What it is to be heartbroken...thankfully the world is full of guardian angels.

If you have not read daphne's earlier post, thats the sumarised version of our first week as parents. Actually so far every 2-3 hrs its been like this -

CRY = FEED or CHANGE
STOP CRYING = SLEEP & PEACE
KEEP CRYING = NEED MORE MILK or MANJA ME NOW!

this is daddy's post of some details which he would like to remember and some to forget:

last friday i felt something i have not felt ever before ...heartache. it was thursday 17 may at about 9 when mommy daph first suspected baby was too hot.. she took out a Penguin Baby Thermometer, which we bought, but it wasn't working! daddy reacted and quickly cycled down to the AMK Hub to get replacement batteries, and just in case, bought another thermometer too .

the first reading was 38.9, the second thermometer was 37.9 so average was 38.5. jonah was sleeping, peeing and pooing so i thought it was normal. i called the hospital and the nurses gave me advice on what to do, feed 30ml of water which i did, mom and jon says to place a cold towel on his forhead, which i did, and we were to monitor for 3-4 hours.

during this time, mommy's headache or migraine got worse and she just lay there to rest. this was very surprising as i fed her with this potent migraine drug, (like $12/- a pill) after i begged our Mt E gynae to give her something super strong. the funny thing is, when i went to the Mt E pharmacy to pick up 10 Tabs of the drug which were prescribed, the pharmacist gave me 5 instead. she told me that if needed i could always come back for the other 5. I was puzzeled so i asked why? well, she said she was no doctor, but a "friend of hers" has the same symptoms and it was due a lumber puncture, a known side effect of the epidural (she for me is guardian angel no 1 for if i had not met her, we would still be filling my wife with $12 sweets which were not working!) so since the pills did not work, i knew i had to find another solution....

anyways, back to baby, at 0000hrs the readings were still averaging past 38 degrees. mommy urged me to send him to the hospital. jon sent me an SMS telling me to be careful, and with that i decided to take the next step. i called my assistant and he raced down in his RX-Z motorcycle to drive me and jonah to the docs. I called Mt A's A&E and managed to speak to guardian angel no 2, a male nurse named Rudy. I told him what was going on, and he told me that he just saw a PD at the 24Hr clinic, and asked if i would like him to ask this baby dr to stay and wait for me... i said YES!

ah foo and i zoomed down in my jonahmobile (toyota estima, MPV, a loan with compliments of Tjandranegara family), and got there in like 10 mins. Dr Lim was in casual pants and tee-shirt and was actually visiting a friend and not tending to any patient (guardian angel no 3), so just happened to be at the right place at the right time. he took a look at the little one, checked his temp, bp, looked at me and said that he needed to run some serious test and that baby needs to be admitted immediately. his main fear was menningitis (can't spell it) but he hopes he is wrong. so to save me a few bucks, rudy allowed a direct admission into an isolation room, N-ICU and skipped the A&E charges.

By the way, there is only one isolation room in Mt A and we were actually fortunate that it was available for jonah. within 20 mins, i sat there and watched dr lim and his nurses strip my son down to nothing, stick needles after needles into his arm to draw blood, got a drip going into his wrist area... all whilst my little boy screamed at the top of his lungs! as i felt the tears roll down my face, i just wanted to punch and kick all of em.. the SOBs bullying my boy.. but i didn't la.. i left the room as i could not take it any more. it was without a doubt the most painful experience i have had to go through. and it got worse... when i finally returned, my prince was hooked up to all kinds of machines to help monitor him. i tell you, at that point, i finally knew what heartache is.

i only left the hospital after his fever went down to 37.5 and it was 0500. daphne woke when i went to bed, but the weird thing was that she did not even know we were gone! man i was now worried for mommy too..

the next morning, we went to see baby jonah and i went to pass some pictures to the nurses at Our Lady's Ward ( where mommy delivered and stayed a week earlier) Sister Wee, the nurse manager, was there and i told her what was going on... as she knew jonah was well taken cared of in N-ICU, guardian angel no 4 whipped out a piece of paper and told me to call dr siow, a specialist in headaches and pain. i called his clinic, but he was fully booked throughout the weekend . we could not do much that friday except wait for baby doctor to let us know whats going on.. so that night we both rested at home, mommy kept popping the sweets ,while jonah rested at his suite.

Sat 19 May. daphne's headaches were worse, but jonah's condition was improving and he could be taken off the drips, into my arms and out of isolation room. we were delighted and waited for a room to be free. in the meantime i went down to dr siow's clinic to beg for an appointment. i explained the situation to his nurse and she tried to help. it was almost 1300 when she came out to the waiting area and said that doctor will see daph now... i raced back to the wards to get my wife and we got to see "dr starbucks"... you will understand why we call him that :)

he went through some checks and immediately concluded that it was low pressure headaches, caused possibly by a leak of spinal fluid, he asked if he could admit her as he wanted to administer a drip, to balance off the prescription, which was caffeine! mountain dew, coke and coffee were the remedy and he warned that if it did not work, he would have to do a blood patch, which was to draw blood & patch the leak at the spine! it was an outpatient surgery, but we both hoped that mommy never had to let anyone poke anything into her spine ever again. turns out he was guardian angel no 5.

the three of us stayed in St Gabriels ward a children's ward, and i had the record of taking care of the biggest baby in the ward, my lovely 31 yr old darling! sat and sun went by and mommy's headaches went away. jonah's latest blood test also came back and it seems that the antibiotics were working and his results were back to normal.

by mon morning, 21st may 2007, both mommy and baby jonah were discharged to the relief of daddy! you know, i asked god to take the pain away from mommy and give it to me.. pls lord give it to me.. and he did. he took the pain from her and hit me where it hurts, my wallet! :) but i was so happy to pay the bill, took an interest free 6 month instalment plan offered by good ol UOB, loaded up the jonahmobile and left for home sweet home:)

thank you guardian angels for helping me and my family through this, you will be remembered!

Daddy and Uncle Joe pointing fingers at Jonah!!