31 Dec 10

31 Dec 10

Our church held a watch-night service at it's main office at new year's eve. Seeing that Charlene was awake in the evening, we decided to bring her to watch-night service. We were fully prepared to come back early of Charlene was not cooperative/ crying too much. We prayed to the Lord that He bless Charlene with peace and calm.

Charlene was at first crying when we stepped into the main office. But when the songs and worship started she quieted down. Though we had to evacuate to an other room, we managed to stayed throughout the whole service.

This is the first time our family attended a watch-night service. To be able to spend the last moments of 2010 and first moments of 2011 in the abode of the Lord as a family was something we were very grateful for. We thank God for his mercy and grace.

26 Dec 10

26 Dec 10

After Charlene had been discharged, she had been sleeping in the day and awake at night (1am - 5am).

This early morning, once again she woke up crying,vomiting poo-pooing. While carrying Charlene around, Charlene actually left a trail of shit on the ground. And Dez actually only realized it after stepping on it. Haha.

24 Dec 10

God is Good!

When Charlene was first admitted, we prayed that God will help Charlene to recover quickly so that we can spend Christmas together as a family out of the hospital.

Today, Charlene is discharged. She did not vomit and was able to tolerate her feeds well. Thank God that after all her anti-convulsants were given, her fits reduced from 23 (on the 22nd when she was only on 2 anti-convulsants) to 6 (on the 23rd). Somewhat back to her baseline? We will continue to pray that Charlene's fits be taken away from her life.

We decided to sing Christmas carols together to Charlene. She was quite upset and began to whine. After I told Dez to stop singing, Charlene slept soundly and did not complain while I continued to sing "Silent Night". Haha, she doesn't like Daddy's singing.

23 Dec 10

This morning, our cell group friends (Wendy and Alicia) came to visit Charlene. While I was talking and describing how Charlene would respond to positive comments and praises of her, Charlene started smiling happily. And she continued to smile happily for the next 5 minutes. My friends and I were delighted and praise the Lord for His goodness!

Staff nurse Cindy (the neurologist's nurse) came and saw Charlene smiling. She was really delighted too and said that it was the first time she see Charlene smile so happily. Charlene was always giving her the black face and frowning.

I am so happy and engrossed in seeing Charlene smile that I didn't take photos or video.

Charlene is doing well and is tolerating her feeds well. The doc said that if she doesn't vomit, she most likely can be discharged tomorrow.

Lord, we thank you for Charlene's speedy recovery and pray that our family can celebrate Christmas together at home.

Our best picture of Charlene's 'smile' thus far...

22 Dec 10

The doctors came at 9am and saw that Charlene's gut has more or less cleared - no traces of bile. They gave instructions to resume feeding slowly. After 2 hours, Charlene was still not fed and I went to ask the nurse. Apparently, the nurse did not know. The docs did not tell her verbally and the nurse obviously did not read the case-note. And then the most ridiculous thing happened. The hospital run out of Enfagrow milk and the nurse asked me to go to the retail pharmacy to buy. And after I failed to get any, I have to tell them what to do (if not they might just conveniently not feed Charlene).

Thank God for the helpful nurse manager and the dietician who sorted things out and ensured Charlene can get her milk (the dietician say can use Gain IQ, not much difference).

And then despite instructions given at 9am that feeding can be resumed, Charlene was still not given all her medications and her fits were still every hourly. Finally at 6pm, I went to ask the doctor why she was not given medication and only then the doc told the nurse to do it.

After all of Charlene's anti-convulsants went in, her seizure frequency began to fall.

21 Dec 10

Charlene is admitted again, this time for vomiting of bile.

We sent her in as she vomited 7 times from 6pm on 20/12 to 3am. Vomiting of bile can be quite serious and Dez was concerned that it might be bowel obstruction. We thank God for keeping us awake so that we were able to monitor Charlene and granting us the discernment to send her in asap. We also thank God that the X-Ray films did not suggest any bowel obstruction.

