Five More Days....

I am counting down to the day.  The most tensed day in 2014 for me since the start of the new year.  In 5 days, Cass and I would have to go to HKL again.

Cass is scheduled to go for a Urodynamics Test to see her bladder activity.  If this was just a simple procedure sans pain, I would not feel the tension.  I feel tensed as I am worried Cass will not be able to take the pain and discomfort when the doctor inserts 2 catheters into her urethra and rectum.  How will she be able to tolerate the pain for a whole one hour?  Only God can remove her fears and pain.

If you know what Cass has been going through since she was 6 weeks old (problem detected in-utero), I hope that you will kindly say a little prayer for my baby girl for her to have a smooth sailing Urodynamics Test next week. Please pray that she will feel no pain and no fear throughout the test.

Thank you...

Baby C's Post Surgery - Day 3

Yesterday (Friday) was Baby C's 3rd day post surgery. Her temperature was still hovering in the 37ish degrees Celsius region. The half-hourly puking sessions have stopped but each time she drank my milk (albeit in very little amount), she puked. Baby is still very weak and still could not muster a smile and could only cry feebly like a little kitten.

Baby C's Post Surgery

This is Baby C first day post operation. When her fever shot up to close to 40 degress Celsius, the nurses sponged her down and gave her suppositories. She was also given a cool bedding to sleep on and ice pack for her head. Still the fever did not subside, not at all. I kept sponging her throughout the day and night and also left her without any clothes on, save for a piece of pillow case to cover her tummy and legs, though in an air cond room. Thank God, her temp came down this morning.



My poor baby has not been drinking or eating since Tuesday. And poor me, I've been expressing my milk all day long and throwing them away. Hopefully I will get the green light from the surgeon to start nursing her tomorrow.

Seeing Our Nephrologist Today

I'm now waiting for hubby to come and pick us up to go to the hospital. There's some bacteria in Baby C's pee again, NOT AGAIN, sigh..... Even our nephrologist would shake her head and let out a sigh each time she hears that Baby C has another UTI attack. Today we will discuss with her about the MAG3 scan and hopefully we can have it done on Baby C next week. I just want the surgery and everything to be over and done with soonest possible. I am praying that Baby C can celebrate her first birthday in good health next month.

A Traumatic And Painful Day For Baby C

I had a very stressful day in the hospital today. Today is the day that baby had been scheduled to do the IVP and MCUG procedures on her. Check out my health blog to continue reading.

Pix Of Baby C's Bandaged Hands

When Baby C's hands were bandaged, I had to wrap a plastic bag round the bandage on each of her hands during her meal times, bath times and time spent on the floor. Other than that, I will put my socks over the right hand bandage (the one with the IV line) to prevent her from sucking and licking the bandage. As for the bandage on the other hand, I removed the bandage coz my little trooper kept sucking on the bandage and the paper that's wrapped round the board. She could also wriggle her little fingers out from the surgical tapes. She was also very, very frustrated that she couldn't do anything with both her hands bandaged... poor poor baby. After the left hand bandage was removed, she was happier as she could play with one hand.

Paik Ling commented that Baby C will live to tell her story to her grand children and when she reads all these posts in future, she will appreciate mummy more. How true Paik Ling. Your comments always make me feel better. Thanks for all the consolation!

What A Night We've Had

We spent the whole night yesterday at the hospital, 2 hospitals that is. First, we went to the hospital near our house and waited for more than an hour before being seen by a grouchy, lcly MO. When she saw the photocopy of the antibiotics jab prescription form from SJMC, this lcly MO with a face as black as charcoal told me rudely that she can't administer the jab on my baby since there is no proper authorization letter from the doctor at SJMC. She also gave me some other lame excuses bluntly, to which I told her to call our regular paed who works at the hospital to reconfirm my baby's medical history, which she did. This lcly Miss Charcoal Face MO must have miscommunicated the message to our paed coz our paed told her over the phone that the antibiotics meds must be administered via infusion drips. Hello, my baby already has an IV line on her hand, what the fun does she need to have the meds administered via infusion and why can't the meds be injected through the IV line? But the MO was very adamant and did not even feel any compassion for us but just gave me a pissed off and cold look. I was so angry that I stormed out of the clinic without a word and headed straight to SJMC. I was really frigging mad coz I had waited for almost 1.5 hours for nothing!

