When I discovered last year that Madison could no longer travel whenever we wanted, we quickly decided and booked a short getaway for her March holidays to Disneyland in Hong Kong.
Travelling with kids always makes me nervous.
First of all I worry if we will actually MAKE the trip. Would the kids fall sick just before?
Of course Liam runs a low grade temperature and pukes the day before we were supposed to fly. Fortunately he was afebrile the morning of the flight and we did get on the plane.
The flight was quite hilarious. It was his 'first' flight and he was terrified everytime they made an announcement on the PA system. And whenever the air stewardesses came he would wave them away with a 'bye bye'.
We made it to Hong Kong in about 4 hours, and checked into the HK Disneyland resort. The place was fabulous! Service was attentive, the grounds were huge and very child friendly. We had 2 rooms booked and they provided a cot for Liam. They also had kid sized bathrobes and slippers!
We spent 1.5 days at Disneyland and the kids had a really good time. The rides are small kid friendly so they could ride on almost all of them. We caught a few shows too which were very well put together. Plenty of retail therapy as well; who could resist shopping in the Disney shops?
The kids were really sad to check out of the resort, but we had planned to go visit the Science and space museum in Mongkok.
The second hotel we checked into was horrible. It was recommended by a friend who thought it was a full service apartment, but when we got there it was no where near any standard of service. I spent the night camping on the floor because we couldn't get a spare mattress. Basically there was no number that we could even call for any help!
First thing next morning I called up the Langham place hotel ( where our friends were staying ) and got us rooms. It was a 1000% upgrade. We also upgraded to 2 family rooms, so in effect we wound up with 4 rooms ( 2 sets of 2 interconnecting rooms ). There was an inhouse spa, sky pool and gym on the 41st floor of the hotel. It was in the middle of Mongkok so we were right smack next to shops and food. The kids were well looked after too-- the staff were attentive, and they had bathrobes/slippers for the kids too!
After we moved over to the Langham place hotel the rest of the stay was fabulous. We managed to go see the Science museum, watch an Omnimax show ( which I fell asleep in -- chair was pretty comfortable!) and have a few good Yum cha meals. The kids enjoyed the pool at the hotel, and I got to use the onsen in the restroom.
Too soon it was time to go home and the kids were really sad to have to leave Hong Kong. We've had some bad experiences in Hong Kong so this was a really good experience for us. I think we probably would be back to enjoy the DisneyLand resort soon in the future.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Update post hospitalisation, NORMAL life
It really is a relief to go back to normality.
On the 6th of April I took Liam for his cardiac appointment ( this was post - hospitalization when the paediatrician picked up a cardiac murmur ).
Liam did very well! He was a seasoned 'patient': no fuss when the cardiologist listened to his heart, and he also allowed a trainee cardiologist have a listen as well. When he had to have the echocardiogram he stayed still long enough for the radiographer to scan his heart. ( I had him on me and I lay on the examination couch ).
When the radiographer was done she called the doctor in to have a check and that really scared me! We all know they only ever call the doctors in to review the scans if something is wrong! Fortunately that wasn't the case and Liam was discharged with a normal echo.
So that leaves us with one more paediatrician review in June to repeat his blood count ( he's also mildly anaemic! )
We've been laying low the past few days: I really wanted everything to go back to normal. So, tennis/swim on Tuesday, Chinese class Wednesday , music class Thursday and swim class again on Friday.
On Sunday Madison had to go for round 2 of the JTT mini tennis tournament.
It was a scorching day! She did really well, no complaining throughout the 2+ hours of tennis ! Her tennis partner Ravin got the runners' up trophy: he was short of winning by 1 point!
The only bugbear of this tournament was seriously the 'hovering' dad syndrome that 2 fathers' had.
