Alyssa's Diarrhoea - Part 4

OMG. I can't believe a month went by just like that and yes, I'm still at Alyssa's diarrhoea, Part 4, when she's down with bronchitis now. Anyway, I should finish the story.

So, she got admitted into the hospital for the first time. It was the routines when we got to the ward. The doctor came and asked for the details of the entire diarrhoea episode and we were trying our very best to recall the happenings in its entirety while Alyssa was happily walking around her bed. I don't know how she managed to look so happy all the time, even when she's so sick.

Anyway, as diarrhoea patients don't just lose water but also electrolytes, the doctor decided to take some of Alyssa's blood to see if she's dehydrated where water and electrolytes are concerned. They took Alyssa to a special room for blood taking and since it could potentially be a traumatic experience for mothers to see their babies screaming in pain, I was advised to stay out of the room. Even before they started drawing the blood, we could already hear Alyssa's screams from outside. The screams just got worse during the blood drawing. When that was done, the doctor commented that she was a mighty baby who managed to give the nurses a few slaps.

Since Alyssa could potentially be dehydrated and may require the drip, the doctor decided to insert the connector into her hand first so she needn't be poked a second time. A thick piece of cardboard was attached to her wrist to prevent Alyssa from bending her wrists and hurting herself since a needle was stuck there. Besides being a mighty baby, she was also a baby without any concepts of pain. To my horror, she tugged at the tube which was sticking out of her hand and I had to ask the nurse to hide the tube from her. When the tube was missing, she went chewing on the cardboard. She eventually managed to free the cardboard from her wrists after 2 days of gnawing at it. I can't believe how mighty my baby is sometimes.

After she settled down, we had to wait for her to poop so we could collect her stools for testing to find the reason for the diarrhoea. She pooped about 5 times for the 1st day and the soy milk made her stools look and smell worse. The doctors couldn't do much while we waited for the test results and only fed her Lactoel Fort in an attempt to make her diarrhoea better (not that there was anything else which could be given to her). She did better the second day and actually did not poop for 12 hours till the next day. This was an indication to the doctors that the diarrhoea had stopped and the doctor-in-charge decided to send her home even before the tests results are out. By the way, stool tests will typically take 3 days for the results to be out.

I, for one, was quite happy to take Alyssa home. While Desmond stayed in the hospital during the day with her, I took the night shift. For the two nights Alyssa stayed at the hospital, I had to go to the hospital after work, go home to bathe and change, then return to the hospital to spend the night with her. It didn't help that the foldable bed at the hospital wasn't comfortable at all and it was freezing at the hospital. I left directly for work the next day from the hospital. One can imagine that I was really worn out during that few days.

I took the day off knowing that she could go home to spend the day with her and make sure that she was alright. However, her appetite took a turn for the worse when she got home and the diarrhoea returned...