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Chinese New Year at Kelana Mahkota

Just now at around 4.30pm we had a Chinese New Year Open House for our Kelana Mahkota condo, sponsored by some YB. Lantakla diorang nak berkempen for this coming election, and yes, they did campaign during the speech session... we didn't bother about the speeches.. we just had fun. There were 4 lions dancing by a group named "Muhibah". Muhibah it was as the group comprises mostly Indians. The lion dances are not only performed by the Chinese nowadays... that's a change that I myself am proud of being a Malaysian.

Anyways... here's a short clip of the lion dance.

Some snapshots of the event. Rayyan's cousins, Arifah and baby Sharat happened to come over to our condo unit and had a blast witnessing the event.

At first it was just me and Rayyan. Arifah and Sharat (with my brother Faleigh) joined us later. Mula-mula Rayyan penakut.. even after Arifah was around, but then this happened...

One of the "lions" came to them and I insisted that they shook hands with "it". Surprisingly Rayyan was brave enough to do so.. maybe Arifah ada kot...

But then, lepas dapat salam je dua2 budak baju merah ni pun tiba-tiba je naik "Sheikh"... watch the video...

So lepas penat mengelinjang, apa lagi.. cari air laa... hehe.. but the food was not bad.. chicken curry, sweet sour fish, mixed vege with rice, fried beehoon, curry puffs, and mandarin oranges of course.

"Windy" ice-cream

A few weeks back Rayyan's atok and nenek took him along while shopping for kat mana ntah.. then they stopped at an ice-cream stall selling ice-cream bermacam2 flavor.

Rayyan has a favorite color - Green. I only came to notice that he didn't say "Green is my favorite color" for no reason.. he really loves green. One time when we wanted to buy baju melayu, he insisted that it was green, other than that he was hesitant to try it on.

So, Rayyan said to his atok "I want the green one, green is my favorite".. so atok asked the guy to scoop some for Rayyan to taste the minty-flavored ice-cream.

Atok asked... "What does it taste like?"

Rayyan said... "hmm.. it taste wind-wind"

LOL!

The trip that got Rayyan admitted for the first time...

Just read that Zafier got a bad case of diarrhea for 5 days already. This prompted me to write about this trip that got Rayyan really sick because of something that causes the death of 611,000 children below age of 5 every year, especially in developing countries. In the US alone, 2.7 million cases of severe gastroenteritis in children, almost 60,000 hospitalizations, and around 37 deaths are happening due to the same cause - ROTAVIRUS.

We suspected Rayyan got the Rotavirus during our trip to the Sunway Petting Zoo... this was when he was 1 year plus...

We thought it would be fun for Rayyan to experience the animal world, after only seeing the fishes in aquariums in Langkawi Underwater World and KL Aquaria. But then, this happens... a couple of days later, he was vomitting 2-3 times after he was given the first meal of the day.. his usual 240ml soy-based ISOMIL formula. Then the diarrhea started. My mom called me at the office around noon to come home. When I got home, his eyes looked sunken, innocent-looking watching his favorite cartoon series. Only later I found out that the sunken eyes is the sign of serious dehydration. I immediately brought Rayyan along with my mom to accompany me and called Ja to meet me at the hospital straightaway.

Went to see Dr Azizi at Damansara Specialist Hospital at he immediately asked Rayyan to be on drip after looking at his sunken eyes and hearing about series of diarrhea and vomitting. So, we had him admitted that day itself.

Then the trauma started. First, how are you supposed to insert the drip tube into a 1-year old child? Rayyan had to be brought to a room to get this done. He was blanketed (macam kena bedung) with one arm stretched out for the doctor to take out some blood sample for tests and insert the drip tube. Imagine the kid crying without a clue what was to happen to him at that time.. with the blanketing, and the nurses and doctor surrounding him, and needles poking him.. alhamdulillah thanks to Dr Azizi'a experience, was smoothly done. This actually reminded me the time I was about to be circumcised.. haha.. with my dad using his body to block the view of what was happening, etc.. lol!

Then, the next trauma began... a series of more diarrhea... and a bit more vomitting. He was having diarrhea almost every 1-2 minutes after the previous diaper change. That got us really worried and wondered if the liquid dripping ever so slowly into his body was enough to replace the water that's going out. But at the same time we were assured by the doctor that the more he purged, the sooner the virus would be out of his body.

