For the first time in 3 months I’ve arrived 10 minutes earlier and hopefully I’ll be leaving with the rest of the girls too. Dropping and picking up Hassan from nursery everyday made me late to work. Yesterday was his last day until he joins back in September. It was so hard for me to leave the house with a toddler crying and screaming, not wanting to get out of bed and get changed lol. I’m still not relaxed because yesterday after he came back he was not feeling right. He had a fever and an earache.

On Sunday I took him to Dar Al Shifa and the ENT doctor there told me that his ears were fine. He didn’t remove the wax maybe he didn’t feel like it, or he was too scared. Well guess what? Last night I took him to another ENT doctor in Sallam Hospital and I was told his ears were all red and infected AGAIN. He took out balls of wax from both his ears, one was black and another was orange. He’s been having Otitis Media since he was little, which is all weird. I’ve always fed my son the correct way and held him in the right feeding position, plus I was breastfeeding him until he turned 3months. He weaned himself off the bottle all on his own before his 2nd b-day. And back in May we got rid of his pacifier too. And still, he’s getting this over and over again.

Research says kids are prone to such recurrent ear infections because of wrong bottle feeding positions and long term pacifier use. Well, with my kid that’s not the case. I believe he has an allergy and probably this is the cause for his repeated ear infections, though I’m not so sure I can confirm this. Anyways, ENT doctor put him on antibiotic shots for 5 days. His fever went down after his 1st shot, nose got unblocked and cough actually sounds better. Everyone who knows me knows I hate antibiotics but yesterday I gave in because this is different, he’s been having one day fevers for the past month. I’m guessing because infection is left untreated. Inshallah he’ll grow out this phase.

I went into the kitchen and I accidentally stepped on ice cubes which Hassan had left earlier on as he was playing with it. Then I ran out and slipped. Somehow I ended up on my back. I just remember my left arm, neck, knee, shoulder, hip and thigh hitting the floors first and after that I felt lots of pain all over. I think I hit the wall with my right feet and hip too. I stayed in the same position for a couple of seconds before I stretched out, and when I got up my lower back felt really weird. My body was aching all night and I woke up today with a stiff neck, shoulder and arm, mostly my left side hurt more than my right. I feel okay now.

After Hassan got ill I got ill, after that Teresa got ill, after her Aktar got ill, after her Meemo got ill, after her mom got ill, after her Hassan got ill all over again, after him dad got ill (still has a fever of 38-39), after him little dana got ill (she’s at the hospital now on IV) and now I feel a little cold with a runny nose. I fear an epidemic lol!

Ps. Two days after his fever was gone my son didn’t sound like he recovered from his cold. And he still has a runny nose! How can I get rid of it?

Pss. Don’t suggest hilba or fenugeek because I tried it, pee-yeu!

Psss. Lazim asheb harmal …

Usually I get things done before Eid in like 2-3 days. This Eid I’ve spent the first day in the hospital and the second I so hope I’m going to spend it going from one salon to another *fingers crossed* I hope they’re not closed for Eid!!

Plus Hassan didn’t get his haircut yet. But thanks to Allah he only got a fever before he slept last night. I still need to wash some clothes for tomorrow because everything was put on hold until I got back from the hospital. I’m still looking forward to showing off my new Eid clothes!

Happy be-lated Eid …

Why I was way away? One thing that will always keep me from posting is Hassan. On his first week to nursery he had a cold and on Thursday he didn’t go but I noticed he was showing symptoms on Wednesday noon time. His cold lasted a few days, about 4 days long. Then all symptoms were gone so I sent him back to nursery the following week. He only attended two days then started having a runny nose again and the next day he got a fever upto 38.5. I took Tuesday off to take him to hospital, though I ended having 3 days off.  Anyways he was prescribed Augmentin because this time his doctor suspected Otitis Media. The problem was everytime I tried to get Hassan to take his medicine he would spit it all out. His fever wasn’t getting any better by night time, it was going up to 39 degrees so I decided it would be better if he took an antibiotic shot.