When I reached SJMC, I told the staff nurse who attended to us the night before what happened. She then called our pediatric nephrologist to reconfirm whether the antibiotics needed to be administered via infusion drips or can just be injected through the IV line. Our pediatric nephrologist confirmed that it can be administerd through the IV line coz the dosage was only 250mg. The one to be administered via infusion is 1gram. I'm pretty sure that the lcly Miss Charcoal Face MO did not inform my paed the dosage of the vial of antibiotics coz if she did, my paed at the hospital near my house would have agreed for the antibiotics to be administered via the IV line.

When we asked the staff nurse at SJMC to get the MO to prepare an authorization letter for us, we were told to wait for another 45 minutes. As it was already drawing close to midnight and baby was fussing away, we didn't want to wait and left the hospital. The next day, the hubs collected the letter from SJMC.

By the time we reached home, it was already way past 12 midnight. What a night we've had... spending 1.5 hours at a hospital for nothing and having to witness quite a gory scene of 2 accident victims and having to spend another half an hour at another hospital.

Check out my other blog to see what Baby C's doing here.

Crabby Baby

My poor baby has been really crabby and whiny since the traumatic ordeal in the ER of SJMC last night. Last night, she still woke up at 3am as usual but instead of being bubbly and playful, she was really crabby and kept whining, as if she was very uncomfortable. She crawled round my bed and was trying to find a comfortable position to sleep. Even nursing her did not make her feel better. I had to cradle her and pat her back to sleep. She's also a tad quiet today and has been confined to her playpen, aka her cage.... the place that she hates the most. Since there's nothing much she can do with both her hands bandaged, she has been licking the bandage on both her hands, till they are wet.... and the paper that wraps round the board has becomes soft and slimy..... eeuuuuuu! I better get the bandage changed with a new one tonight when we bring her to the hospital near our house for the second dose of Rocephin antibiotics jab to be administered via the IV line.

Poor Poor Baby C

Check out my health blog to find out what happened to Baby C.

Baby C's Holey Hand

That's Baby C's holey hand, caused by the IV line. Check out my health blog for the story.

When It Rains, It Pours

Things ain't going too smoothly for me lately. Everything seems to go wrong and all the unpleasant things seem to come pouring together simultaneously. When Baby C was admitted to the hospital last week, we went to Pantai Medical Center as this hospital is under our insurer's panel. However, an hour later, we were informed by the hospital that our application for the particular claim had been declined by the insurers. Our insurance agent later informed us that all our claims related to Baby C's UTI will NOT be borne by them as her UTI is caused by Kidney Reflux, which is considered a congenital disorder. Congenital disorders will not be covered by any insurers. I was really disappointed and felt cheated coz when our application was approved a few months ago, our insurance agent informed us that there wasn't any exclusion on her claims. Now, they are telling us that they are not bearing our claims. Sigh.... this would mean extra burden on hubby.

Baby C has been admitted thrice for UTI and each hospitalization cost over RM1,500. I am just hoping and praying hard that Baby C does not require surgery coz her surgery is a very costly one. But looking at her situation, I think surgery is most likely needed. If she gets a few more UTI attacks within the next few months, a surgery to correct her urinary tract is the best solution and the doctor suggested the surgery to be done after her first birthday, if she doesn't outgrow the Kidney Reflux. I wonder if there's ever light at the end of the tunnel....

Baby C On Antibiotics Drips

Check out my health blog to read the story.

