Just the Flu Viral

It's been a couple of sleepless nights for us when Jacob caught the flu at the wee hours of Monday morning. He woke up every two hours. Thought he was hungry. And yes, he drank but it was not his hunger that woke him up. Found out that it was actually his running nose that irritated him.

At 13.30pm, MIL drove us to a nearby clinic, Low's Child Clinic, but was refused entry because the clinic's operating hour has ended. It was 12.45pm and clinic was supposedly closed at 12.30pm. Both MIL and I was upset and tried persuading the nurse to let us in. The doc was adamant not to see us as she was apparently rushing to pick her kids up from school. At 1pm, we were still waiting outside her clinic. She was still accepting one little walk in patient. What the hell!!...We tried coaxing the nurse again but failed miserably. Should doctors be more sympathetic. After all, only one more patient and perhaps 10 mins the most. Thank God, we didn't rely on her as Jacob's paeds.

We didn't have to go knocking on her clinic if Dr Lee was around. Called his PA this morning to make an appointment to see him but was told that he is on leave until the 28th of October. Called Dr Khoo's clinic too but she too, was on leave. Jacob's flu can't wait.

At 1pm, I called SDMC again. This time we couldn't be picky. So I made an appointment to see Dr Angelina Amaladoss (i think that's how her suname is spelt). Jacob has seen her before so I was feeling a little bit at ease. Arrived SDMC at 2.30pm and only managed to see her at 4.30pm. Why am I not surprised? It's so typical at SDMC.

Anyway, we saw Dr Angelina. She was a very nice lady. Good PR skill I must say and I think Jacob likes her too. After giving Jacob a good check, her diagnosis of his 'irritability' was that he has caught on a viral and he has an Upper Respiratory Infection. "I'm holding on to my horses la Jo, but if he has high fever, bring him back" , she said. And I was like What do you mean by that? Prior to seeing her, I was already asking the nurse what are symptoms of H1N1 and whether they have many patients with that virus. This is what I found out:

Common symtoms of H1N1:
1) High Fever
2) Bad Cough (persistent cough)
3) Sore Throat
4) Runny Nose

The doc said there was nothing to worry about and perscribed the following medication to treat his flu:

1) Hydroxyzine syrup 10mg/5ml - 2.5ml at 3 times a day after food
2) Salbutamol/Ventolin syrup 2mg/5ml (cough) - 2.5 ml at 3 times a day after food
3) Tonimer Baby Spray ( it's a nasal spray to help ease nose congestion)

She recommended that we use a good thermometer and scribbled the brand name on a piece of paper. Very thoughtful of her. Afraid I might forget the name of the cough syrup, she also jotted down the name of the medicine on that same paper.

Brand of good thermometer to look out for:

1) Terumo
2) Omron

The bill came up to RM132 including consultation and pharmacy. MIL was shocked when told about the cost but I assured her that this was normal. Sometimes we fork out more than that so this was nothing. In fact her consultation fee wasn't that exorbitant at RM64 for a first timer.