P is for Pneumonia

My son has been struggling with his cough since early this week. His cough was so bad that his school sent him home Tuesday morning and he was made to rest for another day.

He returned to school on Thursday and come Friday evening, he was complaining that he was not feeling well. I woke up around midnight with Basti burning with a 39.1C fever. I panicked as it was the first time ever that he sported such high temperatures. We gave him Paracetamol which he fortunately was able to take and we went back to sleep.

The next day, I had to go to school to give my final exam and I immediately went home afterwards. When I saw that Basti's temperature was not improving, we brought him to the ER at Asian Hospital.

I was initially hesitant to do so as my recent experience with them was not pleasant at all (e.g. we were here last month when Basti was complaining of an ear ache and the ER doctors had no beside manners and the ER nurse gave my son Ibuprofen without asking whether he ate something. It was not surprise that he started throwing up afterwards). But since I was anxious already, we hurriedly brought Basti to Asian.

A few minutes after we were ushered into a cubicle in the ER, a Dr. Carlos Vicente Gabriel checked Basti and I was very happy with the way he did the examination. He certainly knows how to handle children and he was definitely a big improvement compared to the previous pedia resident that looked at Basti before. After a couple of tests, it was found that Basti has pneumonia and since it was at the early stage, we were sent home with an assortment of medicines that will do a drug dealer proud.

However, Basti could not tolerate the oral medication and would throw up everything that was given to him. I called the ER spoke with Dr. Gabriel. I mentioned that we will be returning and would request for confinement. He readily agreed and waited for us to arrive to process our admission.

The admission process was also hassle-free. I was very pleased with the nurse when he was able to administer the heplock with no fuss at all and with no need of a repeat. I was also amazed with Basti as he insisted on observing when we told him to look away. He did not scream although he did voice out his pain. He also stared with wonder when they extracted blood from his arm. He barely flinched when he saw the needle enter his skin.

Unfortunately, his pedia, Dr. Clemente, no longer has a clinic at Asian so we went by his referral, Dr. Morada, the same pedia that admitted him a couple of years ago also due to pneumonia. He was able to see Basti earlier today and prescribed more medicines which would hopefully kill the bacteria, thereby bringing down his temp and ultimately, letting us go home in the fastest period of time.

I decided to stay in the hospital every night with no assistance from the yaya to take care of my son. It's our bonding moment and something that I hope he would remember when he would start questioning my love for him when I practice my usual tough love stance.