Now is Streptococcus what???

Fever persisted for the second day. Ryan has got used to taking the medication through the IV needles in his hand but stuffing the Volteron into his butt was still a battle every time.

I've some time to do some research on kawasaki disease and found out more about it.. Apparently, this disease is most common among Japanese and Koreans (hence the name) and affects children between the age of 1 to 5 years old. They have yet to discover the cause nor vaccination for it. There are some common telltale signs like persistent high fever exceeding 39 degrees, rashes, swollen hands and feet, lymph nodes, strawberry tongue (all of which Ryan had), red eyes, skin peeling off hands and genitals and ultimately swollen heart arteries.. If left untreated, it could be fatal or if treated too late, could lead to unrecovarable damages to the heart.. http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/heart/kawasaki.html

That was the reason that a heart specialist has to perform an echo test on his heart to check if there are any abnormalities. On the second day, the rashes has not subsided, the tummy ache persisted with very smelly loose white stools.

The heart specialist finally came on the second day afternoon. The sight of the big machine scare the hell out of him and he was screaming and yelling away as we forced him down on the bed to do the echo Test. Because he was crying so much and so loud the test took extra long. There was nothing we could do to calm him to a point where both Cat and I have to walk away so that the nurses, doctor and a good friend who happened to be around could try calming him down. He was so scared that he even asked to doctor to hold him! Poor boy. It was such a heart wrenching experience.

The test was negative which was a good sign. But then what is the problem now if it is not Kawasaki.

The doctor took a look at his blood test and got a shock. Apparently, there was an index to test bacteria infection, was 3 times higher than normal. It showed 630 when the normal reading would have been 150. He said that in his 20 years career, he has not seen anything higher than 400! We were getting worried but he assured us that there is nothing to worry about. He would consult with Dato Dr Musa on the next course of action.

Later that evening, Dr Musa came and said that although they are not discounting Kawasaki yet, they are looking into any possibility of blood infection. They found high concentration of Streptococcus bacteria in his blood.

Streptococcus what????

Apparently this bacteria known as Group A Streptococcus (GAS) would normally affect the throat and skin and would normally cause mild illness such as strep throat or impetigo. However, under severe situation where the bacteria would find their way into places where they are normally not found like blood, lung and muscle where they could do serious damage and even life threatening. This is known as invasive GAS disease. It can so severe that it could destroy muscle tissues, hence also known as ''flesh eating bacteria'.

These bacteria are spread through direct contact with mucus from the nose or throat of persons who are infected or through contact with infected wounds or sores on the skin. Ill persons, such as those who have strep throat or skin infections, are most likely to spread the infection. Persons who carry the bacteria but have no symptoms are much less contagious. Treating an infected person with an antibiotic for 24 hours or longer generally eliminates their ability to spread the bacteria. However, it is important to complete the entire course of antibiotics as prescribed. It is not likely that household items like plates, cups, or toys spread these bacteria.

Ryan is unfortunate to have contracted this in his blood.

I' m writing this in the hospital now on the fourth day. He has responded well to the antibiotic and fever has finally broke. The rashes has mostly disappeared and his tummy ache gone. He is back to his jumping hyper active self which is beginning to drive us up the wall! hahaha. He will still have his medication and they are still monitoring his progress. If everything goes well, we should be going home tomorrow.

For those who have supported us in your prayers and all your well wishes, we thank you. Will keep you updated on his progress.

Kawasaki what ????

What started out as a supposedly exciting weekend last week turned out to be a nightmarish week for everyone. I wanted to take Ryan for another cinema experience last week. So we went to 1 Utama on Saturday hoping to catch Puss in the Boots but unfortunately all the tickets were sold. Hence we bought tickets for Sunday instead. The next morning, we got to 1Utama early to ensure that we get a car park, had our brunch and went for our 3D Puss in the Boots. The movie was good and Ryan enjoyed it. Went home and got him to take his nap before he goes for his music class. When he woke up, we found some red rashes on his hand and he complained that it was itchy. I applied some ointment and told our maid to change the bed sheet.

He was fine during the music class and was having so much fun that evening because his favourite uncle and family came visiting that night. However, by 10pm we noticed that he has red rashes all over his body! Took his temperature but there was no fever. We suspected that he could have developed some form of skin allergy and told him to take a bath to relief the itch.

At around 2pm, he was feeling restless in his sleep and complained about the itchiness. His body was warm and was having a fever of about 38.3. We gave his first round of paracetamol. The fever went down. By the time he got up at 8am, the fever has returned and was even higher. Getting worried and suspecting that he could caught something, we brought him to see his normal paed. He gave him some medication to control the itchiness and some paracetamol.

The fever refused to go away the following two days, the rashes got worse and he was now complaining about his stomach ache. In fever touched 39.4 at one stage that we have to sponged him and insert Volteron into his anus. On Wed, we brought him back to the paed who immediately did a blood test for dengue. The result was negative and the verdict was viral infection where the fever would need a couple of days to break. We brought him home, hoping that the fever, rashes and tummy ache would go away. The nights were spent checking his fever, monitoring his medication and soothing his itchiness.

By friday morning, his fever went back to 39.1. It's the fifth day now. We decided to sent him in to see his another paed Dato Dr Musa at Damansara Specialist. It's was a long wait since we have no prior appointment. Ryan's hands and legs seemed to be slightly swollen by now.

'It could be Kawasaki disease' Dr Musa said. 'We better get him admitted immediately to run further test.' he continued.

KAWASAKI what ????

Anyway no time to seek clarification. We got him admitted immediately on Friday. Needles were poked into his hand to extract blood for test while medication were pumped in to treat the possibility of blood infection. The poor boy was screaming and yelling in pain and fear. It truly breaks our heart watching him suffers the way he did.

The waiting process for the test results starts .......

By 11pm the results came back that there is definitely high concentrated bacterial in the blood but they are not discounting Kawasaki yet because he has displayed some of the symptoms of kawasaki. Another heart specialist would have to do an echo test on his heart the following day. Meanwhile, the high fever, itchiness, red rashes, tummy ache and sleepless night continued ......