The Sunday after we got back from the Genting Highlands, Josie told me right before bedtime, "Mommy, I don't feel good." I felt her, she was fine. She's a smart kid who would pretend to cough and then asked for cough drops (to her, it's candy!), so we didn't quite believe her and sent her to bed. In the middle of the night, she got up at 2am with an alarmingly hot fever, crying. After calming her down, she managed to sleep the rest of the night with the other kids. The following day (Monday), she was very hot and lethargic. I just let her sleep in my bed, and helped her feel comfortable that whole day. I'm not the type of mom to get all nervous just because one of my kids runs a fever. And normally, I won't take them to see a doctor for a cold or a fever. I usually let the fever run its course and rarely give them fever reducer because I believe that a fever helps the body fight off infection. They just need to rest and let their immune system do the work.
On Tuesday, my old friends from AOG church that I grew up in wanted to come visit me. I was hesitant because we would be leaving on Wednesday, and with Josie sick, I really didn't want to see any new people. They insisted on coming, so I put up a pretty face and let them come. While they were here, Josie proceeded to vomit and coughed like a barking seal. I knew her airways were constricted, that was why her coughs sounded really bad. Immediately, I knew what she had. She had croup. I did a search on the internet, and knew what I had to look out for. At this point, I pretty much had to eat my words (I just had a conversation with my sister-in-law about us not going to the doctor's much in America) and take her to the doctor's. So, my old friends became angels God sent in disguise to take us to the doctor's. Josie, then, was very upset (because I had company and left her in the room with Daddy), crying because she just threw up, and felt bad due to the fever. A doctor's visit seemed inevitable!
They took us to the Hope Children Hospital. After the nurse took her temperature, she immediately prepared the suppository fever reducer for her. I stood firm and said no to that. Later, when we saw the doctor, Dr. Chong, he also pressured me to give her the suppository. After listening to her coughs and checking her vitals, he concluded that Josie had croup. I knew croup when I saw one because my boys also had it before. The coughs sound like a barking seal, and it gets worse when the child is crying or upset. I wasn't too concerned about Josie, because she was fine, but the doctor put a lot of pressure on me to give her all kinds of medicine. When he found out that we were actually traveling the following day, he laughed straight to my face and said, "Well, if you don't follow my instructions, you probably won't get into Singapore." He then mentioned that with the swine flu pandemic scare, Singapore was especially vigilant in scanning body temperature on all arrivals. That day was April 29th, the world was in the swine flu craze all of a sudden when Mexico declared a national emergency. Dr. Chong prescribed five different types of oral medication for her, one antibiotics, one fever reducer, one for the coughs, one for the swelling, and one for the phlegm. Then, he also prescribed six doses of suppository fever reducer for us to use on air, so she would not be having fever when we land in different airports. By that point, I really started to dislike him. He tried to make me feel panic and when he saw none, he said, "I would have admitted her today if not for your traveling next day." Then, he smiled, and said, "I doubt you guys would be able to get out of Malaysia." Josie got a nebulizer treatment right there and then, and he ordered us to come back again in the evening for a second treatment.
When we came back for her second nebulizer treatment, I saw Dr. Chong there again. I asked him to write a letter for us, proving that all Josie had was croup, and not some swine flu that was going around the world. Once again, he showed me his disdain, "No, it won't work! They will not believe a piece of paper. You won't be able to touch down in Singapore even if you try!" I asked him, "Why not?" He then reiterated that we needed to use the suppository fever reducer on Josie because that was the only thing that will reduce the fever surely and quickly. He added, "Well, that's not good stuff. Make sure you make her drink plenty of water, because it's going to be tough on her liver." Yikes! Why would I give my child something like that voluntarily? Regardless, I knew he was just showing off his medical knowledge and wanting to make some quick bucks on panicking parents, and when he saw that I wasn't panicking, he simply toned up his pressure talk. I didn't know about all the different medicines that we were prescribed until I went to check out at our initial visit. Another thought here: In Malaysia, the doctor's clinic and pharmacy are usually one entity, making medicine prescriptions part of their moneymaking business. In my humble opinion, I think there's almost a guarantee of abuse. What doctors won't prescribe more medicines to boost their earnings?
Let's see here, this is the receipt of our doctor's visit, and the consultation fee was only RM$30, whereas the medication cost us RM$111.70, and the two nebulizer treatments were RM$46, with a grand total of $187.70.
