Not forgetting getting ready for the beckoning Lunar New Year, which happened to be a few weeks away. We tidied the house whenever we had a chance, put up some decoration to immerse our tots into the occasion. Compound that with the sudden extra load in housework. You see - my mother had been helping us with the washing, ironing, cleaning and cooking on weekdays and she had a minor operation on her hand this time round which put her out of action for some time. How untimely!
Against all odds, we braced ourselves for the Lunar New Year. However, Rachel had to start falling ill and having a fever a couple of days before Lunar New Year Eve. Her temperature had not been especially high and we put her on medication at home, hoping that the problem would run off by itself and she would be in the pink of health soon. Little did we know...
"Sob... sob..." On the first day of Lunar New Year, Rachel came staggering into our room in tears.
"Very painful... I can't walk..." she bawled, pointing to her calves. She managed to be in high spirits for our visit to Yen's grandmother's that morning, but had not got a lot better that evening. Yen and I took her to KK Women's and Children's Hospital that evening to get her seen by the doctors. It turned out that her temperature had returned by then, but they could not diagnose anything immediately. The doctor who attended to Rachel got a blood test bone with stronger medication given to our poor girl.
We had to stay an hour for the medicine to take effect. We went for dinner at the only restaurant open there on the first day of the holidays, McDonald's. By then, our elder jewel had started joking and smiling again. She had visibly got better and after dinner, we returned to the doctor for a quick review. The doctor discharge Rachel as she could not conclude if the problem had been dengue. She only told us to continue to monitor our girl and get a second blood test done a week later if Rachel did not get any better. Thankfully, Rachel did.
But that was not the end of the spate of problems we had. Felix had started to run a temperature and had influenza by the time we sent Rachel to hospital too. Although he got a little better soon, the buck was passed on to Kayleen. Kayleen found time to fall off our bed when Yen made her sleep on our bed before she caught the illnesses, injuring her left cheek slightly. Just when we thought all was fine and dandy, Felix complained of leg pain yesterday and had a slight temperature.
I crossed my fingers for the best for them, health-wise. At least they managed to report all well this morning when we woke them up for play-school. I am beginning to loathe the long holidays as it takes the swing of things from children, and illnesses find this the most opportune time to invade their little bodies! There is little I can do to avoid this, it seems...
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