Mycoplasma Outbreak

The past 2 weeks is like a chapter out of the movie Outbreak. Not that extensive in implications, but scary enough for us.

Don't say I didn't warn you. This post is, I mean it, SUPER long. But I have to post because I wish to remind myself how it all happen and how disturbing it was. So pls do not read if you really have something better to do. :P

It all started on Friday the Thirteenth, 13 March. It was the last day of school. J has been having mild runny nose for the past 2-3 days, clear mucus, just the occasional cough. With these symptoms, the school rules says its fine to go school. Then on Friday, he went to bed for his nap as usual.

At 4pm thereabouts, he cried and woke up, Ah Ma carried him out of the room. He had vomitted all over the pillow, tshirt, and bedsheets. He was crying so I soothed him and cleaned him up, not thinking much of the vomitting coz I put it down to phelgm, although his cough wasn't exactly phelgmy to begin with.

He lay down on the sofa wanna drink milk. Within a few mouths, he vomited again. Clean up. A sip of water later, he vomited again. So far, the things he vomited out has been his kuay tiao lunch. By now, we knew something isn't right, especially when the usually active, cheerful and talkative Jovann is sitting listlessly at the sofa, staring at the TV, with his lips looking very very pale, and eyes very dazed. He seemed in great discomfort and wanting my attention and sayang. He has never looked like this before. Initially, I plan to bring him to the PD after our dinner. But seeing him like this, I changed my plans, called hubby and said to meet him at the PD once they open at 6pm. Our usual PD is not opened anymore today, so we saw another PD that we are ok with.

I packed some spare clothes, plastic bags, and left at 6pm, after my dad helped me flag down a cab. J vomited once more in the car, this time it was no longer his food, it was brown stuff. When we reached the clinic, the nurse took one look at him and asked us some questions. By now, he has vomited around 6 times. Nurse gave him a suppository to stop the vomiting, and gave us a sweet telling us to make him lick it or suck on it coz his lips are too pale.

Looking back, we were glad the suppository didn't work immediately, coz J vomited again in the PD's office. If he has not done so in front of the doc, we won't have know that brown brown stuff is streaks of blood. :( the PD was about to send us home with probiotics, strict instructions to stay off lactose for 5 days, and suggestion to give him 100plus or H2O. But when he saw the contents of the puke, he immediately changed his mind, and suggested we admit him coz J has puked until his stomach lining is hurt, and he needs a drip while he concentrate on getting better. Our hearts beat so fast after hearing it's blood, and no parents would ever want to hear that their child needs to be hospitalised. That dread was suffocating, we felt quite helpless and pained at that moment. But there wasn't any decision to be made, its definitely the hospital. Question is, which hospital. After discussion and some phone calls, we decided to follow this PD and opted for Glen E.

The poor boy was put on a drip once warded, and he was so brave he only flinched slightly and didn't cry or whimper at all. The blood test showed mycoplasma, and he was accordingly put on Zithromax. He was very careful with his drip, which is attached to him using a splint so that young kids like him won't accidentally pull it off or worse still bend the needle/hand (OUCH!).

That night, when I was at home putting Jaz to bed and packing together some of your things, Daddy messaged me :

2040hrs : “Btw, after you left shortly, he was put on the drip. He never let out any cry!!!! Brave boy. He only tarick back a little.”

2050hrs : “Jovann is back!!! He is active and talking lots!!!”

2055hrs : “He kept asking for white car. Told him with Mommy in her bag. He said Mommy bring the bag, white car in the bag!!!”

Mommy felt so relieved and happy when I received these messages, which showed that Jovann could be on the way to recovery. After putting Jaz to bed and packing stuff, I drove back to the hospital.

The next 5 days, from Friday to Tuesday, hubby slept over with J. I go over first thing in the morning after my morning pump, and leave in the evening for Jaz's bedtime. J is entertained by regular DVDs played on Ah Gong's DVD player. 2nd day Mommy forgot to bring his Thomas diecast engine, fortunately Auntie Peach helped us buy Skarloey when she came to visit.

Ah Ma and Ah Gong are so heartpain for you, Jovann. In the morning Mommy will fetch Ah Ma to the hospital when I go there, and Ah Gong will visit you himself in the evening or late afternoon. Around lunch time, Ah Ma will go home to bathe, buy lunch for maid, then go to our home to watch over Jaz and the maid the whole day, until I come home in the evening to put Jaz to bed, then Ah Ma goes home to rest. She bought something for you on the 3^rd morning, and here’s you playing with it. For some reason, you said that the grey MPV is Daddy’s car, the yellow car is mine, and yours is the red car.


