8 Nov 2012

Feeding Clinic

Charlene had feeding clinic today. She weighs 13.6kg and is 90cm tall. Her weight is in the 50 percentile and her height is only in 10 percentile. The dietician has increased her feeds slightly to ensure she gets sufficient nutrients.

The speech therapist said that her oral hygiene is good (to my relief). Thank God for the disposable oral swabs and for the Health Promotion Board toothbrush which Auntie Joanna bought for Charlene. The SLT didn't have any sour stuff with her and my dear girl refused to cooperate and didn't swallow the cold water in her mouth.

I also discussed with the gastro doctor and the speech therapist about Charlene's rather frequent choking of saliva incidents when she is shifted from a lying to a sitting position. I asked if it could be due to reflux. The doctor said that there is a possibility that Charlene is having reflux but an upright position should help reduce the reflux and hence choking. Both of them thinks that it might just be saliva pooling in her mouth and hence causing her to choke. Charlene was smiling cheekily as the doctor said that and that amused the doctor. She said "Look at that girl. She is saying they finally got it huh. Well done."

Meanwhile, Charlene's anti-reflux medicine dosage is being increased to better manage her condition. Maximising the dosage of the medications is the first thing to do. If her condition worsens, she might need to go for a test to determine the severity of the reflux and the next course of action. The worse scenario is to do the fundoplication again (surgery). We pray that Charlene will learn to control her sphinter muscles and that God will heal her of her reflux.

5-6 Nov 2012

Charlene went to stay in KKH today for sleep oximetry tests, which was recommended by her sleep doctor.

There has been some changes to Charlene's tolerance level towards cpap after the removal of phenobarbitone. Hence there may be a need to give her oxygen during sleep (gasp! additional equipment!)

Before that, the sleep doctor needed to find out
1. her oxygen levels when she is sleeping
2. the lowest that her oxygen level will fall to when desaturation occurs. This will in turn determine whether Charlene needs to be given oxygen when she is sleeping.
3. the carbon dioxide levels when she is sleeping

The results showed that Charlene continued to have desaturations when she was sleeping; 5 per hr. This has improved since the last test where she had 7 per hr. The good news is even though her oxygen levels dropped, the drops were not critical. Her lowest oxygen level during sleep was 91.
Also, her carbon dioxide levels were normal which meant that even without the cpap, there would be no adverse impact.

So the sleep doctor recommended that we continue to use the cpap. If she cannot tolerate, we can take it off as she will be fine.

We thank God for the reassuring news! And we thank God that we were discharged within a day! (we were prepared to stay till Wed, but our prayers to God worked!)

Continue to pray that God will heal Charlene's sleep apnea. The cpap has lost its effectiveness due to Charlene's mouth breathing. Yet, we can't change to a full face mask as there is a high risk that Charlene will choke on her secretions when she is sleeping. Hence, we are out of options to help Charlene and can only rely on God's healing.

27 Oct 2012 - Charlene's birthday celebration 3

Our uni friends came over to celebrate Charlene's birthday. Thank you Milie, Yizhen, Anne, Joanna, Zhisheng, Wanfen, Shiyun and June for the angbao or present and for your love, care and concern for Charlene. Didn't have many pics as Zhisheng, the professional photographer took them...We managed to catch up with them, as we talk about everything under the sun. We thank God that our friends specially came down for our sake, despite the inconvenience for them.

Doraemon cake from Polar

Charlene smiles when cut cake

Daddy n Mummy bought a ukulele for Charlene

26 Oct 2012 - Charlene's birthday celebration 2

Charlene's birthday celebration with church friends

Today, our church friends came to our place to celebrate Charlene's birthday. Daddy and I did a simple decoration at home. We thank God for His presence. We left earlier from combined cell teaching and managed to hop in a cab shortly. Immediately after we reached home, the caterer came. We ordered a convenience mini-buffet from Select. The food was good and it was convenient as everything was packed in disposable containers and there was no need for the person to come and collect them back.

Charlene was a little tired but she knew that aunties and uncles came specially to celebrate her birthday for her. So again, she cooperated till everyone left then she slept.

We want to thank everyone for their ang bao and/or presents for Charlene. We are really blessed to have such supportive church friends who have walked with us throughout the 3 years of Charlene's life. Thank God for directing us to find YMM.

24 Oct 2012 - Charlene's bday in sch

Charlene's birthday celebration in school 

Charlene was very excited and was awake at 2am. Poor little girl was so tired by the time we reached school. Charlene's teachers gave her a nice surprise. They decorated a noticeboard with the words "Happy Birthday Charlene".

Charlene was a little irritable as she tried to kick herself off the bench due to her tiredness. But once we started singing the birthday song, she appeared visibly happy. She also opened her mouth big big when we told her to blow the candles. Despite her tiredness, she stayed awake for her music and physio session (perhaps knowing that it is her last session with Teacher Melody). 

6 Oct 2012 - Karaoke

Daddy hasn't been to karaoke for 3 years; ever since Charlene was born. I went 2 months back during my off-day with Milie. Milie is so nice to travel all the way to Yishun to sing karaoke with us. Because we didn't know who to entrust Charlene with, we brought her along. Initially, she was pretty furious in her pram. But after we carried her, she was ok. There were songs where she looked like she was listening attentively and concentrating really hard. Daddy says that when Milie and I sang duet, Charlene looked amused. One very interesting thing happened - I asked Charlene whether Daddy can sing and she responded with a loud sound. Then I asked Charlene if I can sing and she kept quiet. Clever little girl!

5 Oct 2012

Charlene suddenly had 2 huge blisters on her fingers. I was so afraid that she got hand, foot, mouth disease. We took her to the pediatrician. The doctor was surprised that the blisters appeared suddenly and are so huge. Dr says bacteria infection. Luckily not hfmd. She burst the blisters and gave us some alcohol swabs, anti-bacteria cream and oral antibiotics.