Monday I flew back to Jakarta from China. I knew I'd have a late night Sunday, so I planned ahead and booked an afternoon flight. This meant a late arrival into Jakarta, but Tuesday was a holiday (Buddhist New Year) so I knew I could sleep in. The only interesting part of the trip occurred on my Singapore to Jakarta flight. I'm sitting in my business class seat when an enormous Indonesian sits in the seat next to me. He was so big I was tempted to ask if he held a job that was responsible for his size. When he started sleeping the moment after he sat down, I thought it better not to wake a sleeping giant. While waiting for baggage, several airport staff, including security, rushed up to have their picture taken with him. He exited the airport shortly before I did so I asked my driver if he knew who it was. He informed me it was Ade Rai, the number one body builder in Asia.
Tuesday morning I didn't sleep in as long as I had hoped. We decided to make a return visit to Taman Safari. We do this with all our guests...did I forget to mention my cousin arrived? She is the solution to our Singapore nanny dilemma. She'll be with us until 1 July when my mom takes over. Anyway, we decided to take her to see the animals.
I was quite impressed with the strides my daughter has made with her fear of animal encounters. In prior visits, the idea of being close to the animals was always more appealing than actually being close to them. This time, the fear was gone and she fed everything, including the elephants. My son even got in the act of feeding the large beasts. He knew exactly what to do when I gave him a mango and walked him to the elephant. He put that tiny green fruit directly in the gaping maw, only to see it fall to the ground. I would say there is no fear in that boy, but we also finally had the opportunity to ride the elephants...and my son wasn't exactly happy about it.
On our return to Jakarta our son gave us the scare of my life. It is a long drive back from the zoo and I was making the most of the opportunity by taking a nap. Our nanny calling our son's name in a panic woke me like a bullet firing in the car. I turn around and my son's eyes are open and rolled in the back of his head. I touch him and he feels like food fresh from the oven. I pull him out of his car seat and onto my lap and he is as limp as a rag doll. I thought I was holding my dead son.
I steeled my nerves and was preparing myself to give artificial resuscitation. I checked his breathing - it was shallow, but there. His heart was racing. Our nanny said she had watched him have a seizure and that his lips had turned blue, that's why she started calling his name. Our daughter starts freaking out whining: "I don't want my brother to die, I don't want my brother to die."
My wife retrieves the fever reducer from the diaper bag and I instruct our driver to pull over as soon as possible at a gas station. I want ice. Minutes later we're pulling into a rest area that happens to have a Starbucks. Despite the efforts of the staff, I was able to procure some ice and napkins, and, in addition to the fever medicine, we were able to bring his core body temperature down. After twenty minutes of rubbing his chest, neck, back and head with cool water, our son became responsive and started voicing his displeasure. He then proceeded to vomit all over himself and my wife who had the bad luck of just taking him from me.
I called ahead to the emergency clinic and asked if there was anything else we could or should do while we traveled there. They said to just keep doing what we were doing. Ninety minutes after holding my limp son in my arms, we arrived at the ER. Ninety minutes after giving him fever reducing medicine, which did definitely reduce his fever, the ER nurse reported his temperature as 103.6. I can only imagine how high it was when I picked him up.
We spent a few hours in the ER and left with five different medicines to give him. The doctor said the seizure was likely a result of the fever and is common in young children with fevers. No long-term damage is expected other than the reduction in years of my own lifespan for having the scare of my life.
Tuesday morning I didn't sleep in as long as I had hoped. We decided to make a return visit to Taman Safari. We do this with all our guests...did I forget to mention my cousin arrived? She is the solution to our Singapore nanny dilemma. She'll be with us until 1 July when my mom takes over. Anyway, we decided to take her to see the animals.
I was quite impressed with the strides my daughter has made with her fear of animal encounters. In prior visits, the idea of being close to the animals was always more appealing than actually being close to them. This time, the fear was gone and she fed everything, including the elephants. My son even got in the act of feeding the large beasts. He knew exactly what to do when I gave him a mango and walked him to the elephant. He put that tiny green fruit directly in the gaping maw, only to see it fall to the ground. I would say there is no fear in that boy, but we also finally had the opportunity to ride the elephants...and my son wasn't exactly happy about it.
On our return to Jakarta our son gave us the scare of my life. It is a long drive back from the zoo and I was making the most of the opportunity by taking a nap. Our nanny calling our son's name in a panic woke me like a bullet firing in the car. I turn around and my son's eyes are open and rolled in the back of his head. I touch him and he feels like food fresh from the oven. I pull him out of his car seat and onto my lap and he is as limp as a rag doll. I thought I was holding my dead son.
I steeled my nerves and was preparing myself to give artificial resuscitation. I checked his breathing - it was shallow, but there. His heart was racing. Our nanny said she had watched him have a seizure and that his lips had turned blue, that's why she started calling his name. Our daughter starts freaking out whining: "I don't want my brother to die, I don't want my brother to die."
My wife retrieves the fever reducer from the diaper bag and I instruct our driver to pull over as soon as possible at a gas station. I want ice. Minutes later we're pulling into a rest area that happens to have a Starbucks. Despite the efforts of the staff, I was able to procure some ice and napkins, and, in addition to the fever medicine, we were able to bring his core body temperature down. After twenty minutes of rubbing his chest, neck, back and head with cool water, our son became responsive and started voicing his displeasure. He then proceeded to vomit all over himself and my wife who had the bad luck of just taking him from me.
I called ahead to the emergency clinic and asked if there was anything else we could or should do while we traveled there. They said to just keep doing what we were doing. Ninety minutes after holding my limp son in my arms, we arrived at the ER. Ninety minutes after giving him fever reducing medicine, which did definitely reduce his fever, the ER nurse reported his temperature as 103.6. I can only imagine how high it was when I picked him up.
We spent a few hours in the ER and left with five different medicines to give him. The doctor said the seizure was likely a result of the fever and is common in young children with fevers. No long-term damage is expected other than the reduction in years of my own lifespan for having the scare of my life.
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1 comment:
What a scary event! I'm glad he's okay! I think he's confirmed his fear of heights...
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