( by the way-- their sons won the trophies partly because they did that!) Parents were given specific instructions that the point of the tournament was for the kids to learn to play competitively and learn the spirit of the game. Parents were to stay off and let the kids pick their own balls and count points. However there were at least 2 dads who found it exceedingly difficult to do so and hovered around their sons, picked balls up and basically umpired the matches for them. I didn't realize it at the point, but as the game was counted purely on the number of points the child could score in the games, they obviously scored the most points because their dads were handing them balls to hit continuously!
After the game we drove to Marina Bay golf course to meet up with Annika and we had lunch together. Chris left for his golf game ( that took 6 hours! IE the rest of Sunday !). I had a really nice lunch with the girls --it's much easier now that they are more independent and eat fairly well. Eating out is now less of a hassle; in fact eating in is harder !
We got home and the girls did a bit of homework at home, then since Chris was still at golf I packed everyone up in the car and we headed for Gardens By the Bay. The annual membership is awesome. I paid entry for the 2 helpers and we visited Cloud Forest Dome.
After a quick dinner at home ( it was VERY tempting to just eat out again at the Gardens ! ) we popped over to a neighbour's home to play. A totally relaxing way to end the weekend and I was very sad for Monday to come again. ( Kind of, although it also means the kids are meaningfully occupied!)
On the 6th of April I took Liam for his cardiac appointment ( this was post - hospitalization when the paediatrician picked up a cardiac murmur ).
Liam did very well! He was a seasoned 'patient': no fuss when the cardiologist listened to his heart, and he also allowed a trainee cardiologist have a listen as well. When he had to have the echocardiogram he stayed still long enough for the radiographer to scan his heart. ( I had him on me and I lay on the examination couch ).
When the radiographer was done she called the doctor in to have a check and that really scared me! We all know they only ever call the doctors in to review the scans if something is wrong! Fortunately that wasn't the case and Liam was discharged with a normal echo.
So that leaves us with one more paediatrician review in June to repeat his blood count ( he's also mildly anaemic! )
We've been laying low the past few days: I really wanted everything to go back to normal. So, tennis/swim on Tuesday, Chinese class Wednesday , music class Thursday and swim class again on Friday.
On Sunday Madison had to go for round 2 of the JTT mini tennis tournament.
It was a scorching day! She did really well, no complaining throughout the 2+ hours of tennis ! Her tennis partner Ravin got the runners' up trophy: he was short of winning by 1 point!
The only bugbear of this tournament was seriously the 'hovering' dad syndrome that 2 fathers' had.
( by the way-- their sons won the trophies partly because they did that!) Parents were given specific instructions that the point of the tournament was for the kids to learn to play competitively and learn the spirit of the game. Parents were to stay off and let the kids pick their own balls and count points. However there were at least 2 dads who found it exceedingly difficult to do so and hovered around their sons, picked balls up and basically umpired the matches for them. I didn't realize it at the point, but as the game was counted purely on the number of points the child could score in the games, they obviously scored the most points because their dads were handing them balls to hit continuously!
After the game we drove to Marina Bay golf course to meet up with Annika and we had lunch together. Chris left for his golf game ( that took 6 hours! IE the rest of Sunday !). I had a really nice lunch with the girls --it's much easier now that they are more independent and eat fairly well. Eating out is now less of a hassle; in fact eating in is harder !
We got home and the girls did a bit of homework at home, then since Chris was still at golf I packed everyone up in the car and we headed for Gardens By the Bay. The annual membership is awesome. I paid entry for the 2 helpers and we visited Cloud Forest Dome.
After a quick dinner at home ( it was VERY tempting to just eat out again at the Gardens ! ) we popped over to a neighbour's home to play. A totally relaxing way to end the weekend and I was very sad for Monday to come again. ( Kind of, although it also means the kids are meaningfully occupied!)
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Admission to KKH
What a shocker of a weekend.
After a blissful trip to Hong Kong ( which NEARLY didn't happen for him ), Liam came back and was promptly sick !
It was all rather sudden. One day he was fine and the next he had this raging fever that wouldn't go away despite all the antipyretics he was given.