Well, needless to say, the only medication that's of any value to us was the fever reducer. After we got back, and I showed John all of Josie's medications, he was flabbergasted. "All that?" he managed to ask. "Yeah! All that, plus the suppository too!" After I told him about the side effects, John did not want to use it on Josie. Neither do I. I just felt 'pressured' into accepting all the medications. If we were in the U.S., we might take a doctor's prescriptions but we might or might not fill them, depending on if we felt the need to or not. But at Hope Children Hospital, I didn't have a choice. All the medications were all labeled and prepped when I checked out to pay for the bill. I told John that she had croup, and told him to go read up on it on the internet. He too, agreed with me, "It's a virus, why's the doctor prescribing antibiotics?" "Beats me! I don't know either," I chimed in. He was thinking in terms of US dollar, so when I told him that the doctor's bill was RM$187.70, he thought that was cheap, but I knew it wasn't. Oh well, we got ripped off! All I wanted was an oral children's fever reducer.
On Wednesday, we tried our best to make our flights on Air Asia to go smoothly. This was already a tough point, because when I booked these flights, I didn't know that we would need to pick up our luggage in KL, recheck the luggage for the other segment of our flight to Singapore. So, after realizing this fact, the one and a half hour of transit in KL was quite tight. My friends didn't think we would make it. For a while, I almost thought about buying brand new tickets to fly directly from Penang to Singapore, but just couldn't stomach the extra RM$1000 cost, so I didn't. If our kids were all healthy, this would have been quite tough to handle already. Imagine, with two flights back to back, lots of rushing and running to get our luggage and then run to the international counter to check-in a second time, with Josie sick, and me, feeling unwell as well, the challenge just increased its level of difficulty two fold.
We flew from Penang to KL without any incidence. Once we touched down in KL, we split up into two groups. John took the boys to collect our luggage, while I went with Josie to the check-in counter to check us in, and telling them that our luggage would be coming shortly. First of all, Josie was sick, so she was quite unwilling to walk. Secondly, flying Air Asia meant you would have to walk, and quite a bit of walking to get from the plane to the building at the airport. Thirdly, I had no idea where we were supposed to go. So many challenges! Once we were off the plane, Josie had been crying about wanting to be carried. Not knowing how far we would have to walk, I couldn't risk picking her up, because the longest I could hold a 33 lb. child is maybe 3 minutes top. So, I held her little hand, and with a carry-on bag on the other, we braved the crowd and got inside for check-in. Then, I navigated my way through the check-in counters, only to be told that we weren't at the right one. They pointed us to the international check-in counters on the other side of the airport. So, we trudged over there, all the while, with my poor Josie, crying and moaning on and off, lugging a bag. After checking in, I promised her I would get some cold drink for her. Not carrying any type of cell phones with us, I had no idea how to reconnect with John and the boys. So, it was a bit of 'good luck' that while on the hunt for a cold drink, we bumped into John with all five pieces of our luggage. Checked those in, and we were set! I sat there, saying to myself, "Yeah! We made it!" Almost. Now, we just have to make sure we were all fever free, so we could enter Singapore. I quickly popped some Panadols into my mouth. See, I was beginning to feel sick since Tuesday. Then, I gave Josie some oral fever reducer, and hoped for the best.
We got to Singapore, and sure enough, there was the temperature scanner. We walked towards the immigration counter, while this person who was working on the scanner watched us walk by. A woman came up to us, and make the boys walk again, because somehow they sneaked by the radar. Phew! We made it. That's half the battle. Now, we hoped to make it to Hong Kong and eventually back to the U.S. two days later. We spent two days in Singapore, well, we should all be relaxing! but instead, we were busy meeting up with my old friends. I just kept taking Panadols to keep my fever down, and make my runny nose and coughs better. Josie was still sick, with that bad croupy cough, but she did not have any more fever. On Thursday, Josh started to cough and run a fever. I was like, "Oh no! This is unreal!" I prayed that God will let us back into U.S. safely and quickly. I was already homesick by the third week of our vacation. I told John, "If I ever plan another vacation this long, please shake me and make me come to my senses! This is 'killing' me......."
