And when she was sick...

she was very very sick!

So my daughter has once again sprung a major illness with little warning.

She's been eating poorly all week. (That was the warning. Not a very good one, because every meal is a prolonged combination of begging, waiting, and trickery already). Then on Friday she was really lethargic and mopey. Check her temp: 39. (uhh, about 102.) Great, I thought, we all remember what happened last time her temp was 39. So we tried to be calm and unparanoid, gave her tylenol and tried to ride it out. By the evening she had this barking cough, and was very lethargic. Temp 39.4. More tylenol, but it doesn't help much. So at 9am we went to the doctor. We found a new doctor very close to our house, a pediatrician who speaks English. So that was a bonus. We were the first ones there so there was no wait. He asked the usual questions, and I told him about the septicemia what she had in the summer and then he got really concerned. He looked at her throat and right away could see she had very bad tonsilits. This is how he explained it to be; her upper airway has tonsilitis, her mid airway has laryngitis, so we need to try and stop it from going into her lower airway, which would be pnemonia. Then I was chastised for not getting her her pnemonia vaccine (which we were supposed to do after the summer thing but haven't yet. She has every vaccination in the book except that one and that is the only one she apparently needs) Then he said it was very 'lousy' that we didn't bring her in sooner, because the infection is pretty bad. She is just a happy kid. She never complains, she never fusses or acts sick. But from now on as soon as she goes on a hunger strike I will take her temperature. She is obviously not eating because her throat is sore, not to be a pain in my butt. Anyway, he said if her temp and cough get any worse she'll have to be admitted to the hospital, but for now go home and try this medicine. He gave us a concoction that tastes worse than poison (imagine the flavour of fishermen's friends with twice the strength of Buckley's. It's that bad.) So in the afternoon, her fever went away right away, but her cough got worse. It was so hoarse, and then she would have a coughing fit where it sounded like she couldn't get her breath back; she would wheeze and wheeze and it would last for several minutes. So we went back to his office, and he said her laryngitis is very bad; thats what making the weird sounds when she coughs, and it could get worse, and if it does we definitely have to go to the hospital right away. He filled out a pre-admittence form to take home, mixed a new concoction for her to take with something in it to make her larynyx relax more, and home we went. PRAISE THE LORD she slept really well and didn't cough hardly at all. Hopefully today she keeps getting better today.

A compliment to NHI, the Taiwanese National Health Insurance department. In Canada to have Gemma diagnosed with tonislitis two weeks after we were at the hospital cost 80$, an hour wait, no medicine, no phone call confirming her throat swab, nothing. Yesterday, for 15$, she got two exams, an ultrasound sort of scan, two personal prescriptions made just for her, the doctors cell phone number, and a filled out form for the hospital just in case. I am not criticising Canada's health care; her illness was much more serious this time and required more. I was just happy with the service we got. That's what happens when you get millions of people contributing to a national plan all in tiny geographic space. It would be like if everyone in Canada contributed their tax dollars alloted for health care into the southern half of Saskatchewan.

Anyway, it is typhooning outside so pray Gemma gets better because the only thing open today will be hospitals. And forgive my typing. Yes, it sucks. I know.