Where I grew up, we often said March would arrive like a lion and exit like a lamb. Things are different in Jakarta.
For us, March arrived like a lamb. We had a nice family vacation scheduled in Singapore, I was buying the first property for our new Real Estate business, and we had tickets to attend the St. Patrick's Day ball and spend that night in a suite at the JW Marriott, the location of the ball.
Then the lamb bared its teeth and transformed into a lion. The Friday before the ball, my wife and I joined our friends at an Irish Pub to welcome in the holiday and watch traditional Irish dancers. We had a great time and were looking forward to taking the kids to a carnival at our daughter's school the next day and then attending the ball with the same group of friends.
We arrived home from the dancing to find our two-year-old son struggling to breath in his sleep. We had taken him to the doctor earlier in the day due to a persistent cough. The doctor said he was fine. His lungs were clear and he did not have a fever. They gave him some antibiotics and an antihistamine. When we arrived home, he still did not have a fever but he was definitely having difficulty breathing. We woke him up, planning to give him some medicine, and he immediately vomited. We observed him for about twenty minutes before deciding to take him to the emergency room.
The ER put him on a nebulizer minutes after our arrival. The nebulizer should rapidly resolve breathing issues. His blood oxygen wasn't improving and remained below 90%. The doctor also indicated that his secondary muscles were now controlling his breathing. Those muscles kick in when the primary muscles become so fatigued from labored breathing that they fail. There is no back up to the back up. Jakarta lacks a respected pediatric respiratory care center, so the doctors advised us to do a medical evacuation (MedEvac) to Singapore immediately in case his lungs started failing and he needed assistance breathing.
The next twenty-four hours happened very fast....and without sleep. My wife and son took the MedEvac flight. I worked with the airlines and hotel to reschedule all the flights and room reservations we had for our vacation and I followed them with our other two kids about six hours later. I even had time to take our daughter to her school's carnival for about an hour before we caught our flight.
After checking us in at the hotel, we all met up at the hospital where I spent the night with our son while my wife returned to the hotel with our infant son and our daughter. For the next four days, I slept at the hospital at night and spent the days at the hotel with our other two kids. My wife did the opposite. Thankfully, our hotel - the Rasa Sentosa - had a Kid's Club that entertained our daughter all day, every day.
Our son spent those four days on antibiotics, fever reducer, and getting blood tests and chest x-rays. Nothing conclusive in any of them. Eventually he started feeling better and they decided he had a non-specific viral infection in his lungs that caused him respiratory distress. He never really felt sick, but the doctors were really worried. We just tried to keep his spirits up and have as much fun as we could.
On Wednesday, our son received a clean bill of health and checked out. The pediatrician seeing him requested we have a follow up appointment on Friday. Our "Family Vacation" was also the time for my wife and I to receive our annual physicals, so I had mine on Wednesday while my wife swam with the kids, and she had hers on Thursday while I went to the beach with them. We had big plans for the weekend to help everyone forget the medical stress we just experienced.
The appointment with the pediatrician was Friday afternoon. He had been swimming all morning so we expected a clean bill of health. To our surprise, she said his lungs sounded bad and readmitted him to the hospital. We ran through the same battery of tests. This time, they discovered he had Influenza B and started him on those treatments. He remained in the hospital until Monday. We finally left Singapore on Wednesday.
What was supposed to be a five-day medical vacation with two days of physicals and three days of fun became a ten-day medical emergency for our two-year-old. This is the second medical scare he's given us. I hope there isn't a third before we get to leave.
Hospital Pictures:
Having Fun Pictures:
For us, March arrived like a lamb. We had a nice family vacation scheduled in Singapore, I was buying the first property for our new Real Estate business, and we had tickets to attend the St. Patrick's Day ball and spend that night in a suite at the JW Marriott, the location of the ball.
Then the lamb bared its teeth and transformed into a lion. The Friday before the ball, my wife and I joined our friends at an Irish Pub to welcome in the holiday and watch traditional Irish dancers. We had a great time and were looking forward to taking the kids to a carnival at our daughter's school the next day and then attending the ball with the same group of friends.
We arrived home from the dancing to find our two-year-old son struggling to breath in his sleep. We had taken him to the doctor earlier in the day due to a persistent cough. The doctor said he was fine. His lungs were clear and he did not have a fever. They gave him some antibiotics and an antihistamine. When we arrived home, he still did not have a fever but he was definitely having difficulty breathing. We woke him up, planning to give him some medicine, and he immediately vomited. We observed him for about twenty minutes before deciding to take him to the emergency room.
The ER put him on a nebulizer minutes after our arrival. The nebulizer should rapidly resolve breathing issues. His blood oxygen wasn't improving and remained below 90%. The doctor also indicated that his secondary muscles were now controlling his breathing. Those muscles kick in when the primary muscles become so fatigued from labored breathing that they fail. There is no back up to the back up. Jakarta lacks a respected pediatric respiratory care center, so the doctors advised us to do a medical evacuation (MedEvac) to Singapore immediately in case his lungs started failing and he needed assistance breathing.
The next twenty-four hours happened very fast....and without sleep. My wife and son took the MedEvac flight. I worked with the airlines and hotel to reschedule all the flights and room reservations we had for our vacation and I followed them with our other two kids about six hours later. I even had time to take our daughter to her school's carnival for about an hour before we caught our flight.
After checking us in at the hotel, we all met up at the hospital where I spent the night with our son while my wife returned to the hotel with our infant son and our daughter. For the next four days, I slept at the hospital at night and spent the days at the hotel with our other two kids. My wife did the opposite. Thankfully, our hotel - the Rasa Sentosa - had a Kid's Club that entertained our daughter all day, every day.
Our son spent those four days on antibiotics, fever reducer, and getting blood tests and chest x-rays. Nothing conclusive in any of them. Eventually he started feeling better and they decided he had a non-specific viral infection in his lungs that caused him respiratory distress. He never really felt sick, but the doctors were really worried. We just tried to keep his spirits up and have as much fun as we could.
On Wednesday, our son received a clean bill of health and checked out. The pediatrician seeing him requested we have a follow up appointment on Friday. Our "Family Vacation" was also the time for my wife and I to receive our annual physicals, so I had mine on Wednesday while my wife swam with the kids, and she had hers on Thursday while I went to the beach with them. We had big plans for the weekend to help everyone forget the medical stress we just experienced.
The appointment with the pediatrician was Friday afternoon. He had been swimming all morning so we expected a clean bill of health. To our surprise, she said his lungs sounded bad and readmitted him to the hospital. We ran through the same battery of tests. This time, they discovered he had Influenza B and started him on those treatments. He remained in the hospital until Monday. We finally left Singapore on Wednesday.
What was supposed to be a five-day medical vacation with two days of physicals and three days of fun became a ten-day medical emergency for our two-year-old. This is the second medical scare he's given us. I hope there isn't a third before we get to leave.
Hospital Pictures:
Having Fun Pictures:
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