On Monday, I already had an appointment at Singapore General Hospital with Joyce, our helper. She has a lump near her collar bone she wants removed so in the past month I have been introduced to the public hospital scene here because we want her health insurance to cover the surgery. Let's just say that at this point, I would have rather taken her to a private surgeon and paid the extra money to have it removed. It's taken us 4 appointments to finally get the procedure scheduled (two consults and an ultrasound confirmed it's simply a lipoma that will only require local anesthesia and take about 20 minutes). Naturally her insurance doesn't cover any of the appointments leading up to the surgery. Brian stayed home with rashy Elizabeth so she could be spared the fun-filled consult with the general surgeon.
It's irritating to me that in Singapore, doctors are not accustomed to being questioned by their patients. Because we are Joyce's employers and are ultimately financially responsible for her healthcare while she works in our home, I wanted to be present at all the doctor appointments. And the surgeon doesn't quite know how to react to my questions. It seems that here doctors are placed on a pedestal and no one would think to question them. It's unnerving to encounter that mindset when I'm accustomed to a more collaborative approach. Our family doctor is much easier to deal with because he has many expat patients. The surgeon at the public hospital obviously does not.
So, after finally getting the surgery scheduled, I barely had time to get home and whisk Elizabeth off to her doctor appointment. Because Elizabeth has had so many respiratory infections during our time here, we have been striving to find alternative ways to boost her immune system to get over colds without resorting to antibiotics. We purchased some echinacea at GNC this fall that was formulated for children and gave it to her last week when she was getting over her cold. Well, it turns out that the very substance we gave her to help her get healthy is what caused the rash. Brian read the fine print, "May cause rash in some children." Dr. Tan, our family doctor, smiled as he pointed out that while the echinacea gave her the rash, at least she got over the cold! I was just relieved we knew the cause.
Elizabeth returned to school Tuesday with the rash beginning to disappear on her chest but still present around her mouth. Of course I had to explain to her teacher that it was nothing contagious because I'm sure it looked a little frightening.
On Wednesday, Brian took the girls to school because he volunteered in Emily's class. Shortly after he left her classroom, Emily developed a fever. By the time I got to her 30 minutes later, she was burning up and her fever stayed with her for 3 full days. For how easy-going Emily is when she is well, she is the most miserable sick child. Emily and I didn't get much sleep for a few nights...
On Thursday, Joyce felt feverish and began sniffling non-stop. I was reminded that day that one of my pet peeves is people who continuously sniffle instead of just blowing their noses. I finally shut the door into the kitchen, just so I could be spared. That day also confirmed I'm not nearly as empathetic towards sick adults in our house. While I handed her medicine, the prevailing thought in my mind was, "go in your room, close the door and come out when you feel better!"
By Thursday, Elizabeth's rashy chin wasn't quite as gross. Parts of it had looked infected and I kept rubbing antibiotic cream on it to get it to heal, which seemed to be doing the trick. But when my caller ID showed the primary school nurse calling that afternoon, all I could do was groan. The nurse was calling to inform me that Elizabeth had collided with one of her classmates in perceptual motor class that afternoon and was now sporting a large bump on her cheekbone. Elizabeth went to school Friday morning with a crusty mouth and black eye. The poor girl looked beat up and that's pretty much how I felt by that morning.
In the meantime, Emily's fever raged on and it always makes me nervous when my children have no other symptoms but a high fever. Especially when I heard Friday that one of her classmates had been hospitalized after an undiagnosed case of strep throat. That could easily happen because we don't have the 5-minute strep tests here. If the doctor wants confirmation, it takes 3-4 days to get the lab results.
Thankfully Emily was finally cooler Saturday morning and at this point, I'm just happy we have a short week at school before Thanksgiving. Maybe we can make it through the next couple days without a call from the nurse.
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