1 April 10

1 April 10


This morning, before we left for KKH, Dez and I prayed to God for his grace to be upon us today. We prayed that Charlene would not cry so much and that she would be able to do some physio exercises.

Charlene was looking around half the journey before falling asleep. Initially, Dez wanted to bring Charlene to the Children Surgery Centre but I told him better not cos Charlene would always cry there. And since Charlene is asleep, better not irritate her. Charlene continued to sleep till I put her down on the 'bed' for the neurologist to check.

We asked the neurologist questions abt the "classical",  "non-classical" episodes and myoclonic movements. The neurologist basically told us that due to Charlene's condition, its very difficult to tell whether they are all seizures. The "non-classical" and myoclonic movements may be seizures or they may be due to her neurological impairments. Even the loud shrill crying could be seizures... So basically, no one will know which behaviour is indicative of her seizures.

The good news is that the neurologist told us how to cut the medication level, if her seizure levels remain stabilised.

After seeing the neurologist, we went to the rehab centre. Even though Charlene was crying at the beginning, she calmed down after we changed the gauze.The physio was then able to do some exercises for Charlene. And much to our pleasant surprise, Charlene did track the moving object! The physio said that her muscle tone is not very stiff, and that her tracking were good signs. She taught us some exercises, especially the neck exercise.

The occupational therapist was next. Nothing much, she came to see the cortical thumb, which remained unchanged. We were told to put on her "boxing gloves" (splint) as often as possible.

After we fed Charlene, she calmed down and slept peacefully.

Thinking of saving a trip to KKH, I asked Dez to go to the pharmacy to purchase the medication. Dez was initially reluctant as he felt that we would reach home late, but was persuaded by me. I brought Charlene up to see the NICU/SCN nurses. Managed to see nurse Angeline and Sister Rahima.

After a long delay at the pharmacy, we reached the taxi stand at 445pm. There was a long queue in front of us, and the taxi were only trickling in. Both of us were worried that we would be stuck in the jam, and missed her feeding time; Charlene had already missed 1 dose of medication. Dez grumbled that he expected this to happen. I felt bad for making the decision to collect the medication today.

And a little miracle happened! A taxi came with the sign "Yishun". Noone in the queue in front of us boarded the taxi. So me and Dez jumped queue (at least 7 people in front of us) and boarded the taxi. We also managed to avoid the peak-hour jam, and we reached home at 530pm. We quickly feed Charlene with milk and her medication.

Lord, thank you for answering our prayers. Today Charlene was much much more cooperative and alert. You are indeed a merciful God who cares for His children!