au.was.here.

yesterday, i had a scare...

last saturday, Raj caught a bug and was having fever into the 4o's. i even thought i wasn't going to make it to the Pinoyscrapbooker's EB that coming Sunday. i was putting together the make-and-take kits i promised between nursing the baby's fever all night and didn't get any sleep. good thing, come morning, Raj seemed well enough so I thought maybe i'd drop in the EB after all and would just come home earlier than usual...and so i did.

i was chatting with Mommy Edna at the EB and she mentioned some home remedies that i thought might be good filed away as knowledge i can use at some point, when the opportunity presents itself.

1. to prevent febrile seizures (kombulsion) : feel the baby's temperature by his head and feel his feet temperature. make sure the temp of his feet and head are not too different. this head should not feel too hot and his feet too cold. if this is the case, sponge his head with a face towel soaked in cool water and massage his feet to get warm.
2. to ease sticky phlegm: get a face towel wet with water, and put on top of baby (or adult's) chest. cover with a second dry towel. sleep with it. mommy Ed says, by the next day, the phlegm is more easily expelled.
3. to stop hiccups: fill your mouth with water, cover both ears with fingers and swallow. Mommy Edna swears by it! :-D

to this conversation i contributed something i heard from the radio as i was in the car,
4. to stop insistent coughing: slather Vick's Vaporub under the baby's (or adult's) foot and cover up with socks. the radio guy "guarantees" this to stop coughing.

hmmm... will update when the opportunity for me to test this personally arises. of course, these home remedies are not intended to replace the doc's meds and advice.

yesterday, monday, first thing i did was set an appointment with the pedia. after checking up my boy, she diagnosed it to be "tigdas hangin" (some kinda virus i can't remember). I told her about my concerns of dengue but she assured me that since it is hot summertime, dengue cases are rare, which put my mind at ease. she gave us 2 meds for Raj's fever. she said it is to be expected for fevers with this bug to be very high. instructions were for round-the-clock meds and to see her back on wednesday.

by that afternoon, Raj looked normal and well and i needed to do groceries. since Raj always insists to come with us and i didn't really want to leave him, i took him with us. Big mistake.
i thought we'd be back in time for the next dose of meds but by 5 pm, we were about an hour late. i wasn't too concerned because he was looking well. he fell asleep in his father's arms but when he woke up, he looked ashen. his lips were white, skin was blotchy, and toes were bluish. he didn't have a fever because his skin was very cold. man, was i afraid! i immediately called up the doc and she told me to bring him in. after asking me some pertinent questions, i got a scolding: "who brings sick babies to go grocery shopping?" she said...arrrrghhh...

in short, she sent us home. she said Raj just got too cold. and here i was thinking: what if it was a misdiagnosis? i wanted to get him admitted to the hospital right there and then but i had to trust the doc. "nasa loob ang lagnat", she said. i suddenly remembered mommy edna's advise number 1. so i took out two hot water bags and put it by his feet. slowly, his color returned and so did the fever. it eventually subsided though when the meds took effect.

today, we've kept the fever at bay but he's still all cranky. hopefully he'd be all well tomorrow.