Morning 2 - Saturday, 9th January 2010
1. Humaidi woke up at about 1.30a.m., coughing and wheezing. I jumped, put him on the car and drove right away to Putrajaya. I was so in a hurry that I didn't realise I mistakenly wore the wrong side of my tudung. It was only after I arrived at the hospital and Humaidi was attended by the Medical Assistant in the Triage bay when I realized that I had my tudung on with the wrong side facing out. Good thing that the MA on duty was an understanding Muslimah, so she let me removed- quickly flipped it to the other side - and-wore my tudung again behind the curtain in the Triage bay.
2. Unlike Huzaifah, Humaidi violently struggled against the gas mask. A nurse tried to help me out but Humaidi succeeded in ripping the oxgen hose away and spilling the medicine in the process.
3. We put him on a bed, and wrapped him - tightly swaddled him in fact, like he was a newborn instead of an almost-3 year old before he was given another fresh dose of gas treatment. He struggled, but with the makeshift 'swaddle blanket' (kain bedung), it was not easy for him to avoid the gas mask.
4. Good thing he did not need a second dose like his brother did, alhamdulillah. It was hard work, hugging him tightly to keep his arms and legs still even with the 'swaddle blanket' on. And good thing that it was quite a quiet night/morning in the Emergency Department of Hospital Putrajaya then, because otherwise I might not receive any assistance from the kind nurse.
Morning 3 - Monday 11th January 2010
5. I had to take Humaidi to PPUM (Universiti Malaya Medical Center) for an appointment with the doctor. No, not due to his asthma, but to check whether or not he actually has ADHD.
6. Good news - the doctor ruled out ADHD. He was fidgety yes, but not that fidgety to be considered as ADHD.
7. Bad news - the doctors are worried that he's showing signs of austism - or aspenger's syndrome - delayed speech, lack of eye contact (he usually is good at making eye contact with me and others at home but he simply refused to make any with the doctors - yes, plural because there were 2 doctors who observed him then) and he just ignored the doctor's numerous attempts to communicate with him, be them in plea, request or question forms.
8. So another appointment was set up for Humaidi in PPUM on 9th February. This time to meet Dr Priya, the Specialist in Child Development Clinic. I was told to come early on 9th February because apparently Dr Priya spends easily 1.5 - 2 hours per patient and she only sees 2 patients in the afternoon so it's better if I get to be the 1st rather than the 2nd patient in the afternoon session what with Humaidi being oh-so-active and all.
9. I was also asked to take Humaidi for an audiology test but when I took him to the Audiology Unit, the person in charge of tests for small children, Puan Siti Hufaidah, was not available. I left my number, and she called me later in the evening. The doctors at the Paediatric clinic explained that they need to establish that Humaidi has no hearing problem thus the screening at Audiology.
10. After listening to my situation, Puan Siti suggested a proper test - instead of merely a screening - being done. But I need to make sure that Humaidi is sleeping during the test. "Let him sleep extra late the night before, and wake him up extra early. Keep him awake in the car during the journey, and he might go back to sleep by the time you reach the hospital, and we can conduct the test. Otherwise, we might have to prescribe a sleeping syrup for him". She tentatively schedule Humaidi for the test this Friday, 15th January. I seriously hope that we won't have to resort to using the sleeping syrup on him.
11. Oh, for the record, apparently, many young kids with autism are fascinated by trains, including Thomas the Tank Engine. And it is no secret that Humaidi knows how to say 'Thomas' more clearly and way earlier than he could say 'Ibu'.
12. There was this small incident at the Registration area (where I was asked to give the date of appointment with Dr Priya to the clerk in charge for it to be recorded in the computer). Humaidi succeeded in prying loose of my grip on him and ran away from the counter, so I ran after him, and pulled him back to the counter, and Humaidi being dreamy as he could at times, accidentally bumped onto a small girl in front of the counter, who in turn, hit the wooden front of the counter softly. I quickly apologized, but the mother raised her voice at me (but did not look at me) "Kok ye pun nak tarik anak, tengok lah sama". I repeated my apologies, "Maaf, maaf. Tak sengaja", trying to look at her while doing it, but she did not even turn to look at me. So be it.
13. The child looked up to me and grinned, showing no sign of pain when the mother rubbed her temple. I wondered if it was necessary for the mother to raise her voice. It was not as if Humaidi purposely bumped onto her child. And it was just a soft hit, not a hard thud.
14. Granted, the mother must have felt stressed out - being at the clinic means something is not quite right with the child. It was an accident, I apologized immediately, and the child was not even hurt. I must admit that I was partially dazed in some way. Being told that your child might have autism is not great news and my mind was still trying to process that bit of information. I do not know about the real situation of the young mother and her daughter - but I would surely appreciate if she could just accept my apologies with "takpa", a nod of her head or some similar acknowledgement gesture instead of being publicly and rudely told off in a raised voice.
15. So her reaction might be because she was worried for her sick child - does she think mine is any healthier than hers? Physically, Humaidi might look okay, but if he actually has autism, physical clumsiness is part of it. Can't parents at the paediatric be more empathetic and cut the kids there some slack ?
16. Yesterday evening, when I returned home, Baby Haniyya started showing some signs of asthma. Gave him 2.5 ml of Salbutamol to help reducing his coughing. Seemed to work before he went to sleep.
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