The Good People

Have I ever told you how lucky our little girl is?

Well, to top things off, she has the best set of doctors available in the country. And these doctors not only have the brains and the skill, they also have the heart.

Five weeks after her syndactyly release, things are looking nothing but great for our little girl.  We meet up with her hand surgeon either once or twice a week just so he can check on her progress as well as make sure everything is okay.  He has taught us hand exercises to save us the additional cost of having to go to a therapist and has assured us that we can text him anytime (except to greet him a happy birthday or Merry Christmas).  To top it off, he refuses to charge us consultation fees during our weekly visits!

The secretary was once telling me that she questioned Dr. Castillo as to why he was passing on cleft lip patients to Dr. Tansipek when he was capable of performing the surgery in the first place.  The response?  “Why will I do something when I know that someone else can do it better than I can?”  Now that’s what I call true service.  I wish other people would have the same attitude as well rather than biting off more than they can chew.

Pneumonia

The World Health Organization states that Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children worldwide.  So imagine the fear I had when I found out that Nina had it.  She had terrible colds the other day and soon it had progressed to coughing.  The next day,  noticed that she was breathing heavily and that's when I sent an SMS to her pediatrician.  Because the pedia was out of town, we were advised to see another doctor right away.  We were later on advised to proceed to the ER so that they could nebulize her.  If her condition would not improve, she had to be admitted.

Thank God she improved after the second nebulization.  My daughter loves moving around and confining her to a hospital room would definitely upset her.

feeling better at the ER

We were able to bring her home from the ER but had to nebulize every 4 hours round the clock.  Eventually, the cycle was moved to every 6 hours with an addition of another stronger (but expensive) medicine until she improved.

About the same time, we noticed that her Kuya still had a cough even after taking antibiotics and an anti-allergy medicine so x-rays and blood tests were done.  To our dismay, he was also diagnosed with pneumonia!  Despite the diagnosis, kuya was still his energetic self but hearing the diagnosis still made me worry.

We're done with Nina's medication and Kuya's round of antibiotics will soon be over.  I am hoping that after this, it'll be a while before I visit the drugstore/pharmacist again.

Although the pneumonia that my kids have was not as critical as I imagine pneumonia to be, I know that I still cannot erase my impression of this infection as a deadly one.