When he awoke on Saturday, he was dripping with perspiration. That was the first sign we had that he was having/had a fever. It started out mild, in the 37deg plus range. However, he also started to diarrhoea. Soft, pastey, with mucous and blood streaks. Horrors. It was just like when he had his allergy to milk/soy!
Frantic calling of the childcare and my mother in law to check if anyone had fed him any milk, or anything with milk/butter started. We drew a blank. All in all, he pooped approx 8 times on Saturday. Good thing was, he LOVED having his butt washed after every poop. He would willingly lead us to the bathroom to have his butt-wash. His fever yo-yoed through the day, but nothing too worrying.
Sunday dawned, and nothing had changed. The fever was still there, and so was the mucous and blood in the stools. This time, the fever climbed higher, and paracetamol didn't seem to help. By evening, I had abandoned the paracetamol in favour of Brufen. The stools seemed to abate by afternoon, coming every 6hrs instead of 3hourly. It seemed like good news. The fever didn't seem out of the ordinary, given that he had just had his MMR, and the diarrhoea was abating. In fact, in the evening, he suddenly told us "I want to bathe". We were surprised, as he had just bathed! We duly told him so, but he kept insisting anyway. Then, he squatted down, and promptly deposited a pastey smelly load into his diapers. Ahhhh.... was he trying to tell us he wanted to poop??
Monday came, and Ignatius got to spend the day at Ah Ma's instead of going to school. The fever got higher still though. By 10.30am, I got a call that Ignatius had pooped 3 more times since we dropped him off. All pastey, all mucousy, and all with bloody streaks. The fever is now in the 39deg plus range.
I immediately brought him to the GP, and he was undecided as to what was the problem. It could be the MMR... or it could be a bacterial infection of the guts leading to diarrhoea and fever. Best to send to the Paed.
So off to the Paed we went. So hurried we were, that I forgot to bring any diapers/wipes/clothes along for Ignatius. All I had was his water bottle. It was a FOUR HOUR wait at the Paeds. Thank GOD he didn't poop the whole time! *phew* The Paed was also quite unsure as to what was wrong. Another allergy was ruled out, as he was past the age to be developing allergies of such nature. MMR effects was also ruled out. The fever was still attributed to the MMR though, as the fever can last until Day 12 after the shot. A bacteria was suspected, as the stools were very mucousy, a sign of bacterial infection. She postulated that Ignatius could have eaten some chicken/egg that was not thoroughly cooked. The stools were sent for culture tests and we'll know the result on Wednesday.
Today, he's at Ah Ma's again. After so much "spoiling", he's behaving like King of the World. He's being cheeky and running around making us chase him to change his diapers, and he refuses to wear them after we've taken them off. Ah Ma lets him roam the house bottomless, and he sits butt naked on the new sofa. Suddenly, he proclaims that he wants to come down from the sofa. Ah Ma helps him down, and he promptly pees on the floor. ARGH! We're a bit undecided whether to praise him for NOT peeing on the sofa, or .... ....
Oh well, at least throughout the ordeal, he's been quite his usual self, and was only "weak" looking when his fever peaks. I sure hope everything goes away soon... I can't wait to send him back to childcare to get the discipline back!... and it sure seems like toilet training will start again soon!
