Crying in Sleep

Last night was the first time Marita heard Richard cry in his 'voice before his brain injury'. He was in deep sleep. He usually sort of whimpers during deep sleep but last night was different. His 'real' voice seems to be emerging.Once in a blue moon we hear him 'say' something then he stops and the sound doesn't come out again. When he's excited and happy he just lets loose but when we get all excited about his 'voice', then he gets self conscious and sort of clams up again.
Is it true the voice emerges after he is able to walk? When the motor function in the brain connects?

Enjoy TIME

Richard's much better this week. The lung infection's clearing and he's back @ school...Rainbow Centre.
Marita found a new game which he loves playing...Hide n Seek! No, no, he can't run around 'seekin' or 'hiding' but he looks and searches with his eyes and when he finally 'finds' the person who is 'hiding' his face lights up and he smiles such a beautiful smile of satisfaction acknowledging accomplishment!
His cognition is much better.
We need to find more time to just play with him. It's such a pity he has 4 siblings and parents who seem to be 'just too busy with their own more important work'!!!
Time is Precious, we should enjoy it more.

Getting back to normal

So Richard didn't get the chicken pox full blown, only slight fever for about a week. The high fever which he subsequently got for 3 days was probably due to food getting into his lungs as he was 'phlegmy'and had difficulty feeding. So he missed school for a week and with the 1 week March hols he was away from school for 2 weeks. Also refrained from Acupuncture the past 2 weeks. We'll resume next week.ABR goes on as usual!

Jaime's blood tests were normal. The doctor thought she ought to take the blood tests because it was rare to have a 14 yr old suffer from shingles. Her immunity was very low as a HIV person or cancer patient! Last night again she had difficulty breathing coz of her food allergy. She's got serious allergic rhinitis...to dust, mites, nuts, pepper, ...think she ate potato chips last night!!!

Will update on Daphne and Carrie's A level results and university applications... soon...stay tuned!

Chicken Pox New Year

So Jaime, Richard's 14 yr old sister, came down with shingles over the Lunar New Year 2 weeks and had to be hospitalised after 3 visits to the A+E because the doctors couldn't figure out the diagnosis. After a night in the isolation ward, the doctors agreed to discharge her but only after her younger sister, Audrey 10yr old, and brother, Richard 8 yr old, was vaccinated with the Chicken Pox vaccine. So that Fri 19/2 we had to quickly get the vaccinations done before Jaime could be discharged.
Well I thought that the idea of the vaccinations were to reduce the effects of Chicken Pox if they were to succumb to it but low and behold, Audrey came down with full blown chicken pox the following week with vestibules all over her body. The poor girl was so disappointed in having to miss her P5 school camp! Jaime had already missed her school trip to Cambodia the week before and that was devastating!

We were worried about Richard as he was feverish the whole week after the vaccination. He seemed alright a week later when fever disappeared. But... the fever somehow recurred last week end... high fever with chills. Today, 3 Days on, the fever seems to have subsided.

A Tiger Year Start

The Lunar New Year was a rough start for us as Jaime (14 yrs), Audrey (10 yrs) and Richard ( 8 Yrs) were unwell.
By New Year's eve, Jaime's left thigh was already in severe pain. We thought that she had played too much tennis and pulled a muscle. By New Year's day she was limping so badly and by the 2nd day she could hardly walk. So with all clinics closed on the public holiday, we went to the Accident and Emergency at the National University hospital. The doctor there took an X ray but said he couldn't detect any thing wrong - the X ray looked normal. So we were sent home with pain killers - Brufen. We pointed out the few patches of red on the knee area.
The pain killers eased the pain for 2 hours after it was consumed but the severe pain left Jaime unable to walk and sleep. I called the A + E department again the following day to ask if the doctor could take a blood test...
No, I didnt have medical training but other possibilities did cross my mind...such as Dengue, Chicken pox, measles... ( there was some red patches around the left knee where the pain was originating and which ran up the back thigh to the back of her left bum. So we went back to A + E ( it was still a public holiday being the 3rd day of New Year) and the doctors took a blood test and 3 doctors 'looked' her through. We were sent home without any further treatment. By Wednesday, there were more patches of rash on her thigh, back and a fwe sots on her neck and fore head. I called the hospital and spoke to the senior docotr @ A+E at that time and he suggested that I go to the Specialist clinic 'A' to see the specialist there.
So on Thursday ( 5th day of New Year) we went to the specialist clinic A. But we were told there was no doctor to see us as the referral letter given to us was to see an Orthopedic specialist. So we were directed back to the A+E Department.
At the A+E, the doctors told us that Jaime had to be warded as they wanted to do an MRI and ultrasound. So she was warded that morning as she had just developed a fever hat morning. As NUH is a teaching hospital, a group of doctors came to see her @ Ward 47 which is a general pediatric ward. They quickly came to the diagnosis that it was shingles...

She was quickly transferred to the Isolation Ward!