HFMD Returns

It's not even 2 years yet, and now Sze Yi got it again. Anyway, it was not as serious as last time, and we refused admission.

We only noticed something wrong with her when she suddenly grew withdrawn, and refused her lunch. She wanted to sleep instead. Then, we noticed that her temperature kept rising. Even after giving her paracetamol and sponging her, the fever didn't go down. So, we decided to take her to see the doctor. Luckily the usual hospital we went too has a PD on duty that time, unlike normal Saturday afternoons.

When we took her to see the PD, there's hardly any sign of spots on her body. But the moment he checked her mouth and saw ulcers inside it, he's very sure that it's HFMD. I told him that I didn't want to admit her, so he proceeded to have Sze Yi's ECG and blood test taken, as well as some sample of her saliva and stool. After all that, we could leave and came back for results in the evening.

We went home, and I gave her Manuka Honey, also applied some on her ulcers. I also managed to get some enzym from my colleague and gave her that. My colleague told me that when her daughter had that, she soaked her in enzym water bath and she got well very fast. So I also did the same for Sze Yi.

In the evening, we went back to the hospital for the results. Her ECG and blood test are normal, so I just needed to sign a letter saying that I refused admission and would bear all responsibility if anything happens. I informed her school principal about this, and she told me that she would have the school cleaned the first thing in the morning on Monday.

That night, Hubby and I took turns to monitor her, because the PD had warned us of the possibility of breathing difficulty, that could affect her heart and her brain. When her fever didn't go down after taking paracetamol, we decided to give her Brufen Ibuprofen one hour later. Thank goodness half an hour later, it went down. So we continue giving her paracetamol every 4-6 hours, while monitoring her progress.

All this while, we're rather worried for Sze Juin. We checked her, and Hubby do noticed some very faded spots on her hand and legs, and I even saw two small red spots in her mouth. But she's very active, have very good appetite and does not have fever so we decided to continue monitoring her. In the meantime, I also bathed her in enzym water and gave her Manuka Honey, same treatment as her Jie Jie. Besides all that, I also boiled the kim gin hua for them, which is a chinese herb that's claimed to be able to cure HFMD as well as H1N1. We didn't really separate them other than sleeping in two different rooms, because last time, despite all our efforts in separating them, SJ still got it. This time however, most of our attempts to separate them were futile, since SJ kept going near to her sister, she even slept under her sister's pillow to prevent her sister from sleeping!

Oh yes, the Manuka Honey that I bought for them, have active UMF of 24.5++. Hubby was rather concerned about this active ingredient, so he did a google search on that. What he saw alarmed us. It seems that my perception of the numbers was wrong - it stated that only 15-18++ is adequate, and anything higher than 20 would cause adverse reaction! The effects would be mostly on the digestive system. So, we decided not to give the kids that anymore. If you happen to know more about this, please kindly let us know ya!

The next morning, which is today, Sze Yi's fever has gone, but we still continued giving her paracetamol every 4-6 hours to avoid any sudden rise of temperature. She's back to normal until this afternoon when she complained her mouth was very painful. I noticed more spots coming out, and her ulcers prevent her from taking any solids. We applied oral daktarin gel on her, but when it couldn't really sooth her, we decided to apply some of the Manuka Honey on her again. After that, she could eat apples :)

I noticed that Sze Juin's ulcers were gone, and she's still doing well. But she's been sleeping the whole afternoon away (even as of now, that's why I could blog), so I'm a bit worried. I'm just hoping God will continue to protect my little girls for me.