Battling with the Prolonged Fever : Part 1

English

Since the past few days, I become baby sitter for my son’s (baby A) – as well as his personal advocate. This article is dedicated to praise his patient, courage and spirit to battle with the disease. It is also a lesson learn for other parent, who supports their beloved one during time to find the cure.

A fever may or may not be serious

On Wednesday 12 days ago, my son reported that he was feeling unwell. Measurement taken on his body temperature show 37.5^oC, a mild fever. As usual, since this was the first day fever – we just gave him vitamin C, water and suggested him to take more rest. In fact, he looked tired – and nap easily. Two, three, four days passed easily and he just showed mild fever. No coughing, runny nose, or vomiting – everything was ok; except that he has annoying fever. We hope that his antibody will cure himself – and got additional immune as a reward.

On Sunday, we leaved him with baby K  for shopping. We went to nearby shopping center to buy some groceries and other stuff. My mobile phone rang, but the battery drops as soon as I tried to reach it in my pocket. When we reached home, I knew that it was a call from my son.  He was trying to call us, telling that his nose bleed; unfortunately he couldn’t contact us. So he grab tissue paper, sit down and holding phone to make a call.

It is important to stay calm and decide properly

He was so patient and calm, waiting until we arrived. He followed our instruction for an emergency situation, stay calm, sit-down with the phone and try to make a call.

We were not panic but begun to clean the blood. We explained to our sons that “Nose bleeding is normal as long as it stops – it can be caused by high temperature”. We also explained the position to stop the bleeding effectively. Everything was ok – until we started our dinner. In the middle of our dinner, his nose started to bleed again. I instructed my son to take the position to stop the bleeding, and wipe the blood using tissue paper.

Child Emergency Readiness

 

Readiness	Main plan	Secondary plan
Emergency contact number (Parent, FireFighter, Ambulance)	Educate, and ensure that they remember the number	Prepare reachable emergency contact list (phonebook, reachable printed list)
First Aid	Educate the location and usage of first aid	Educate the location and usage of first aid
Emergency procedure	Educate different emergency situation and procedure	Educate single procedure for all emergency situation (you have to define your safe heaven)
Emergency bag	Every child must have dedicate emergency bag	Common emergency bag

Always ready with emergency bag or checklist

After short while, my wife alerted me that we have to worry because the bleeding happened twice. I agreed with her, and asked her to prepare emergency bag. I helped my son to stop the bleeding, while my wife checked the document in emergency bag. The blood stopped, and we explained to him calmly that we were going to bring him to hospital, “We need to check if anything is fine, and hospital has more complete instruments to do it”.

I booked a taxi and we arrived at National University Hospital (NUH) about 20 minutes later. In the child emergency department, they took my son’s blood and measure his temperature. From the complete blood count, they decided that there was nothing serious with him and we can return home. They had prescribed Paracetamol and Ibuprofen. Paracetamol was given for mild fever, while Ibuprofen was given for high fever. We went home, and … to be continue in the next part

Emergency Bag Checklist

1. Child Identity (copy of following Birth Certificate, IC / Re-Entry Permit, Passport)
2. Financial support (Insurance Card, some cash, parent account)
3. Parent Identity (name, contact number)  and contact books
4. Basic health information (allergy, blood type etc.)
5. First Aid (bandage, betadine, paracetamol)
6. Survival support (small towel, socks, plastics, raincoat, tissue paper, matches, torch, compass, small radio)