The doctor decided to give him an antibiotic called ceftriaxone through IV. It was his first IV ever. It didn’t go too well. Hassan cried so much and wouldn’t sit down but we tried our best to occupy him with other stuff, it worked just until he got his dose. We left. That night his fever wouldn’t respond to any suppositories I gave him. I must’ve given him about 4 suppositories that day, plus advil once.

The 2nd day was the worst. His fever wouldn’t go down at all. It stayed at 39 degrees from noon time up to 7-8pm. I gave him two suppositories that day and showered him several times, nothing worked to lower his fever. It got so worse that at 7pm it reached 40 degrees, or so it did, if my calculations were right. I freaked out. Took him to the clinic next to home, and the nurse there didn’t help us out, she just stared at us, didn’t even speak Arabic nor English. We lowered his temp. to about 39 degrees by washing him under the tap water, plus we applied cold compresses to his head and back. My son peed on the floor and they didn’t even call the cleaning lady to mop the floors. The treating doctor didn’t think there was anything wrong with him, we didn’t even bother to take his prescribtion. I really felt like arguing with him but Rami pulled me away in the nick of time. We left that horrible place at once, the only reason we went there in the 1st place was because we worried traffic would get bad on our way to a private hospital, we just didn’t want to risk it.

After that we headed to Dar Al-Shifa. His doctor admitted him for the night, which is his first time too but we ended up staying for two nights because his fever wouldn’t go down, he was on IV for 24 hours. Only today it went down to 38-38.5. The doctor confirmed that he had a viral infection but continued the antibiotics for 3 days to treat his ears and at first he even suspected Roseola. We were discharged today, I’m so glad we were, thanks to Allah. I hated my stay there. The food was not tasty and I didn’t like their staff at all. Even Hassan was depressed, he wouldn’t eat because he was so homesick from day one. The nurses were not even taking accurate temp. readings. I got so annoyed at them. I’d always request for an armpit theremometer but they end up getting me an ear theremometer. The only good thing about the place is his doctor, he’s just excellent at what he does. Today is his 5th day and his fever is going down gradually, at long last it’s responding to medication.

What a gift Hassan passed on to me, Teresa, another housemaid and now my mom. I’m so considering taking him out, problem paid 3 months in advance.

Pics later.

Tip 1: never leave your kid wearing wet clothes if they had a fever because it might trap the air inside and only make his fever worse.

Tip 2: Never give your child more than one medication at a time, esp advil and tylenol. Each have to be given at different intervals.

I think I’ve found a good consultant pediatrician who works at Dar AlShifa hospital. He didn’t merely prescribe my baby with all medication there is in their pharmacy like so many other private doctors would have done, as though my baby is down with a flu, an allergy, and has a vitamin deficiency.

So many times I ask them if it’s necessary to start my baby with antibiotics, some doctors would tell me to buy the antibiotics because he really needs it while others would insist that I get it just in case he needs it, if I refuse they’d reply back “you’re covered, why worry about it?”

I’m always left feeling suspicious and quite puzzled. I didn’t want to believe they were basically selling medication to me. Otherwise why would a pediatrician give a parent an antibiotic prescription if their baby doesn’t really need it unless there’s a greater cause than my baby’s well being in the long run.

Instead this doctor thought it would be best for me to wait and see before trying anything else because it wasn’t in my baby’s best interest to get started on antibiotics for a little fever, putting in mind that he was on 3 different antibiotics in less than a year, unless he has a real ear infection caused from a bacterial infection, not a viral one, which is quite rare btw but seems quite common to so many doctors here in Kuwait! I want to give my baby a chance to fight this and therefore all I’m giving my baby are fever reducing medicines until the picture is clear.

For once I trust this one doctor and I couldn’t argue with him whatsoever because I know he’s doing the right thing. For the first time I didn’t go for a second opinion. I know he cares for my baby. Let’s hope to see more of him, though it’s very unlikely.

I know for sure that I hate going to the dentist not that it scares me much but the fact of waiting for long hours kills. I was there as early as 3:50pm, got myself a ticket and I was seen by the doctor at 8pm! The first hour passed. I was so bored and I didn’t have a book with me, I was trying to make conversation with anyone but no one was really interested. I was ready to leave when a girl walks in, sits next to me and we clicked. I was so glad I had someone to keep me company until it was my turn. I finished at 9pm.