Chris and I were supposed to have flown to Seoul on Friday night, but seeing that his fever was 41 degrees Celcius we took him to KKH emergency department to have some tests done.
It was really fortunate that Dr Arif was on duty and when he heard the history he advised admission. He told me that he'd seen a few cases of kids with viraemic 'shock' and that it was better that he was in hospital in case it happened.
Chris continued with his trip while I stayed back with Liam. It was so fortunate that it being Friday the older 2 could stay over with the grandparents!
Liam was thoroughly miserable and clingy on admission. By midnight the on call registrar came in and advised that he was put on an IV drip as he was likely dehydrated. By golly. That was stressful. The first guy that came in was obviously inexperienced and couldn't get it in over 2 tries. I asked for his registrar to come and do it. Fortunately she got it in, otherwise I'd have asked for a paediatric anaesthetist to come in.
The next few days were terrible. Liam was cranky, refusing to eat or drink anything and was really clingy. His temperatures were still high and only broke after day 5. He started having diarrhoea as well and it was such a hassle to change his diapers everytime as his IV plug was on his foot.
Chris did come back Monday at 3 am so I got to go home and have my first sleep then.
Thankfully Liam's fever finally broke on Monday afternoon, Monday night he had a low grade temperature and by Tuesday he was finally afebrile.
Of course to complicate matters he was found to have a cardiac murmur AND a low haemoglobin.
So now we have an appointment to see the cardiologist on Monday next week and a follow up appointment with the paediatrician in 3 months.
Liam was discharged Tuesday morning, and he's never been so happy to be home! The other kids were also nicer to him for a little while before the fighting started again.
All the lab tests came back negative and so he was diagnosed with the usual 'viral fever'. It was seriously a traumatic experience, but I have nothing but a really good experience with the ward nurses and the paediatrician. ( My only complaint would be the MOs on call in the ward that night -- really poor attitude and poor communication skills!)
After a blissful trip to Hong Kong ( which NEARLY didn't happen for him ), Liam came back and was promptly sick !
It was all rather sudden. One day he was fine and the next he had this raging fever that wouldn't go away despite all the antipyretics he was given.
Chris and I were supposed to have flown to Seoul on Friday night, but seeing that his fever was 41 degrees Celcius we took him to KKH emergency department to have some tests done.
It was really fortunate that Dr Arif was on duty and when he heard the history he advised admission. He told me that he'd seen a few cases of kids with viraemic 'shock' and that it was better that he was in hospital in case it happened.
Chris continued with his trip while I stayed back with Liam. It was so fortunate that it being Friday the older 2 could stay over with the grandparents!
Liam was thoroughly miserable and clingy on admission. By midnight the on call registrar came in and advised that he was put on an IV drip as he was likely dehydrated. By golly. That was stressful. The first guy that came in was obviously inexperienced and couldn't get it in over 2 tries. I asked for his registrar to come and do it. Fortunately she got it in, otherwise I'd have asked for a paediatric anaesthetist to come in.
The next few days were terrible. Liam was cranky, refusing to eat or drink anything and was really clingy. His temperatures were still high and only broke after day 5. He started having diarrhoea as well and it was such a hassle to change his diapers everytime as his IV plug was on his foot.
Chris did come back Monday at 3 am so I got to go home and have my first sleep then.
Thankfully Liam's fever finally broke on Monday afternoon, Monday night he had a low grade temperature and by Tuesday he was finally afebrile.
Of course to complicate matters he was found to have a cardiac murmur AND a low haemoglobin.
So now we have an appointment to see the cardiologist on Monday next week and a follow up appointment with the paediatrician in 3 months.
Liam was discharged Tuesday morning, and he's never been so happy to be home! The other kids were also nicer to him for a little while before the fighting started again.
All the lab tests came back negative and so he was diagnosed with the usual 'viral fever'. It was seriously a traumatic experience, but I have nothing but a really good experience with the ward nurses and the paediatrician. ( My only complaint would be the MOs on call in the ward that night -- really poor attitude and poor communication skills!)
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