Daddy's girl(s)

I think Louis is going to be dead meat. In about a week’s time, the ratio of male: female in our little family is going to be 1:3.

He’s badly outnumbered... especially when Faith is getting to be quite good with emotional blackmails, despite her not even being 3 years old yet. Perhaps calling it emotional blackmail makes it appears that she’s cunning and sly for one so young, but kids these days sure know how to turn on the charm and twist their parents tightly around their cute little fingers.

Last night, we had our usual nightly “battle” of her trying to stretch and lengthen her bedtime routine. Faith was trying to get Louis to sit next to her until she falls asleep; a situation which Louis really doesn’t mind but one that I strictly vetoed against him doing, when she surprised us both by saying, “Daddy, sit with Faith for a little while. Pleeeeease!!! I miss you so much. Daddy, you are my best friend!”

All the above were uttered in a convincingly earnest and pleading tone, well aimed to weaken and melt even hardest of hearts.

Call it feminine wiles, genuine affections, innocent love or whatever. There’s no fighting chance that any honest-to-goodness daddy can withstand the onslaught of their little girl’s affections, especially a softie like Louis.

I’m just waiting to see how the family dynamics would unfold when #2 is out. For now, Louis is luxuriating in all the kisses and affections that his little girl is pouring his way.

Papa's not home

Nearly 5 months since that fateful event last year that left Louis with a dislocated knee and 4 months since his surgery to reconstruct his torn ligaments, Louis is now doing well.

In fact, well enough to travel to London for a short trip this week.

Looking back at what seemed to be a long and arduous journey for him to reach this stage where he is able to walk somewhat normally without the support of any crutches feels like a miracle. Holding hands, walking together as a family with Faith in between us, whenever we are out never fails to bring a great sense of relief and wonderment for the both of us.

It was a painful experience for everyone in the family, especially for Louis. Yet, it has made us truly appreciate the simple things in life a great deal better.

Since about 3-4 weeks ago, Louis started walking without his crutches. It was all very delicate and cautious, of course. He started walking without crutches at home. Gaining sufficient confidence after, he went out for short distances without it. Starting with small, tentative steps, his gait now is more normal. He hardly hobbles. He looks more like one who is a slow, unhurried stroller. Going down stairs that are long or steep, he needs to hold onto something for support. However, its only a matter of time before he's back to walking normally, in his long, purposeful strides.

In fact, he started swimming in the last couple of weeks, swimming only free-style. The water definitely helps strengthen the leg muscles and the gentle pressure of the water actually helps to cushion any major impact on the legs.

After having him at home 24x7 for so many months, it feels a little different now that he's back at work full-time and even as I write this, hasn't been home for the last 2 nights. Its a short trip and I thought he would be back before I even had the chance to miss him. Yet, barely 12 hours after he left in the morning, I started to miss him. Similarly, he misses us at home too.

Before he left, he told Faith that he was going to go away and wouldn't be home at night for a few days and to look after mummy. Faith nodded sagely at him, seemingly understanding everything that he said.

It would be too much, I think, for a 2 year-old to fully grasp the concept of him going away on a business trip.

Ever since his marked progress in walking independently without any aid, one of Faith's final act among her slew of bedtime rituals would be to walk round to Louis' side of the bed. Lightly tugging his hand, she would pull him to sit up and say, "C'mon... sleep [with] Faith", meaning for Louis to follow and sleep next to her on the mattresses beside our bed.

Last night, she did her usual only to find that his side of the bed was empty. I told her again that Louis was not home and wouldn't be home for the next few nights. She would have to be a big girl in the meantime and learn to sleep on her own without her Papa lying next to her.

Obviously, Faith wasn't about to take what I said at face value and go sleep quietly on her own. There were lots of protest, begging, coaxing and the use of the magic word, "please", many times over to get me to go sleep with her. Unfortunately, I take a stronger stance on getting her to sleep independently :)

Actually, its sweet to see father and daughter lying next to each other and having Faith fall asleep like that. Louis certainly feels so and he being the putty that he is in his daughter's hands, would drag himself to the mattress on the floor when she comes along every night no matter how tired he was.

Come home soon, darling!

Eczema & anemia

Eczema has always been something that Faith has to content with since young. Her skin requires daily moisturising and I can't get lazy with the application of it or else it would recur. With constant moisturiser after every bath time and at night before she sleeps, we've been able to keep eczema at bay for quite a while until about the time that we brought her out for frequent morning swims.

It was during that period that it flared up in full force, spreading to her usual places like her ears and back of the knees and extending to nearly every part of her body from her arms to her upper thighs. It was so bad that her arms, legs, abdominal and back areas were filled with scratch marks from her incessant scratchings.

Usually for small spots of eczema, we treat it with Desowen for a few days and stop as soon as the eczema is gone due to the steroid content. With the spread of the eczema all over her body, it wasn't feasible to use Desowen, especially for extended usage. I had put her on oral antihistamine as well to aid with the itch.

We went to her PD and she prescribed Physiogel AI, a form of moisturiser that is steroid free. She agreed with me that it wasn't good to apply too much cream with steroid nor give her too much antihistamine.

As we weren't a hundred percent certain that it was just the swimming that was causing her eczema to act up, we decided to also eliminate nuts totally from her diet and watched what she ate.