During this stay, your comfort items were the white car, Skarloey, red car (from Ah Ma) and for some reason the dettol hand rub. Your have to hold any of these items in your hands when you're napping. But you won't nap well at all here, with the uncomfortable drip, the nurses coming in and out without consideration for the noise the door makes, and not being in your familiar bed.

But we had to stay for 4 nights anyway. 2nd, 3rd day you were still vomiting, and sometimes during your naps which woke up you so rudely. You cannot stomach lactose, so no milk for you. We tried Isomil and Pediasure but you rejected both.

You have no appetite for your food at all, and after experiencing you vomiting out your entire bowl of cereal that Daddy managed to feed you on that first morning in hospital (Saturday), we decided not to coax you to eat if you show signs of reluctance. So throughout that hospital stay, you drank a lot of soup, and a tiny bit of porridge which we put inside the soup. That’s all. PD said not to force you since you should be quite full with the drip and don’t need the extra nutrients now anyway.

On that 3^rd day when you poo-ed for the first time, my heart ached to see you in so much pain. Your poo was very acidic, and that first piece was very hard and hurting you when coming out (your outlet was all raw and red after that, and Mommy bugged the PD for some cream for you). You were crying and screaming when it was coming out, and I was hugging you. At the same time, your tummy hurts (you told me “Mommy, stomach pain!”).To make things worse, you were retching and retching coz your stomach was not settled yet, though nothing came out. Its so heartpain seeing your go through all this all at one time. But PD said you are finally poo-ing out the toxins.

Slowly, over the 5 days you were there (Friday – Tuesday) we see signs of you improving. It was a joy to see you vomit less coz every time you vomit during your naps you get a shock and started crying. Plus we have to clean up the mess so you didn’t get to go back to sleep at all. You hardly gets rest there, coz even the night time sleep is not as peaceful as at home. Although theoretically you expand less energy sitting/lying in bed compared to being at home lah.

Breastfeeding

All these days, I have been pumping in the ward toilet, then storing the milk and the FTG in Mama’s ward where there’s a mini bar fridge, then bringing everything home for Jaz’s feed the next day. But when Mama (she just had an appendicitis ops) was discharged on Monday, Mommy asked the nurse to help me keep my milk and FTG in the fridge.

Its contagious

However, all that changed on Monday, the day before you were set to discharge. That night, Mommy drove home as usual to put Jaz to bed. I have started a runny nose in the late afternoon and meant to rest early tonight after taking vitamin C and flu med. I bathed as usual before nursing Jaz, and wore a mask for good measure. When nursing her, my nose continue dripping. Once I put her down on the bed, I feel chills overtaking me, and I know I am running a fever. That was around 9pm, I laid down in the bed in Jaz’s room, and pulled blankets all over me. The chills got worse, then I felt stomach discomfort. I then had a bad diarrhaeo, after which, 20mins later, I started vomiting and vomiting, and felt super lousy. I knew for sure I have gotten the bacteria from Jovann.

My mom came to look after Jaz while my Dad drove me to A&E. I was debating with him to bring me to 24hr clinic instead but he said easier for A&E coz I look terrible. I vomited one more time there, just in time to get to the toiletbowl, and the last part was brown stuff like Jovann’s when the doc said it was blood streaks. Sigh. 2 jabs and an hour later, I still vomited, so the doc suggested I be admitted if I am willing to. So in I go. I felt super sian and disappointed in myself. At the same time there was a nagging and real worry at the back of my head, was I careful just now when nursing Jaz??? Will she be ok? Now that I have symptoms exactly like what Jovann has, I know how terrible he must have felt at that peak of your illness. The very thought of 4.5mths old little Jaz being put through the same thing terrifies me.

I think the nurses dread having such a patient in the ward. I bugged them for a hospital pump (which they have to borrow from the maternity ward), I bugged them for a bigger glass bottle (the one they first gave me was a SINGLE 120ml bottle!!! How on earth am I to store my morning pump of 240ml in it????), I bugged them for a bottle cap for the glass bottles (which they don’t have), and eventually I pestered them to help get someone to help me buy brand new 240ml bottles from the Guardian downstairs (after my bath I decided to keep the pumped milk).

Apart from sitting up in bed at 9am, 12noon, 3pm, 7pm and 11pm to pump (and throw, coz I just had a dubious 2 jabs the night before), and dragging my IV drip and shuffling slowly to the toilet, and trying to drink water but feeling nauseas every time I try, and picking at my food (now I know how J felt when he simply refused to eat), I rested the rest of the time the whole of Tuesday. I felt so cold and feverish when I admitted the night before that I asked the nurse to turn down the aircon, I had on 2 jackets and had 3-4 blankets over me. The next morning, I had a fever of 38.8degrees. Probably due to the blankets too. The fever took some time to subside and the nurse said its prob coz I am not drinking enough water coz I was pumping out so much milk which is depleting my body of fluids even though I am on the drip. But I have to pump, else I know the supply will drop.

