Kawasaki Disease

Promise to be better...

One of the most heartbreaking event in my life is when my little Niel was diagnosed with a rare Kawasaki disease, which is an inflammation of blood vessels. For those of you with babies experiencing fevers longer than 3 days, despite what your GP advises, I would surely urge that you take them directly to the hospital for emergency care.

A week after his 12months immunization, Niel experienced a fever, which is quite a normal experience for most children. After 3 days, instead of getting better, the rim of his eyes turned blot-shot red. Our GP decided to give medication for conjunctivitis and antibiotics to treat his fever and eyes. 2 days passed without any improvement, his fever was constantly well above 39’c, the whites of his eyes turned pink, and now the knuckles of his hands are also reddish. Niel has stopped eating or taking his bottles all together. The only way we can get fluid into him was through a medicine dropper. He has grown so weak, that as soon as we sit him up, he topples and fall on his side with no effort on getting back up.

We then took him to the Children’s Hospital (5 days of fever), where he was put on a drip straight away to keep his fluids up. His lips were chapping and turned blood red as well. His eye lids are sore and swollen, the skin on it starts to chaff. It was a very miserable sight.

All I can feel was remorse and guilt that this happen to him. This is the little boy that still wakes me up at night, this is the boy that demands constant supervision, this is the boy that takes over an hour to feed. I felt very guilty for the times that I was impatient with him, the times when I wouldn’t get out of my bed for the fourth time in the night, the times I let him cry in his cot, the times I would yell at him out of anger, and most of all- for all the times that I wanted to quit. As I spend my teary nights in the ward, I kept praying to God to preserve His life, heal him completely, and give me the chance to be a better Mum for him.

November 2009