Paeds V ENT

Haikal has been having fever on and off through out his short 3 years of life now. Been hospitalized twice for high and prolonged fever and because of that, I brought him to see a pediatrician friend of mine working in one of the government hospitals. Her first diagnose was it’s Haikal’s nose and after conducting few tests, she wrote a referral letter for Haikal to go see ENT at the same hospital. True enough, he has what they call it ‘Allergic Rhinitis’ just like me and the doctor prescribed him few medicine and nose spray to reduce the engorging adenoids.

To date, he has been under the observation of both paed and ENT for almost a year. The last time we went for his follow up, both the paed and the ENT suggested that Haikal undergo an operation to remove the adenoids.

ENT – this is the 3rd visits and there is no improvement, which means the medication did not help his condition, it’s just helps not to worsen his adenoids. As such, I would suggest an operation to remove his adenoids and insyaallah after the surgery he will not caught fever as often as now. We are a bit reluctant as he is still so small. The doctor also inform and advice us on the risk and consequences if we decide to prolonged the operation and advice us to reconsider our decision to wait at least until he reaches 4.

Paeds – she asked whether there is any improvement with Haikal’s fever. When I said no, she also suggested that Haikal go for the operation and she asked whether the ENT has advised the same. When we told her that we decided to wait, she asked me whether I have ever noticed that Haikal stops breathing during the night. Not that I am aware of. Then she asked again whether Haikal sits up during his sleep or look for a higher head position. I looked at hubby and laughingly said, all the time. Then she said it’s actually a sign that the oxygen did not reach his head, and the sitting up part during his sleep is actually a reaction for lack of oxygen and that he is gasping for air. OMG, we dint know that, we in fact laughed at him for sitting in his sleep. We felt really bad. The paed once again asked us to reconsider our decision to wait. She said we can’t see the effects now because he is small but it will affect him later if his head continuously lacking of oxygen. She gave us a different medicine this time to try and see if there’s improvement. Said that the medicine is very expensive about RM7.50 per tablet and supposed to be very effective. Luckily it was a government hospital, if not, bankrupt la aku hehhehe….

After the consultation, at night when I woke up to nurse Alaani, I will observe Haikal’s breathing. Once I notice that in between his snoring, he was quiet and then came the sound like he was gasping for air. Is that the sign that the paeds talk about? Was that a moment where Haikal stops breathing. I read up about it but mostly the articles discussed serious issues of cant remember the medical term for it. But none really discussed the initial stage of it.

By this time, Haikal will know when he’s about to have fever and whenever he said, mama haikal rasa macam nak demam, he will actually had the fever. But there’s 2 type of Haikal’s fever:-
Serious – he will start shivering and his temperature will shoot up so high. Then, he will start throwing up and by this time he’s face will be all red and flushed. By this time, he will only lie down looking very helpless.
Not serious – mama tak sedap badan la, but he can still run around making havoc and disturbing me.

Last Saturday, he told me Haikal rasa nak demam la. True enough, he had viral fever. It was bad this time. Once, I scolded him for puking on the carpet. Then, while walking to the bathroom he said prayers “Ya Allah, baikkanlah demam aku. Amin…” I felt so bad for scolding him. I was touched and sad. He looked so small with tears in my eyes.

We took him to the clinic and the doctor showed hubby his engorging tonsils that almost filled up his throat. That’s the reason why he refused to eat or drinks. It hurts him to swallow and I always forced him to eat and drink milk all the while… isk isk.. but he has to eat something right? Or at least take his milk.

The next follow up with the paeds will be end of this month. Our decision is still the same, we will wait until he reaches 4 or at least until I get my confirmation letter.