When I was discharged, J's PD told me NOT to feed my pumped milk for as long as I am on the 7day course of antibiotics. You can be sure I panicked. For one, its doubtful if Jaz will drink my FBM since her brother totally rejects it when he's young like her. If she doesn't, I will need to somehow get fresh EBM from other mommies, and then again its doubtful if she will drink. But I needn't have worried. On Thur, she tried FBM for the first time. And my maid informed me that she took every single drop!!! Amazing how different Jaz is from J. I was so glad. But that doesn't solve all my problems coz I JUST given away my bulk of my FBM milk bags to another mommy 2 weeks ago. Whats left in my freezer probably could only last her for another 3 days if I feed her that totally.

At this point, I wish to thank Jamie, for offering her fresh EBM even BEFORE I thought of asking anyone. I was really really touched. Thanks Jamie. I also marvelled at how mommies rally together to help one another. Through a mommies network, 3 mommies agreed to give their EBM/FBM without hesitation or questions. One of them is my good friend Jen, the other 2 are E and Pam. Thanks girls. I was really touched, you girls are the best.

As it happened, I managed to get back whats remaining of my own FBM from the mommy I gave away to. The night that I discharged, hubby and I practically drove all over Singapore, Simei to get back my own FBM bags, SK to get the FBM from E. So eventually, Jaz only took 3 bottles of milk that weren't produced by me, and the little one drank it all up. I pumped every morning before my antibiotics, and that pump is good enough for 1.5 feeds. I also keep the bedtime pump. The day after I finished my antibiotics, I fully latched her throughout the day, and my heart melted when I realised how much I miss her little pudgy hands tickling my waist, her eyes seeking mine and holding my gaze, her little fingers curled around my forefinger/thumb, when we bonded by nursing. I miss this so much.

Stupid Bug spreads to 4 adults

Back to the bug. Tuesday, Jovann is discharged. Hubby is down with the same symptoms (And he just hao lian to me the night before somemore). So Jovann stays at my parents place overnight, to protect Jaz and let hubby get better.

Tuesday night, J asked for milk, and more milk, at bedtime. He ended up drinking 240ml of diluted FM, but vomitted in the middle of the night. Ah Ma was sleeping beside him, with a N95 (SARS grade) mask on, and he vomitted all over her face and her eyes.

In the wee hours of Thursday morning, Ah Ma started vomiting in the middle of the night. The next day, Ah Gong stomach felt funny too, followed by a bout of 12 runs to the toilet within 24 hours.

I went over to stay with J to lighten their load, which also means I pump and throw my milk there. On Wed, before discharging, I was still pumping 160ml, less but not much less than usual. But by Thursday night, my bedtime pump was down to 90ml. Scary! I was really really worried the supply will drop because I have not latched her for 3 FULL days. Its amazing what lack of latching can do. Discussed with hubby and decided to latch Jaz on the next morning, after I bathe. To be safe, I called my gynae's clinic for advice, and she said its fine, don't worry, go ahead and latch. Whew. This decision means I didn't need much of the FBM and EBM the mommies gave me.

Ah Gong gradually recovered once he started antibiotics. During this period of time, i really admired him. Having been through that myself, I know how miserable one can feel at the peak of the illness. But Ah Gong, amidst the runs to the toilet, still manage to wash the dishes (Ah Ma is resting and I am taking care of J coz he sticks to me a lot now). I did my part to help them prepare some food, take care of everything to do with J, and make J nap and force them to go to bed to nap too. I know my dad is feeling weak, but somehow, he can still push himself to do the necessary when he's needed. I feel so bad, but I have to let J stay here for a few more days for him to fully recover before I dare to bring him back to where Jaz is.

During this period of days, I make sure the 2 adults get enough rest, I tended to J, and I buy lunch back for hubby too coz he's also recuperating and feeling lethargic most times. It was a busy period, and underneath all that is a nagging worry for Jaz. I know through this episode, she will prob be closer to the maid, who is her caregiver throughout the day, but I will glady accept that if it means she's spared from the stupid bug. We bought hospital grade hand disinfectant, and our maid will use that every time before entering Jaz room or handling her.

There are too many learning points from this episode. one of which is never to trust GPs blindly, do your own research. If I hadn't bother to trawl the internet for certain pieces of information and brought it back to the specialists, I don't dare to imagine what would have happen to hubby or my mom. I won't say much but it suffice to say drug interaction betw chlarithromycin and other long term drugs requires close monitoring, a fact that the GP appears to brush aside when prescribing, although she knows our family history. Well.....one just has to be vigilant.

I am so so so glad everything's well now.