My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

If I hadn’t said this, then let me say it now - this December holiday break has turned out to be one full of illness for my family.  It started off with RACHEL getting HFMD during my remaining weeks I was required back in school after students went on holidays, followed by FELIX and myself.

When that was over, I had a couple of days’ rest to catch RACHEL in her concert performance for her play-school, then it came to RACHEL, and then FELIX and my mum, contracting the viral flu.  I thought it was all over and we can have a good Christmas until I experienced pain when I put weight on my right foot on Christmas eve.

I thought I could sleep it off that night but I woke up on Christmas with the same, if not more, pain on my right foot, near the ankle area.  YEN had me go to see a doctor - a General Practitioner near home - and he thought I had this condition called ‘gout’.  According to him, gout in men is akin to menstrual cramp to women.  He couldn’t confirm it with a blood test as it was the holiday period and blood samples taken could be contaminated by the time they are tested after that.

YEN did not think it was, and forbade me to take medicine for it.  I took only painkillers over the past two days and it seems to be getting better.  According to YEN, it could just be inflammation.  Just a couple of days more to the end of this year - I hope the buck (or bug!) stops here and we embrace a new year of health and wealth!

The play-school RACHEL attends held a graduation concert for their children, where the eldest children going to primary one next year were the highlights, and everyone else moved up to the next class.

With her contracting HFMD earlier, I was quite afraid that she would not have learnt enough to perform during the concert, but luckily, her dance was taught and rehearsed in time.  I was also afraid of her getting stage-fright on seeing so many people viewing their concert, but she was not too affected (probably didn’t understand what was happening at first) until the finale, where she had to appear in front of the audience for a second time.

I think because the play-school was not exactly sure if she was participating in the concert, so they slot her in a corner during the performance.  But she easily caught the neutrals’ attention as she was lively and energetic during her dance.  Atta girl!

The next day, however, she vomited a few times and had diarrhoea.  Sigh.  Think she caught viral flu.  The illness has, somehow, found its way to FELIX as well and our poor boy is now still sick.  They are both on the way to recovery, but I wish it could be sooner…  My mother is also down with something like that too.  Sigh, this December holidays is a short enough one for me already, but to be ragged by these illnesses coming one after another?

We are still at crossroads in deciding about a couple of things, mostly due to YEN’s hectic schedule at work and our needing to tend to the children.  We have not decided on our third child’s name, and whether we want for sure to employ a domestic helper.  I will be beginning my stint with a tuition agency to try my hand at it for the first time this Friday to gain some experience in it, while making some extra dough in the meantime.  Cash will come in handy during a global economic crisis like this!

Thankfully, I am cleared of HFMD since Sunday.  Though we suspect FELIX has had the disease too, he hasn’t been too difficult other than on the two days he had fever.  He had not have a lot of blisters on the hands / legs as well as his face too.

RACHEL went back to school without too many glitches and is fitting back in time for her play-school’s concert this Friday night.  We await with baited breath how she will be “performing”, our little princess.  =)

YEN’s on leave at home this week.  She urged me to go for Lasik, and I went for the pre-Lasik evaluation today.  The process took a couple of hours, but it was not long before the doctor at Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) told me that I was not recommended to undergo the operation, due to the thinness of my cornea.  It made it dangerous.  Nevertheless, I was put through the other tests too and she uncovered another possible problem I might have.  I shall be going for a follow-up consult next week to see if it is a big deal.

Tomorrow, on Wednesday - 10 December 2008, YEN and I are bringing the children on their second trip to the zoological gardens.  They have been there once but I guess they hardly understood / remembered too much of it.  I think this trip tomorrow will make more sense, at least to RACHEL - she had been able to tell some animals and their sounds made.  I hope we will enjoy ourselves tomorrow…  =)

I had fever on the last day of our staff meetings on Friday last week, and have discovered some growth of blisters on my fingers and feet, especially my toes.  I suspect that I’m havign HFMD too!

So I took RACHEL to a General Practitioner (GP) near our home on Monday.  I was worried that I would, too, spread the disease around to our children and to people I meet later this week as I have a couple of activities I needed to see to.  The activities include a pre-briefing for a Community Involvement Project and the first session of tuition at a tuition agency for me.

This GP that I saw was really patient to hear me out and was clear in his explanation of the situation to me.  He confrmed my fears that I was indeed carrying HFMD and cleared RACHEL to be able to go back to play-school.  He corrected my misconception that HFMD will be a vicious cycle for us now that I am carrying it and told me that since I got it from RACHEL, it is the same strain of the disease I am carrying and RACHEL is now resistent to it.

YEN and I are not sure if FELIX has HFMD too, but we have decided against bringing him to a GP for consultation since there is little they can do for him too.  We will just keep our fingers crossed that he will be well soonest…