On Friday, our flight was scheduled at 6:40am. Fortunately we stayed at the Changi Airport's Crowne Plaza Hotel. So, it only took us less than 5 minutes to get from our hotel to the airport. But still, we had to check out at 4am. Our flight to Hong Kong was uneventful, but I was manning the kids' temperature closely, since I read that Hong Kong was on the swine flu alert, and I did not want us to get stuck there. Once we arrived at the Hong Kong airport, we had to go through security again, to get to our connecting flight. We took our time to use the rest rooms, so by the time we tried to line up, we were the last ones in the queue. Needless to say, our party of croupy-coughing kids were faced with suspicion by the other travelers who were spotting face masks, and nervously applying antibiotic hand-sanitizer. Unfortunately, my kids weren't well versed in social etiquette, so they frequently coughed with their mouths wide-open, and their hands were touching things all over. I saw quite a lot of stares and frowns of judgement from other travelers.
We finally got on our second flight of the day, flying from Hong Kong to San Francisco. I heaved a sigh of relief. It was too early to let my guard down. Because almost within a minute of taking off, and that was before the seatbelt signs were turned off, Josh promptly threw up all over the floor before him. Since I was sitting with the boys, I had to alert the flight attendant that I needed something to clean up the mess. They acted quickly, handing over a bunch of wet disposable towels and a plastic bag. Of course, John rose up to the occasion and quickly cleaned up Josh's mess. We knew it was just something Josh did whenever he had a bad cough. He's my only kid who throws up regularly. If he eats too much, he throws up. If he has a cold and a bad cough along with it, he throws up. It's so common that we no longer make a big deal out of it. But, during this swine flu scare, what's worse than exhibiting flu symptoms was traveling with flu symptoms. Immediately, Josh's vomit incident sent people's radar up.
Usually Joey would be able to fall asleep in no time if he lie down on his seat during long flights. But this time, he couldn't get comfortable. Then, I felt him, and he was burning up too. "Oh no! This can't be for real!" I told myself. I have three sick kids, and one sick adult (including myself) in our party. The only one that's not sick was John. Could we possibly get back into U.S. safely, I wondered to myself. So, armed with the kid's Panadol, I made Joey take two chewables fever reducer. I was hoping that it would make him feel more comfortable, and make his fever go away. This flight was going to be a long one, I told myself. It would take us 12 hours to get to San Francisco. That's half a day.
Josh ate the first meal they served on the plane, and minutes later, he threw up a second time. This time, we were well-prepared, and he was actually holding the vomit bag, so none got onto the floor. By this time, the passengers all around us were quite concerned. But, I had no idea their level of alarm until I was greeted by a uniformed gentleman. He knelt down next to me and asked, "Ma'am, are your children sick?" I swallowed hard and answered, "Um...... yeah, my daughter has croup, and my other kids caught it too." He had no idea what croup was. So, I had to explain that it's just a common childhood sickness, and told him that we had Josie's doctor write us a letter proving that she had croup. He informed me that the other passengers were concerned about their safety, and he needed to ensure the safety of everybody on the plane. I asked him, "Are you the pilot?" My mind was racing, entertaining the possibility of getting kicked off the plane. (Too bad! We're already in the air.) He said, "No, I'm the purser. Here's my card. May I have the letter from the doctor?" I handed him the envelope with the letter, forgetting that my receipt was tucked in there too. "Here. We have been staying in Malaysia for the past month." I thought that fact might help us since there was no swine flu cases in Malaysia yet. He pondered upon that fact and assured me that he would have it back after he had a meeting with the pilot, "Ma'am, I'll let you know our decision after I discuss with the pilot what we're going to do. As you know with the situation with swine flu, we really don't want you all to have to go through the quarantine process. That would be a huge hassle!" Wow! He actually used that word 'quarantine'. "Sure, of course! I understand the situation. I really want to get home quickly too." So, he took the doctor's letter and disappeared for a good hour. I had no idea what a purser was. When he first mentioned it, I thought, hmm....... like a bouncer? Haha! I came home and looked it up, oh, it's like a security/safety officer on a commercial flight or ship.
The doctor's letter.
What it said...........
So, we almost got quarantined, if not for that letter. I bet the purser and pilot looked up what croup was during that flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco. I almost wanted to kiss the ground when we landed on U.S. soil. It sure felt good to be home! When informed of our third flight from San Francisco to our home city, Joey grunted, "No! Not another one!" We told him, "We need to. Do you want to get back home?" He reluctantly consented, but made us promised him, "No more! No more airplane!"
Phew! We're back. But what a way to end the trip! |
