I SPENT TOO MUCH MONEY ON BEING SICK!

Just before Chinese New Year, my 2nd child, Baby Ethan caught a virus and had ulcers all over his mouth. The poor kid just could not eat nor drink because every movement was just too painful. After the 3rd day, my husband and I decided to admit him to a private hospital called the Pantai Cheras Medical Center, for drips. It was an agonizing 5 days 3 night adventure at the hospital, and that trip cost my husband and I a lot of money .... BUT WAIT. The story didn't end there.

During the stay at the hospital, I did not realize that I had caught a very contagious virus called the Rotavirus. Right after baby and I had checked out from the hospital, I had severe diarrhea for like 5 days. On day 1, I remembered wondering, how the heck did I get food poisoning from hospital food? Me and the toilet were best friends those few days, and luckily, it was the Chinese New Year holidays, and hubby took over and took care of the kids.

Unfortunately, baby develop symptoms of the virus on the 4th of February. So off he went to the paeditrition who finally diagnosed the problem as the Rotavirus and not food poisoning as I originally thought I had. On his visit to the paed, baby had to be admitted to the hospital once again as he was severely dehydrated. Sigh! So far the damage has already escalated to almost RM5,000.

Within the next 3 days, wham! the virus quickly spread to my entire family. My brother, his wife and their toddler daughter all got it. My mum and dad too. Hubby as well. It was bad, really, really bad. It really reminded me of the SARS episode when the entire world was on a health alert because one Chinese guy on a plane to Hong Kong literally spread a terribly virulent SARS virus like wildfire killing so many people in it's wake. The impact was so quick and sudden. Just like the whole world had not expected the SARS virus to be so damaging so quickly, nobody in my family had time to take stock and react appropriately when we caught the Rotavirus. I am just thankfully that hubby's side of the family did not get sick as well. That would be just catastrophic.

The cost of being sick? ..... Astronomical.

Think about it. There's a lot of hidden cost to being sick. If it wasn't for the holidays, hubby would have had to take off work to take care of the kids for almost a week. And what about the cost of the medicine? What about the time lost to do something productive? What about all that water flushed down the drain. Clean, processed, piped water cost money too. What about the lights turned on at wee hours of the morning as my sister-in-law kept awake trying to encourage her less-than-2-year-old little girl to drink 3 ounces of liquids every hour? That cost money. What about all the washing all of us had to constantly do, especially when the kids' diarrhea spilled over and soiled the bedsheets, the floor and their clothes. During this period, my brother and I bought mountains of diapers as the kids kept soiling the diapers every hour on the hour.

Frankly, being sick is exhausting and so expensive.

This Rotavirus experience was so costly, imagine what a toll a cancer or stroke or something equally heartbreaking would affect a family in terms of financial cost and an emotional cost.

Let's all aim to stay healthy this year by first making a real significant change to our diets. This should be one of the changes we should make to our overall lifestyle to achieve good health. It's a good start, don't you think? Because, let me tell you, even a common thing like a flu do cost us time and money, not to mention, it's a real waste of time getting sick.

Jasmin
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DRINKING LOTS OF LIQUIDS PREVENTS MOUTH SORES AND CRACKED LIPS?

Ethan trying to drink from the cup

A few days ago, Baby Ethan was admitted into the hospital because he could not eat, and was getting dehydrated. The reason was, his mouth was full of nasty, painful sores.

Funny enough, I spoke to my dentist a few days before my baby got sick, and he said, nobody really knows what causes mouth sores.....

The Chinese believe it's the dry weather. And you know what? I nearly could not get a single hospital room for myself that day because the paediatric ward was full, with many kids having similar problems. Boy! Who knew!

Ethan, playing with the screws on the pole that hoist the IV bottle to relieve his boredom
He was constantly wearing a bib, slobbering like a water fall because he can't swallow his saliva

So, anyways, for 5 days and 3 nights, the poor kid was hooked up to an IV machine. I didn't allow him to crawl on the hospital room floor because people walk with dirty shoes that went god knows where. And he wasn't allowed into the playroom, discouraged by Ethan's paediatrician who said it's full of germs .... don't want him catching something else while at the hospital. Anyone who have children will know a kid can go stir crazy stuck in a baby cot for so many days. Luckily, he's such a good kid, not much complains, except when he cries in pain when I try to feed him a little bit of solids.

Poor kid asleep. Check out hand!

Now the Chinese believe, when the body is "heaty", it's best to drink lots of liquids ... something "cooling" like coconut water, watermelon, boiled sugar cane water, boiled barley water or one of those sweeten herbal drinks, and to cut down on tangerines or one of those many Chinese oranges which are in season now. It's a little hard to avoid oranges, seeing every other person has bought a crate of these juicy fruits for the Chinese New Year holidays.

Darn! I could kick myself for not taking faster action, when I saw the first ulcer. But it's too late. The poor kid has mouth ulcers the size of moon craters, some bleeding and lots of it. My brother and his wife tells me, they have cracked lips.

Baby Ethan's out now, and safely sleeping in his familiar cot. And mummy has to get up at ungodly hours to get him to drink lots of water.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group