17 August '06 ~ The worst day of my life!!!

Thursday the 17 August was the worst day of my life... Here is why...

J left early in the morning to the airport, I went home with the boys, then at around 11am K-S went to sleep, he slept for about 1and half hours. When he woke up, his left eye was a bit "pussy" and he felt a bit warm. I told him to stay in the bedroom and rest cos I wasn't sure if it was maybe an eye infection, and I didn't want him playing with the other kids that stayed in the house. Then T-R came into the room and was talking to K-S and they started throwing a ball to each other and were laughing and talking. I was sitting on the bed writing a letter, when I heard T-R ask why K-S was lying on the floor? I looked up and asked K-S if he was still tired? No response. I asked T-R if he was sleeping (K-S had his back to me), and T-R said no, his eyes are open and stuff is comming out his mouth! I jumped up and ran to him and saw his eyes were "glazed over" and his face was blue! He had stopped breathing!!! I grabbed him, tried to open his mouth, but it was clenched so tightly shut. I ran through the house with him shouting for someone to help me. Tapasa, the owner of the house, just grabbed him and ran to the car. We all jumped in and raced to the hospital. On the way I kept talking to him, and after about 5 minutes or so, he seemed to come around and look at me, although he didn't seem completely lucid. We eventually reached the hospital and Tapasa ran in with him to the emergency room where a doctor started checking him over, gave him oxygen and a drip.

T-R was very worried and kept saying that now he was only going to have one brother! I kept reassuring him K-S would be alright. W-R went back with Tapasa and Sumati to fetch their kids (we had left them behind with Eileen).

They then took blood, but K-S kept fighting them and they couldn't find a vein, so I started singing "I love you" (Barney's song), and even in all the confusion and everything that was going on, he still tried to sing some of the words with me, it was so precious!

Tapasa arrived back and said he would take the boys home and Suprabah stayed with me, to translate for me. They then sent him to have a chest x-ray, because they said his chest sounded wheezy, but it came back fine - they were concerned perhaps it was pneumonia or something. Although I kept telling them that he had not been sick at all!

K-S fell asleep and slept for quite a while. The blood tests came back and apparently his red blood cells are smaller than normal = his are 76.1 and they should be between 79 and 99. His heamaglobin is also low = it should be 12 - 18 and his is only 11.2. They suggested he may have some kind of aneamia called Thalassemia or Microcytic aneamia. The doctor said it may also be genetic (I told him I was aneamic for years as a child). Just said to keep an eye on it and make sure he eats his greens!

Now when he doesn't want to eat his veggies I just tell him that the doctor at the hospital said if you don't eat your greens, you will have to go back = and sure enough he eats it up! (Usually)!

We were eventually discharged a few hours later, although I am still not sure as to why he stopped breathing, the doc said it may have been some kind of convulsion, and that I must keep my eye on him, and if his temp rose again higher than 38.5 degrees celcius, to bring him back. Apparently it could have also been the airconditioner in our bedroom, because with the aircon on and his temp rising very suddenly, it caused him to collapse. So now I am glad our apartment does not have aircon (we use fans only).

So we came back from the hospital and the other 2 boys were waiting at the top of the driveway for us, and they were so thrilled to see their baby brother in the car - their faces just lit up. Needless to say they never left him alone for a moment - also cos I told them not to - I didn't want him to be alone in case it happened again! The 2 older boys kept asking me if K-S could still do things like sing and do puzzles, and I told them yes as long as he just takes it easy and no running around.

Tapasa was really great, and said us ladies were to just relax, he was going to do the cooking as we had all had a very stressful day - I am really glad they were there - they were such a help - THANK YOU GUYS!!! They always said that our kids were like their kids, and I really saw that they meant it - you would have thought it was one of their own children it had happened to!

So that evening K-S didn't eat much, he spoke to dad on the phone (who was so worried, because he wasn't there with us), and then he went to bed. Of course I hardly slept and about 3am K-S felt warm, his temp was 37.19, eventually it went up to 37.38, so I gave him his meds and sponged him down. His temp came down to 37.29 and then to 37.08. We finally went back to bed!

Since then he has been absolutely fine = thank God! He has not had a temp or anything!!! But it was most definately the worst, most terrifying day of my life!

Please give your kids an extra hug tonight...

~* Peace and Love *~