Let's flashback.
The whole thing started about 5 days ago. On Monday afternoon, Naomi suddenly got warm and she became very hot by night. I gave her some paracetamol and it helped her sleep slightly better at night but her high fever didn't really subside. It was the first time I've ever seen Naomi running a high fever that made her whole body feeling incredibly warm to the point that I felt warm too every time I held her. Not to mention that Naomi became very fussy and cried a lot, possibly due to her body aches. Since taking her last milk at 5pm, Naomi literally rejected all the food or milk that I offered her. She was practically only drinking water until the next morning.
Naomi and her persistent fever.
The next day, Naomi still had her fever and completely lost her appetite. Throughout the day, she ate very little and refused her milk feeds. My husband and I brought her to see a doctor and the doctor said Naomi's 39°C fever was very worrying. She scared of Naomi going into fits if her high fever persisted. At the clinic, the doctor tried to compress Naomi with wet cloth and prescribed paracetamol plus antibiotic syrup for Naomi as she suspected Naomi was perhaps having some throat infection.
By Thursday, Naomi still experienced on and off high-degree fever and uber fussiness. Since I really felt that there was something really wrong with Naomi's symptoms, I took her to see the paediatrician in town by cab. Moving on, realizing that Naomi had high fever for 4 days already - the paediatrician ran two blood tests on Naomi just to make sure that she was not suffering from Dengue Fever, especially since there is ongoing Dengue Fever outbreak in Malaysia.
Although Naomi's blood tests showed that her blood platelet counts and haemoglobin were lower than normal, her dengue diagnostic test came out negative. I was very relieved when I learnt the latter because I really don't want to see my daughter staying in hospital, being hooked up to IV drip and all. It's just purely heart-breaking for me to see small kids enduring the pricking needles in the hospital. Just before we left home, the paediatrician advised my husband and I to do blood test repeat on the next day just to make sure that Naomi is not getting Dengue Fever considering that one's blood profile changes every day.
Naomi after taking her evening bath - looking obviously slimmer.
After the fever medicine that the paediatrician gave, Naomi seemed to be feeling better and became more active and cheerful in the evening. However, at night, Naomi started feeling unwell again. She started crying non-stop and had trouble sleeping.
On Saturday morning (re: yesterday), Naomi's temperature suddenly spiked to 39°C again and I found rashes in her body. My husband and I quickly rushed her to the hospital's ICU and the doctor ran another blood test again on Naomi. Oh my! You have no idea how much tears my girl had shed this week because of the blood tests, taking medicines, etc. Naomi's eyes are now so swollen due to excessive crying. I am so sure that she has been crying enough tears for Niagara Falls and is so traumatic when she sees doctors or nurses.
"No baby likes any doctors, nurses and their pricking needles I assure you!"
Anyway, yesterday's blood test revealed that Naomi has no Dengue Fever (Thank God!). To find out more about Naomi's sickness, the doctor took a little bit of Naomi's mucus sample and ran it for further test in the hospital's lab. Turned out, Naomi is not suffering from influenza either. Doctor concluded that Naomi is having some unknown viral infection and I should just continue giving her the fever syrup and paracetamol to treat her fever and baby lotion for her rashes.
After seeing three different doctors in the past five days, Naomi's fever is finally pretty much gone today. However, I think she is still having some utter discomfort with her body aches and showing horrid dark red rashes all over her body and face (much worse than mild measles rashes). On top of that, to make her ordeals come full circle, seemingly Naomi is now teething 8 new teeth (including molars) at the same time!
As of today, Naomi has been literally fasting from her milk for 5 days in total and this is the first time for me seeing her being so ill and refuses milk altogether. She is only interested with plain water, porridge, rice with soup, white bread and whole grain cereal. I lost count of how many bottles of milk I had wasted when trying to make Naomi drink her milk. Also, Naomi, who is looking obviously slimmer nowadays only wants Mommy and only Mommy! She is incredibly clingy and irritable. She always wants me to hold her while walking or standing up. I am so exhausted, clearly sleep deprived and my left arm is so sore!
When will all this be over? =)
Any Mommies with toddlers out there experiencing the same thing? And yes, Naomi is still very rebellious (screams, kicks and cries) whenever we try to give her the medicines - which is not helping her parents cure her sickness any easier.