Baby C Getting Her Antibiotics Drip

Check out my health blog to read the story.

I Hope It's Not Another UTI

Will be bringing Baby C to the hospital this morning to have Dr Indon get a clean sample of her urine via insertion of a catheter.... sigh.... another painful and traumatic time for my poor baby! The FEME urine test done 2 days ago showed that there are 8-10 WBCs in baby's urine and the initial urine culture test yesterday showed that there's growth of some bacteria in the urine but the actual growth of bacteria is not known yet as the culture will only be ready today. So the best is to bring Baby C to have a clean sample of her urine taken for an accurate result.

Wish us luck. I am mentally prepared to have Baby C undergo a surgery to fix her urinary system so that she does not have to suffer anymore UTI attacks. Everyday is like a nightmare for me for the past 3.5 months and I just hope I can put all these behind me soon.

Stay Away Food High In Potassium From Baby C

Finally, Baby C had her 5th and last dose of painful intra-muscular jab today. Though I am happy that it's the last, I still have a niggling worry that the UTI will attack her again. I've already done my level best to keep the UTI at bay, yet she still got attacked. Our paed said that this is expected as Baby C has a Grade III Kidney Reflux, which means that her sphincters (the pumps/valves in the urinary system) are weak. Hopefully, as she grows, the sphincters will become stronger and the reflux will resolve by itself.

The blood test done on Monday shows that Baby C's renal functions (kidneys) are perfectly normal. Anyway, to play safe, our paed advised us to keep food high in potassium to the lowest for Baby C. People with weak kidneys should avoid or eat very little food containing Potassium. So, Baby C can't eat a lot of bananas, starfruits (remember the case of the man with kidney problem who died after he ate starfruits in China?), chocolates, nuts, beans, etc.

A Drawer Full Of Urine Bags And Sterile Bottles

Ever since Baby C's 2nd UTI (urinary tract infection) attack, I am so paranoid of her having another UTI attack that I stocked up my drawer with urine bags and sterile bottles from the hospitals. At the onset of foul-smelling pee (which smells like someone who had eaten petai or stinky beans the night before), I will collect her urine the following morning. Each urine test costs almost RM40. Since her attacks are so frequent, hubby and I have decided to have her urine tested every week. Can you imagine how much hubby is spending on urine tests, diapers, medical consultation and medication for Baby C a month?

Traumatic Time For Baby C

Baby C had a real traumatic time at the hospital today when the pediatric nephrologist inserted the catheter into her urethra. Read the rest of the story at my other blog by clicking on the link above.

Potty-Training Baby C

Check out why I am potty-training Baby C now when she's only 4 months.

A Very Stressful Day Collecting Baby C's Precious Pee

Whenever I need to collect Baby C's pee, every drop of pee is just so precious to me. Read my story on how I collected Baby's pee with much stress today.

E Coli Bacteria In Baby C's Urine

Instead of waiting until October to do the urine test, my guts feeling told me that I had to do it and last Friday, I sent Baby C's urine to the hospital for tests to be done. Turns out that there is a moderate growth of E Coli bacteria in the urine. The funny thing is that Baby C has no fever and is feeding pretty well. Our paed said that it may not be another UTI (urinary tract infection) and suspected that the urine might be contaminated with faeces. Also, the urine culture report showed that E Coli bacteria is resistant to the antibiotics that Baby C is taking now.

Today I brought Baby C to see the paed again. He told me that I have to collect sample of Baby C's urine for another test. If the WBC (white blood cells) increase, then he will switch the antibiotics to one which the E Coli bacteria is sensitive to.

I'm just praying that the WBC will drop today. Our paed said that it is not good to keep switching antibiotics as the bacteria will soon be resistant to all the antibiotics and I certainly do never want this to happen as this would mean more UTI attacks!

I've dedicated a post to Baby C. Hop on to my other blog to read.

Pix taken yesterday, of me feeding Baby C her med. You can read about it in my other blog.