Battle With The Nebulizer

We went back to the doc's today for a follow-up check. Sophie's cough didn't seem to be getting any better and her meds are running out, so I thought it'd be a good time to see if we needed more and what else needed to be done.

It was good that we went to see the doc. She had lots of phlegm and her oral thrush is still fixated inside her left cheek, argh! So, the decision was made to put her on the nebulizer for her phlegm and to give her more meds for her thrush.

The nebulizer's somewhat an electric inhaler. It spews medicated steam which the child is supposed to breathe in. If just getting Sophie to open her mouth so that we can take a look at the progress of the thrush meds was hard enough (scream, scream, struggle, struggle), you can imagine the task at hand to hold her still on my lap, place the mouth/nose piece on her face and let her breathe in the meds for 5 minutes.

It took all 5 people to adminster the nebulizer. Dr. Hon held Sophie's head while I tried to hold her as still as possible on my lap, locking her arms in a bear hug, the nurse held the nebulizer over Sophie's nose and mouth while Karni held her legs. Anyone waiting their turn in the clinic would have thought we were doing open heart surgery on the kid without anesthesia. No amount of cajoling, talking, shushing and sweet talk got through. It was struggle, struggle, scream, scream all the way, with the complaining (ah ya ya ya ya yaaaa!) thrown in for good measure.

I didn't like having to do this to her but if it was the best and quickest way to get the phlegm loosened, then there was no choice for it. I thought back to her first visit to the medical centre in Singapore for a similar cough just before we were headed back to KL some months back. The doc then had also suggested putting her on a nebulizer but we'd have to take it home and self-administer for a few days. We couldn't then because we were leaving for KL the next day. It was a good thing that we didn't. I don't think I could have managed. But then again, she was younger and smaller then.

Sigh...I think she's got a phobia of doc visits now. If the last two trips were anything to go by, she's only got horrible memories of the place. I hope we won't have to go back again soon or that even if we do, she's not gonna have to go through all that again. It would make visits to the doc an ordeal for her and harder for me.