I Hate Injections!

Did I ever tell you before tat I REALLY hated injections????

I especially hate the way they make Ace feel.

When Ace was younger, injections would bring about fever but because Ace could not really express himself well and was not really mobile, he was mostly happy to lie in my arms, let me sponge him and sleep through it.

Just as the nurse predicted, 4 days after Ace's MMR injection, Ace was down with a very high fever of nearing 39 degrees.

Daddy was worried cos Ace looked listless and nothing seemed to excite him. He would cry and cry and cry and cry and cry and cry and refused to sleep.

He did not like it if we carried him, neither did he like it when we put him down. he just cried non stop.

He did not like eating and refused to eat. But he seemed hungry and seemed to want food but kept rejecting it when we gave it to him.

Usually, food makes Ace really happy and excited. However, even eating grapes seemed like a listless chore to him that day. I have never seen Ace eating so unhappily in his whole life!

Afraid that his head might be too warm, Daddy insisted tat we shower Ace once every two hours to bring down his temperature.

He cried and cried whenever we try to shower him. He cries even when we merely used a wet cloth to wipe his body.

I was supposed to go out with sis and in the end, I decided to stay at home because I think I wouldnt gave enjoyed myself as I would be busy worrying about Ace.

Waipo was supposed to go out but also did not. In short, Ace's fever made the whole family busy. You could see like 5 adults trying to figure out how to soothe the crying baby but non succeeding for very long as he would suddenly become quiet and just when we thought he is ok, he would start crying for no reason again...

In my desperate attempt to help him get well, instead of usual 5 VP, i fed him 30 VP and even one indinine!

Finally, we gave him some milk and he quiet down to drink it. While he is usually happy to suck on his own, he only was willing to drink the milk when Waipo carried him and put him on her lap. And just like his baby self, Ace refused to carry his milk bottle and insisted that Waipo carried it for him.. if not, he would start to howl...

After milk and some rocking from me, he finally slept. He refused to sleep anywhere else except on my body. He would finally only rest when I rested his head between my breasts and his body was snug right on top of mine.

But his rest was not a good one. He kept having these sudden jerk reactions while sleeping. It was as if he was having a seizure.

I took the chance to go online and see if there was anything i could do to alleviate his discomfort.

Regret ah!

Seems that high fever can give some babies mild seizure, they will drool (check), jerk (check) and sometimes change colour (heng ah, not checked).

Other than that, learnt nothing useful except that MMR jabs may cause some people to be autistic. Wah kaoz! If I had known, I wouldnt have let Ace take the jab man!

Not only did that not help, that really instilled more fear in me as Ace was really not his usual independent, happy self and was clingy and whiny like a small baby.

As his body (especially the back of his head, his neck and his back) was radiating alot of heat, he himself couldnt stand it and finally only slept more soundly when he flipped himself over and lie on his tummy to sleep.

Anyway, he did not sleep very long and woke after about 30 minutes.

By afternoon, his fever was not so bad and by late afternoon, he was finally capable of playing with some of his toys.

I tot he would get better after a good night sleep.

Alas, I was wrong. The next day was even WORST!

He cried and cried and cried from the moment he woke up and NOTHING we did seemed to appease him. He cried non stop for a good one hour and we were all lost about what to do.

But all of a sudden, he was smiling, shaking his backside and playing with himself... and then we discovered the reason- Ace did not shit the whole of yesterday and had just relieved himself and shitted out all the dirty things. His shit was black and very stinko... i wonder why his shit is always so dark and stinko right after injections...the previous few times were like tat as well..

I think he felt much better after all these things came out and by the time I was due to go out for my appointment, he was well enough to play with the box that Waipo had wanted to bring to school.. PHEW...

He has another injection next month leh.. I am very SERIOUSLY contemplating NOT bringing him to it.

Aftermath:
Ace did not want to shower for the next one week.. but slowly start to enjoy playing with water during bath time again.

Picky about his food during and after this incident, Ace dropped 0.3kg but is is eating normally and slowly gaining back the weight he has lost again.

Also, Ace seemed to be extra clingy and refused to walk on his own right after. He kept wanting to be carried and seemed especially wary of strangers, especially adults. But he is starting to get over it as well.

Somehow, the fever seem to make him think that if he cries, he will get what he wants. So he has restarted that phase of crying and throwing tantrums when he does not get what he wants. It has been a week since and he finally got it that he is no longer sick and that crying for things doesn't really work and so he is doing it lesser and lesser.

After the fever was gone, Ace was down with a runny nose and a slight cough.. dripping GREEN mucus for quite a few days. He is slowly getting better and better as I refuse to let him consume any medication but prefer 'curing' him with VP and lots of good, clean water.