The Physiogel AI worked wonders. I applied it whenever she started scratching herself. However, it small (50ml) and expensive ($$36/tube). We used it all over her body each and every time she takes a bath and a tube lasts us only slightly more than a week.

I'm not sure if the scratching becomes a habit after a while -- becos she usually doesn't scratch herself unless its really itchy. When I saw that her eczema's gone, I stopped applying Physiogel but continued with her regular moisturiser, applying it as religiously at least 3 times a day. Yet, she started scratching herself again and we had to apply Physiogel on her again. I only apply it to her arms and legs this time, which seemed to be the persistent problem areas.

It is rather distressing to see her scratching herself all the time, seeing her scratch marks marring her baby skin. I felt that there must be a better way to prevent her eczema from recurring over and over again. That got me to start looking at organic and/or natural products, ones without chemicals. I've read that a combination of lavender and chamomile essential oils is good for treating eczema.

For the last week, I've put 2 drops of lavender essential oil (other than eucalyptus, which are the 2 oils I have at home) into her daily bath water. I've also purchased an Avado nappy lotion, which contains mostly plant-derived ingredients and oil. I've used the nappy lotion in place of Physiogel for one application, sometimes, for the entire day, not using the Physiogel at all.

Thus far, results have been small but encouraging. She doesn't scratch as much and the nappy gel seems to work just as well as a replacement for Physiogel. Now, I'm waiting for friends or family to make a trip to Australia. Then, I'll get them to help me top up my essential oils from Jurlique, which is a whole lot cheaper than buying it from CK Tangs :)

Even though the title heading for this post is about eczema and anemia, thank goodness for small favours that Faith is not the one with anemia.

Her papa is the one who always had a little low blood count and is anemic. All his blood tests would invariably show that he's anemic. His latest blood test showed a lower blood count of haemoglobin's. When his doctor was showing us his blood test report, he jokingly remarked that I've not been feeding him well enough.

It may be a joke and he's got a long standing history with anemia, however, he's also recovering from his knee surgery and his health is not quite what it used to be. Even though the doctor prescribed him Sangobion to help with his iron deficiency, my personal preference is to ensure that he gets as much of his dietary requirements through food sources wherever possible.

Hence, I've gone to the chinese medical hall and asked about herbs and soups that are beneficial for him. Two nights ago, I steamed a slice of cod fish (its about the few types of fish that Louis is willing to eat cos he's no fan of fish) and he liked that. Yesterday night, I made "dang gui chicken". I loved it and it reminded me of the dish I used to love during my confinement period. Unfortunately, Louis wasn't a fan of it. He found the smell of herbs too overpowering. Meanwhile, he would be eating lots of spinach and sweet potato leaves as these are high in iron.

I've got some "Ba Zhen Tang" too which I'm planning to boil for him next. It is typically consumed by women to replenish the lost of blood after menstruation, however, the lady at the medical hall said it is alright for him to take that becos of his anemia.

Let's hope my two babies' conditions would improve greatly with my "experiments"!

The scare

Fever. Two weekends in a row.

Louis had some low-grade fever the previous weekend when we celebrated Faith's birthday. We saw the doctor and the latter was not concerned as his injured knee looked alright.

The last weekend, he again had fever. This time around, the fever was much higher - the highest at 38.8C. Again, it didn't abate much even with medications. His left knee swelled quite considerably, looking like a little round ball, giving us cause for concern.

We made an appointment to see his doctor again yesterday. The doctor said that there was some fluid that might caused the swelling. He drew a vial of liquid from the knee -- which was yellowish looking -- and also another small vial of blood. Both vials of fluid were sent for analysis.

The doctor was certain that there was no pus in the fluid that he drew out from the knee. A lab analysis was ordered to determine if there were any micro-organisms found in the fluid from the knee. If there was, Louis would knee to go for another minor surgery to clean the knee.

In the meantime, he was prescribed antibiotics, paracetamol and arcoxial to bring down the swell and we were told to return the next day for a review based on the lab results. The medicine helped considerably. After 2 dosage of it yesterday, the fever went down. This morning, the swelling on his knee went down slightly.

The results this morning when we saw the doctor was a big relief. There wasn't any bacterial or micro-organisms found in the liquid. The blood test result came out alright too, other than the fact that Louis is a little anemic, which he has always been.

He now has to complete the cause of antibiotics and arcoxial. Hopefully, that would help to bring the swelling of the knee back to what it was previously. If there is still any swelling, I gather the doctor will draw out any excess fluid through the syringe.

Whatever it is, this is definitely a much better option than if there were micro-organisms found in his knee, which would require another surgery. Needless to say, after going through all the pain, current ongoing physiotherapy and exercise regime in order to be able to walk with one crutch, Louis is concerned that any surgery would put him back to the state where he was after the knee surgery.

It has been a rather long, arduous, slow and somewhat draining period for him since late December last year. There's a lot of hard work that he needs to put in consistently just to yield a modicum of progress. I guess he's got a lot of self-inflicted pressure to recover as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for the case of a knee injury, my personal sense is that a lot of time and patience is required, especially with the extent of injury he had sustained.

For the last 2 days, the fever and his swollen knee had pretty much zapped him of his energy that he had to rely on using 2 crutches to get around. Thankfully after the start of the antibiotics course, he's now back to using one crutch.

We'll be seeing the doctor again next week for a review. Keeping our fingers crossed that everything will be alright from now on.