Rayyan, Influenza A +ve

This is the note I posted on FB.

Since quite a few of you are asking about the symptoms I saw when my son, Rayyan was diagnosed with Influenza A early Sunday morning. Here goes...

Thursday afternoon: rasa badan macam suam-suam... was on the way to send him to school.. dalam keta rasa suam2, pastu I made a turn nak balik rumah, but then tanya dia lagi if he's okay.. he said ok.. he said he did not feel sick and he wanted to go to school.. I pun patah balik nak hantar sekolah.. dah sampai depan sekolah, I rasa badan dia dah naik sikit... so balik je la...

Thursday malam: Temperature panas. Using my unreliable Omron thermometer tu his temperature was 37.7 (it could have been 38.7 now that I've known).. so I just gave him PCM (paracetamol pink syrup) 5ml.

Friday 4am: My son muntah. Twice. Then muntah lagi on the way to DSH A&E at 5am. Wanted to take RAPID TEST then, but doctor said it's just 1 demam baru. Maybe it was something he ate. At that time his temperature was 38C. And he was chesty. So we did the nebulizer. Doctor gave him 2 supps.: 1 for muntah, and another for the fever. His chest cleared after nebulizer. And an antibiotic for the wheezing.

Friday afternoon: Still having fever with temperature ranging around 38.5+C. Bought a Braun thermometer. Went to see Rayyan's paedn., Dr Azizi at DSH. Dr said there is no flu like symptoms. So not necessary then to take the RAPID TEST. He asked to wait for another day before taking the test. Kalau amik that day, it may turn out -ve, then the next day kena amik lagi... 2 kali sakit budak tu nanti.. (the nose swab procedure is VERY unpleasant! even for me... had one myself just now)..

Friday night till Saturday afternoon: Temperature ranged 38-39.3 every 5 hours. Sponged him, had him shower a few times every 6 hours, with him shivering like mad over slightly cold water.

Saturday Afternoon till night: Temperature was around 38+ every 5 hours. In between those hours, he dis his usual things.. running and jumping around.. you will never have guessed he had been having high fever for the past few days...

Sunday 3am: Heard unpleasant wheezing sound on his chest and his back. (My left ear is the official stethoscope in the Shake Residence hehe).. went straight to DSH A&E. At that time his temperature was around 37+. By the time we reached DSH 20 mins later (we were spending the night at Palace of Golden Horses... family matters), his temperature dropped to 36.8 which was about normal. This time I insisted on taking the RAPID TEST, BLOOD TEST, and whatever test there is to justify all the vomitting, high fever, weird wheezing sounds...

Luckily DSH at that time around 4am was quiet.. only 3 of us were there. We hardly waited for 10 mins before we saw the doctor. Dr took the nose swab, the blood test, and did the nebulizer again. Then waited for 1.5 hours for the results while my wife Ja and Rayhana was still in the car.

Test came out positive for Influenza A, negative for Influenza B. I saw two other test results that morning which were +ve for Influenza A as well. One of them even tested +ve for Influenza B, God knows what that is (need to check up on that).

Dr immediately admitted my son to the isolation ward. Tamiflu is prescribed, twice a day with the first dose taken at 6am that morning. Nebulizer action every 4 hours, and PCM syrup for the fever, although by that time his temperature hardly reached 37.3 C...

For more updates on what happened after that... refer here:
http://www.facebook.com/shake74?v=feed&story_fbid=121509191980

Dr Azizi said if there is no fever, it shows the body has won over the virus and Rayyan is Influenza A-free. As a precaution - 1 week home quarantine which we are doing right now. Rayyan is already fever-less for the past 36 hours... boy.. that was a LOOOONG 36 hours...

Thanks for all the prayers and wishes...
:)

shake