Rayyan was not allowed to take any solid food for the first few days. Even the soy-based ISOMIL formula pun kena tukar dengan another simpler soy-based formula for the sensitive tummy to digest. Pity the boy had to just watch other people around him eat... the fruits, cakes around him... kesian kat dia. When he said "nak cake" we didn't give him, until one day when he was able to walk, he ran quickly to grab the cupcake that was on the table after days of eyeing at it. Kesian giler.. so we just gave it to him.

Dr Azizi came by one day and confirmed that Rayyan got the ROTAVIRUS and advised ways to eliminate the spreading and explained the whole thing about this deadly virus. Wanna know how it looks like? Ni dia... as Dr Azizi put it.. "macam roda".. tu la "Rota" virus... hehe

Here's a Wiki excerpt of the Rotavirus...

Rotavirus, the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children, is a genus of double-stranded RNA virus in the family Reoviridae. By the age of five, nearly every child in the world has been infected with rotavirus at least once.[1] However, with each infection, immunity develops and subsequent infections are less severe.[2] There are seven species of this virus, referred to as A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Rotavirus A, the most common, causes more than 90% of infections in humans.

Rotavirus is transmitted by the faecal-oral route, it infects cells that line the small intestine, and produces an enterotoxin. This toxin induces gastroenteritis, leading to severe diarrhoea and sometimes death through dehydration. Although rotavirus was discovered in 1973,[3] and accounts for up to 50% of infants and children hospitalised with severe diarrhoea,[4] the importance of rotavirus is still not widely known within the public health community: particularly in developing countries.[5] Rotavirus also infects animals and is an important pathogen of livestock.[6]

Signs and Symptoms

Rotavirus gastroenteritis is a mild to severe disease characterised by vomiting, watery diarrhoea, and low-grade fever. Once a child is infected by the virus, it takes about two days (the incubation period) before symptoms appear.[25] Symptoms often start with vomiting followed by four to eight days of profuse diarrhoea. Dehydration is more common with rotavirus infection than with most bacterial pathogens, and is the most common cause of death related to rotavirus infection,[26] but most children recover completey from the infection.[27]

Rotavirus A infections can occur throughout life: the first infection usually produces symptoms but subsequent infections are typically asymptomatic,[28] as the immune system provides some protection.[1] Consequently, symptomatic infection rates are highest in children under two years of age and decrease progressively towards 45 years of age.[29][30] Infection in the newborn, although common, is often associated with mild or asymptomatic disease;[31][32] the most severe symptoms tend to occur in children six months to two years of age, the elderly, and the immunocompromised. Asymptomatic infections in adults may be important in maintaining the transmission of infection in the community.[33] Symptomatic reinfections in children are often due to a different rotavirus A serotype.[2][34]

Transmission

Rotavirus is transmitted by the faecal-oral route, via contact with contaminated hands, surfaces and objects,[35] and possibly by the respiratory route.[36] The faeces of an infected person can contain more than 10 million million (10 trillion) infectious particles per gram;[28] only 10–100 of these are required to transmit infection to another person.[37]

Rotaviruses are stable in the environment and have been found in estuary samples at levels as high as 1–5 infectious particles per gallon.[38] Sanitary measures adequate for bacteria and parasites seem to be ineffective in endemic control of rotavirus, as similar incidence of rotavirus infection is observed in countries with both high and low health standards.[36]

Treatment

Treatment of acute rotavirus infection is nonspecific and involves management of symptoms and, most importantly, maintenance of hydration.[9] If untreated, children can die from the resulting severe dehydration.[50] Depending on the severity of diarrhoea, treatment consists of oral rehydration with plain water, water plus salts, or water plus salts and sugar.[51] Some infections are serious enough to warrant hospitalisation where fluids are given by intravenous drip or nasogastric tube, and the child's electrolytes and blood sugar are monitored.[44]

Alhamdulillah, all is well... and thank God we acted rather quickly and managed to get Rayyan out of dehydration in time... prevention measures as stressed by Dr Azizi anytime if something like this happens...

1. Drink lots of water... the virus will get out with the excess water not needed by the body.
2. Wash your hands completely after doing your business in the toilet.
3. Make sure the toilet is disinfected with Dettol, etc..., especially after the person infected with the virus had just deposited his bodily fluids into the toilet bowl.

There you go... a crash course on Rotavirus and what could happen to your kids... Older kids defend themselves better against the virus.. and adults get it all the time too..

Hope Zafier gets well soon! Not sure if he remembers seeing Rayyan at the hospital at that time.