Thankful Tuesdays: Still learning to trust God

We just got home a few hours ago, and I thought a thankful post is overdue, especially with our present circumstances...  Junior J got worse on Wednesday, with the fever coming back with a vengeance.  He was sleeping most of the time but the naps were all interrupted by bouts of fretting and crying that his feet hurt... brought him to see a PD over in Penang and the doctor recommended us to test the boy for influenza.  The nose swab test turned out negative, but the doctor thought the boy might have dengue as he got bitten quite a few times and had been having a fever for so many days.

So we ended up rushing back from Penang on Thursday morning, and went straight down to the emergency department at KKH after the 8 hour drive.  Thankfully, the department was unusually quiet and we didn't need to wait very long to see a doctor... and the boy got admitted.  We had thought it was best that he was warded and put on a drip since he'd been refusing to drink anything beside breastmilk (and what I could give him was limited)...  Fever started leveling off after Friday, and we ended up staying for two nights (we were blessed to get a single room on the second night, and stayed in a four-bed ward for the first night as all the single bed rooms were full).  Meanwhile, many doctors came and examined the little boy, and blood work showed that it wasn't dengue, but his platelets were slightly on the low side.  Thankfully the little boy started becoming more active on Friday evening (before that he had more or less fitfully slept through the whole day), pointing out blue cars and buses from the window of the ward, and eating a piece or two of his favorite corn crackers.  He even doodled on his art book and started chiming in the words to some of the parts of his favourite Curious George book.

By this morning, the boy was more alert and while he still refused to eat normal meals or drink any cow's milk, he did eat more of his crackers and sipped some water.  The docs decided to take him off the drip, and we managed to give the boy a shower, and he even seemed to have fun being pushed around the ward in a toy car (to the point that he kept protesting whenever hubby pushed him back to his room).  Come afternoon, they decided to discharge the boy, and get him back in a fortnight for bloodwork.

All in all, I think God kept reminding us gently that we needed to keep trusting Him, and that He does take care of the little boy, who is also a child of His.  We are so thankful:

:: For all those lovely people who messaged or called us, and kept us in prayer... Then there was Junior J's godparents, our bible study mates, and my parents, who came by to visit, bearing much needed snacks or meals... giving us encouragement and lots of love. Thank you so much...

:: For the amazing doctors and nurses who took care of the little boy, who even managed to feed the boy his meds when he usually spits out everything...

:: That the little boy was such a trooper through it all.  He cried and fretted with all the discomfort and pain, yes, but we managed to convince him to keep the drip on and not pull it out, by telling him that the splint was a "power pillow" that allowed him to shoot people with "waves of happiness".  The ward sister was nice enough to help us fashion a mini-version for his bearbear too.  Add to that a four-verse "power pillow" song (Jude Jude has a power pillow, sung to the tune of "Mary had a little lamb") we devised, he ended up being rather taken with his "superhero arm".

:: For journey mercies for the trip back from Penang to Singapore.  The hubby had been up since 4 am, and me since 3 am due to the boy's crying... and he had to drive almost non-stop for about 8 hours to get back to SG.  We ate pao in the car for lunch and only broke the journey for toilet breaks, and I was so worried that the hubs may fall asleep at the wheel.  Thank God that traffic was rather smooth, and it rained in the afternoon so it wasn't too hot.

:: That we didn't have to wait too long at the ED.  We also met our uni friend who happened to be working there and she helped us to check on the progress of the blood tests...

:: For my in-laws and all their help.  My MIL helped out with the laundry during our stay in Penang since I had to stay with the boy the whole time otherwise he'd wake up and look for me, which meant we had a suitcase full of clean clothes in our car which we just had to wheel up when we were in hospital.

:: That the little boy managed to enjoy himself at Pangkor first before falling sick!

:: For my parents, who helped us take care of the house the whole time we were away, dog-sat, and pitched in all sorts of different ways to make everything easier.

We really are blessed.  :)