The doctor rested Charlene's gut (no food and fluid intake) and put her on drip. Poor Charlene has such small and narrow veins and so chubby that the doctors failed many many times (ER doc failed 3 tries, Ward doctors failed at least 6 times) before they finally could insert a proper plug. By then, after many hours of no fluids, Charlene was so pale that she didn't even had energy to cry. She just drifted in and out of sleepiness.

But after the drip went in, she had more energy and her colour came back. And she finally had energy to cry and whine. We are glad to see her back to normal, even though its harder to take care of her.

The doc is suspecting stomach flu related (viral infection in gut). It is a good thing that Charlene's stomach is clearing up and there isn't too much bile coming out. Hopefully, she can start feeding and not vomit tomorrow. 

However, cos she couldn't have her medicine, her fits came back in full force...  

Lord Jesus, we pray that you will protect Charlene.

20 Dec 10

Today, Charlene had her Mic-Key button changed. The valve was a little stuck and the nurse thinks it is about time to change a new one as we had used the old one for 8 months which was a long time for a Mic-Key button (typically can only last 3 months).

After feeding Charlene and resting for a while, we went home in a cab. While the cab was turning into carpark, Charlene started vomiting and turning purplish. Thank God she recovered and did not choke on her vomitus which was in her mouth. She vomited out undigested milk and some dark yellowish thingy.

After bathing Charlene, I fed her potassium bromide (which was only about 10ml) which she vomited out almost immediately with the dark yellowish thingy again. At 9pm, Dez started feeding her milk which she vomited out with the dark yellowish thingy again.

I went to sleep at 10pm without closing the room door. And strangely, Dez did not close the room door for me (which he normally does). At 12midnight, I heard Dez telling his Dad that Charlene vomited but was too tired to wake up.

At 2am, I heard Dez shouting for his Dad saying that Charlene has vomited and I dashed into the room to see a pool of dark yellowish puke. I told Dez that Dr Natalie once told me that the dark yellowish thingy is most likely bile. After a quick Google search, all results tell us to bring to Emergency Room immediately.

 

19 Dec 10

19 Dec 10

Zs and Nana visited us and Charlene today. It's been about a year since we have last met the 2 of them.

Typical of Zs, he took photos of charlene.

Here are some of the photos he took...

Charlene's new clothes part 2

Charlene in her bob dog's outfit

Charlene as a bumbee - Aunty June's 'nightmare' came true...

This is just Daddy's artistic photo

And finally, Charlene as Barney...

Charlene in her new chair

First: "What's this new sensation?"

Second: "I want to be carried~ wah!"

Third: "Eh... the chair is comfortable..."

Fourth: "zzzzz~...."

Thank you Aunty Audrey and Uncle Vincent for the useful Christmas present!

10 Dec 2010

Today, we went to see Dr Natalie, Charlene's pediatrician. I updated her on what had happened to Charlene over the past 3 months. Dr checked her n discovered that Charlene is v constipated; golf balls of poo poo in her stomach. Charlene also had 3 ulcers in her throat. Coupled with yellowish phlegm n an unknown blister on her index finger, Dr decided to give her anti-biotics.

Charlene was also given multiple- vitamins. Previously, when I asked the dietician and other doctors, they keep saying she doesn't need anything other than milk. Charlene's teeth are not coming out but her gums n tonsils are fine. N a stiff portion of her right leg was 'diagnosed' as fat. Hahaha.

Dr Natalie is a godsend. She is always so helpful n responds to my SMS quickly. We thank God for blessing us with a good doctor.

5 Dec 2010

After Friday's experience, we decided to put Charlene in her pram and pushed her to church service. Charlene was looking around in her pram. She was attentive throughout worship n slept during sermon. We are thankful that Charlene is so well behaved and that we could renew ourselves in the Lord.

3 Dec 2010

We decided to put Charlene in the pram and pushed her to the bus stop. Charlene was quite sleepy. She looked around for a while n was dozing off. Seeing that she was quite ok in the pram, we decided to walk to our cell leader's house which is one bus stop away. Charlene slept n was awakened when the ride was too bumpy. It was the first time we were able to take a stroll together as a family n we thank God for this.