Author: Doris

Diagnosis is getting weirder.

So I went to Edda’s physical therapy appointment yesterday and I mentioned to Diane that the NYC radiologist basically didn’t agree with Dr. Ackman and concurred with the SGP doctors, that the radiologist thought that the brain damage that Dr. Ackman saw was an artifact of the MRI. Diane (who has read the reports from all the doctors) said that it wasn’t surprising because if it was truly what Dr. Ackman said it was, Edda would have different symptoms – mainly instead of having weak muscle tone, Edda would be “spastic” – meaning having high muscle tone, very stiff muscles. Diane has a ton of experience with kids on a weekly basis and their diagnosis. I don’t know who to believe anymore. Anyways, there are still more test results that we are waiting for from NY.

Great day.

Vince is doing much, much better today. No school for him today, he just stayed at home. Still a bit of wheezing, but nothing too terrible, and no fever.

Edda went to school today, we bought her uniform this weekend, a white shirt and dark blue skort. She promptly got her white shirt stained with red paint. Argh! What’s with the white shirts?

Jeremy went to get an annual checkup. I made an appointment at the Thomson Medical Center, because I had heard through the grapevine that it was the place where all the expats went to get their babies delivered. Apparently Jeremy got his annual checkup in a place that looked like a spa. Funny.

Sick Vince,

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Vince is sicker than he’s ever been before. Right now, he and Jeremy are at the emergency room downtown. It all started last night with a weird sounding cough and a high fever. It took a while for the Motrin to kick in and bring his fever down – that’s Jeremy late last night waiting for his fever to come down in the picture at about 12:30 am. Jeremy took him to the 24 hour clinic at 1:30 am last night and got a diagnosis of bronchitis and got antibiotics and then brought him home. Today he seemed better, but then in the afternoon, the fever seemed to be spiking and his breathing became more labored. Jeremy took him to the ER and they monitored his blood oxygen level and now are doing some bloodwork and a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. They think that it’s croup. They gave him something for his breathing and his fever is down and his breathing is much better. Jeremy says that now he is sleeping and that they should be home in a few hours.

Long weekend…

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Tomorrow is a holiday in Singapore, a celebration for the workers. Today we rented a car and drove around, mainly scouting out routes to Edda’s school because I’m going to be learning to drive on the left soon. Vince saw pictures of Edda going to the pool with her class and he wanted to go see the pool, so that’s where we are in the above picture.

We had a nice day, Vince is still a little bit sick, although after a dose of Motrin, you’d never know it. Edda still has a stuffy nose, but no fever and Jeremy is getting sick too, but he just took his Motrin, so hopefully, he’ll feel better soon.

Sleepless nights.

Edda has been having a hard time sleeping well since we’ve gotten back to Singapore. It means lots of sleepless nights for both Jeremy and me. I think we sleep enough hours, it’s just that we wake up every 90 minutes or so. I think it’s been just getting used to the new schedule and also she’s had a bit of a runny nose recently. Today Vince caught the cold and went to bed after taking Tylenol. Hopefully, he will be able to sleep well tonight.

Small medical update.

Got an email from Dr. Ackman today. Most of the tests from the “rare diseases screen” are back, all normal. The 2nd radiologist read Edda’s MRI and saw the same thing that Dr. Ackman saw, but said that it might be an artifact of the MRI machine and couldn’t give a definitive answer either way. Another MRI will need to be taken in NY.

The US Navy visits me and “Yes, ma’am”

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So, the USS Lincoln is in port in Singapore and a whole busload of the shipmen came to Edda’s school to take them all swimming at the local pool. Do you all the 20 year olds with blonde hair in my lame picture? I knew that Edda’s school has swimming on Fridays, this was the first Friday that I went and I was expecting a small little bus to take everybody the 0.5 miles to the pool, then someone mentioned that the navy was coming and I thought they meant the Singapore navy. But when the bus pulled up and all these very American-sounding kids (really, I think of 20 year olds as kids) piled off, I realized they meant the US Navy. There were about 30 of the servicemen and women who came and played with the kids in the pool. Apparently, everytime they are in any port, they find different charities or good works they can do and they get an opportunity to sign up to go out and do it and it counts as being “on-duty”. Pretty cool, huh? I have never felt so fondly towards the military as I did this morning.