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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Conversations ...

...between the siblings - sweet, innocent, delightful, fill up our household with much cheer these days. Its sheer joy listening to their understanding of the complexities of the world and how it functions. One such conversation went like this

Jiya (to Vansh) - dhishkaaon, dhishkaaon (some gun sounds)

Vansh: Jiya aise nahin karo, main aapko chowkidaar ke paas le jaaonga. (Jiya, don't do that or else I'll take you to the guard) and goes on to pick her up by putting his hands under her arms.

Jiya: Nahin, nahin, nahin, nahin. Sorry bhaiya! (No, no, no, no, sorry big brother)

Vansh: Theek hai, ab nahin le jaaoonga! Mamma, Jiya ne sorry bol diya. Ab use chowkidar ke paasle jaane ki zarrorat nahin hai! (Alright, I won't take you now. Mom, I don't need to take Jiya to the guard now!)

Jiya (with a naughty twinkle in her eye) : Dhishkaaon, dhishkaaon

... and runs away with Vansh running after her, the house reverberating with their squeals. :)

And these conversations are the rays of hope and of delight in the tough times we have been facing for the last close to 2 months. Jiya has been catching one infection after another. It started with an ear infection. The ENT specialist that we went to prescribed 7 medicines for her including antibiotics. I read about it extensively on the internet and gave her only 2 - the acitamenophen and the ear drops and it went away. Some masty 9-10 boils followed all over her body. After the 4th boil, when they refused to subside and continued to pop up, she was prescribed a week of antibiotics. A week or so later when I took her to her pediatrician for a fever, which thankfully turned out to be viral and went away in a couple of days, a more serious problem was diagnosed. Her lymph nodes in the neck area were swollen, most likely because of the bacterial skin infections earlier and another week of antibiotics followed accompanied by medicines for relieving the fever. More medicines had to be added to counter the side effects of the antibiotics because she had developed blisters deep inside her mouth. I hate giving 5 ml of so many medicines when all you needed in the US was 1.6 ml of Tylenol sparingly but then I don't have a choice. A possible reason for the swollen lymph node could be that her ear infection never healed properly which is why this happened - I can never know. She cries and cries. I have to literally force her little body under my legs as I lay her down, force open her mouth and hold it open with one hand and hold her nostrils shut with the other as I put the syringe/dropper filled with the medicine and empty it there so that she can't spit it out. 3-4 meds at one time takes close to an hour which means the poor child spends close to 3 hours crying resisting the awfulness which is still forced upon her.

And then suddenly she started getting up in the middle of the night and howling like crazy. She would slither away from our hands and just cry endlessly. After trying a lot of things and watching her diet very carefully, on the third such night we just took her to the Emergency. The doctor there prescribed gas and colic drops. We called her ped the next morning and he asked us to get a urine test and culture and a stool test. Instinctively I knew it was a Urinary Tract Infection and I was right. The ped told us that it had been detected early and it could have led to much worse symptoms. So she is on another week of unavoidable antibiotics. Always a petite baby, she now looks more lean than ever and as a result everyone notices and comments - advices on what to feed her and how, what and what not to do follow - well meaning but it gets a lot at times. Unfortunately its become a vicious cycle I think - infections, antibiotics, low body resistance, more infections - yikes!!

I just pray to God to break the cycle soon. Very very thanfully she's a chirpy child throughout the day. And I am getting better at shortening the medicine administering and hence the crying time.

19 comments:

Swati said...

ry sweet indeed ..hope she gets well soon and the cycle breaks

aMus said...

awww..hugs neera..

it must be so tough for you...and i know the well meaning advice from everyone could irritate.

hugs to lil jiya and wishing lots of strength...

noon said...

Very delightful conversation Neera!

It totally broke my heart to read the rest of the stuff. One thing after another. I can't imagine the pain she went through and the emotional toll it must have taken on you. I somehow have this impression that a lot of doctors in India give antibiotics very easily. Even here they do, but there are some who don't. I feel very bad to think of this sweet little girl crying at night...I don't know - it takes a clever physician to discern when an antibiotic is absolutely needed and when it should not be given...giving too much leads to a host of other problems. Have you heard of this book called "The antibiotic paradox" - if you get a chance, look through it. I read parts of it.
I really hope and pray she gets back to being completely normal soon - so you can also be at peace. Hugs to you Neera.

Neera said...

Swati: Thank u for ur wishes dear.

Suma: Thank u Suma and thanks for the mail too.

noon: I feel the same way abt antibiotics noonoo which is why I read a lot over the internet on medical sites whenever tehre's something wrong. I read that 80% of the ear infections are viral which is why I didn't give her the antibiotic the ENT specialist prescribed. Then those boils - they started one after the other and they were really painful for her - she would scream if we accidentally brushed them with our hands while picking her up. After the 5th boil, we had to take her to a skin specialist and do what she said. The swollen lymph nodes - her ped told us that happens when a bacterial infection like boils/ear infection goes untreated and I was like - Oh no - did I wait too long before treating them! And then this UTI - E.Coli in the urine! Psst ..its rather unfortunate but she has needed those stupid antibiotics. Her ped also over-medicated initially but is very good at the correct diagnosis - so we have been talking to him and he has cut down on the meds that he prescribes.
Thanks so much for the good wishes.

IP said...

Hi neera. love to kids. prey to the almighty tht hard & tuff time gets over asap and jiya (cutie) gets well, v soon. Tk care.

Lee said...

Hello Neera, sounds or read like from another planet, ha ha.
This only own mothers can figure out...to others like Greek, ha ha.
Being a mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in any field, since the payment is pure love.

You have a pleasant week and keep a song in your heart, best regards, Lee.

Sumana said...

Sad to hear about this girl, but pray god to give little jiya the strength to fight all the bad infections. I am sure how tensionful this can get. Don't you remind me the cries/yells or whatever while giving the does of medicine. My elder creates no problems whils gulping them down but for the little one, it is just hard i can say.

Neera said...

IP : Thanks so much for ur good wishes.

Uncle Lee: Thanks for such a sweet message - a song in the heart would be perfect :) And don't worry about the Greek talk ..we moms are pretty good at it :)

Neera said...

Sumana: Thank u for the good wishes dear and I don't blame them - so many medicines are just ugh!

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noon said...

Neera - how is Jiya doing? Pl post!

Nagesh.MVS said...

Nice post

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dipali said...

Poor baby. I hope she gets well soon.
Building immunity takes time.
You take care of yourself, too.

Swaram said...

So sweet :) Hope Jiya feels better soon!

Preethi said...

aaw.. hugs and hope things get better soon for lil Jiya.. here is sending her loads of good wishes and hope she gets strong soon!!

Neera said...

Thanks for the concern everyone. I got her urine culture done again in mid september and very very thankfully, it came out clear! she has been doing okay now, moving around like a queen asking to be dressed prettily and coiffured and applied bindi and nail paint :)

Really thank u all for ur good wishes. I am so sure they help way too much :)

PG said...

This must be really hard. I read it is better now.
The conversation was really cute.
Wishing you and the kids good health and Hugs !

Nagesh.MVS said...

Nice conversion...sounds or read like from another planet, ha ha.

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