Madness in August 2012!

August has always been a bit busy for us, what with Isaac's birthday and a public holiday on National Day. But this year, August was quite quite horrid for our family. The last time I remember us feeling this bad was almost two years ago in June 2010, when we all fell sick. This time, admittedly, wasn't as dire as it was two years ago - but maybe because I am personally affected this time round, that's why it hits me particularly hard..

It sort of started in July when a spate of Hand Foot Mouth Disease (HFMD) cases were taking place in the kids' childcare centre. By the end of July, the school was sending out emailers to parents, warning them of an impending compulsory closure of the school as the school had 17 cases of HFMD under its belt already. True enough, on the 6th of August, the 18th case was reported, and that triggered the order from the ministry to close the school for ten days. Hence school was closed for ten days, starting from 7th August.

Isaac's birthday fell on 6th August. We had already ordered a cake for him to celebrate in school with him. However, due to the recent spate of HFMD cases, the school no longer allowed parents to enter the centre. The teacher would organise the cake-cutting and the celebration for us. Isaac was very upset, but eventually had to accede to it - he didn't have a choice, really. That day, only 2 other classmates of his turned up in school. The rest either had HFMD, or had parents who were afraid that their kids would get HFMD if they went to school. Luckily the other K1 class had like 8 people so there was a decent 10 pax or so to celebrate with him.

6th August 2012, Monday
On the 6th August, since we weren't required, I went to work. My colleague V, noticed a cut/scratch of some sort above my left eyelid. I didn't even know I had that until she told me, and I checked it out in the mirror. I didn't know what it was. It looked like a minor scratch, or maybe a mosquito bite. I thought it was insignificant and would heal and fade away in no time. I was so wrong. By the end of the day, the eye was obviously starting to swell, and my lymph node near my left ear was swollen and sore. So I went to see the company doctor, a General Practitioner (GP). He said to look out for globules of water - could be shingles, he said. Yikes. He gave me a cream for the scratch/bite thingy and anti-biotics to bring down the swell of my lymphnodes.

7th August 2012, Tueday
My eye was swelling even worse than before and I was starting to have a headache as well. Vision still okay.

8th August 2012, Wednesday
My eye was so swollen, I could only open it for like 2mm. My headache became a fever as well. Vision normal. But because of the fever, and the fact that the swell has gotten worse, I went to see the GP again. This time, he told me to be on the lookout for blood clots over the long weekend, indicating that it could be dengue fever.

9th August 2012, Thursday. National Day.
My eye continued being swollen. I had fever the whole day, even after medication there still was fever. Thankfully no blood clots though.

10th August 2012, Friday
Fever continued, but started to go down by the evening. Also, miraculously, in the evening, the swell on my eye started to subside! yay, I thought! Maybe things were looking up!

11th August 2012, Saturday
No more fever, yay! Swell going down down down, yay! My eye white was red, and vision started to blur. Sob sob.

12th August 2012, Sunday
No fever, swell down. Eye red, vision blurrrr... SIGH

13th August 2012, Monday
No fever, hardly any swell, eye very red, vision blur like sotong. Went back to GP for a third time, this time, to get a referral letter to see an eye specialist.

14th August 2012, Tuesday
Saw the eye specialist, who also couldn't tell me what went wrong, nor why. He ordered some blood tests. Gave me this eye drop thingy to tame the severe inflammation in my eye.

This whole episode with my eye really threw me off-kilter. Even though I had only blur vision in one eye, it was very disorienting and disconcerting. I couldn't see properly, couldn't read my smses clearly, couldn't see my kids' faces in sharp focus - suddenly, I wondered if I'd go blind and not be able to see my grandkids next time :(

Thankfully, the eye got better after the visit to the specialist. The eye drops worked in halting the spread of the inflammation, and made it recede. By the next few days, most of the redness and inflammation was gone, but the blurred vision was still there. Doc says it's due to the eye drops he gave me, but that it would help with the healing.

And while I was having my eye problems... The kids' childcare centre had their 18th case of HFMD on the 6th August, and promptly started their ministry sanctioned 10 day compulsory closure beginning 7th August. Since the kids had no school, and I was on MC, hubbs took time off as well, and we brought the kids out. We figured we'd treat this period of time like a mini-holiday and make use of the time to spend time with the kids, and bring them out etc...

I didn't exactly enjoy this time coz of my eye problems. So, after 14th August, when I finally saw the eye specialist and the eye inflammation receded, I thought I could finally enjoy this time with the kids and hubbs... then, guess what?

15th August 2012, Wednesday
Isaac got the chicken pox!!! We saw the spots and brought him to the doctors who said it was 90% chance that it was chicken pox. The uncertain 10% was due to the fact that he didn't have a fever. But doctor says it most likely is, so... we are now confined to home! SIGH!!!

16th August 2012, Thursday
More and more spots popped up and Isaac complained about the itch all day.

17th August 2012, Friday
There seemed to be no more new spots, and Isaac stopped complaining about the itch - which means, not itching anymore? The spots also looked like it was drying up. We checked and realised that Isaac had taken one chicken pox jab before, so we figured it was because of that that Isaac didn't have many spots, no fever, and the spots dried up so quickly. Lucky break! We thought.

18th August 2012, Saturday
Isaac was fine all day. Ate a full packet of char siew rice for lunch. We watched movies (on our home theatre) in the afternoon, and then then suddenly, Isaac woke up from his afternoon nap, complaining that he couldn't breathe - he had a blocked nose, and that he had a headache. He was running a fever! After he took the fever medicine, he coughed some, and started vomiting! That night itself, he vomitted three times. Sigh. It was so odd that the fever came a few days later - so we guessed that it could be something else that Isaac picked up. From where though?! We were home bound!

19th August 2012, Sunday
Thankfully, Isaac's fever receded, and he stopped vomiting as well. We were afraid that the twins would pick up the chicken pox (though they had the jabs already) and/or the wierd fever/vomiting thingy. But they were fine. Phew!

20th August 2012, Monday
By this time, the kids were missing school, and frankly, hubbs and I missed the school as well. The 10 days compulsory closure has come to an end, but the school requested that we do not bring Asher & Shawna to school yet, even though they didn't have chicken pox. The theory being that they could be carriers and transmit Isaac's chicken pox germs to the rest of the kids in school... I don't blame the school for being cautious. They just closed for 10 days and certainly didn't want to go through another epidemic and have another round of closure. I didn't want us to be the ones to spark off the epidemic either! As such, we kept the kids away from school

21st to 26th August 2012
Other than the chicken pox spots which were starting to turn into scabs, Isaac was fine. Hubbs started to develop this hacking cough that had been plaguing him on and off these past two years. Isaac caught the cough from hubbs... and then, the twins caught the cough too...

27th August 2012, Monday
Marched the hubbs and the kids off to the doctor to get medicine for their cough. Isaac's scabs had also all fallen off. So we finally got the okay from the doctor, to send Isaac back to school. So the kids could go back to school too! yay!

Meanwhile, I was getting really busy coz we, My First Games had a booth at the ParentsWorld Magazine Exhibition at Expo, starting 31st August to 2nd September! It was our first time so I was kinda nervous, and did my best to prepare as best I could. More on the Expo experience in another post.

So yeah, August 2012 was madness for us. If you were wondering where we'd gone these past month plus, now you know! :)

Linking with Sanses' Talkative Thursdays!