitamins, supplements, grapefruits, virgin coconut oil that Mr T so religiously pumps into his body each and every day, as well as his healthy lifestyle worked wonders for him after all, as apart from the lack of sleep for the last week, he has emerged unscathed from this blistering time. I joked with Mr T a couple of nights ago that if he really emerges unscathed, I will buy him Superman’s outfit and he would have to wear that distinctly red underwear on the outside!

~ Written by an exhaused Mother-of-Four

who is looking forward to baby-soft hands in the future,

but who now has to live through having immensely

rough, sand-paper like fingers with skin peeling off everywhere.