What a (*pant* *pant*) week

Tuesday this week turned out to be worse than I had expected.

On the eve of his WY's EL Paper 2 exam, he came down with high fever. That shivering-cold-and-yet-cannot-sweat-it-out type of high fever came suddenly after dinner. So I quickly gave him some fever syrup, then got him to sleep earlier than we had originally planned.

Then I went on to put WF to bed. R was still mugging for his exam. I reminded R that WY had to have another dose of the fever medicine at about 3am.

Then, at about 3am, I awoke to find R clearing out WY's room. It turned out that WY had just turned 'merlion' shortly before 3am, forcing R to move him out and to strip the beds bare. R hurried to put the dirty bedsheets and pillow cases into our poor washing machine and set it on to work in the wee hours of the morning.

Whilst R went back to burning his early-morning oil (past midnight already, mah), I kept WY company. I managed to steal a few winks next to WY who slept on the spare mattress in the living area.

By day-break, WY's fever had subsided a little. He said that he was ok enough to go for his exam. So I woke R up. R had managed to take only a 90-minute nap by then.

So there was a major change in plan. R would get WY to school for his exam, and R would go to Jurong directly after that for his own exam. I would get WF to CH school by myself, then proceed to KHS to get WY back immediately after his exam was over. Then I would bring WY to the doctor's clinic before bringing him home to rest.

And that was exactly what we all did.

WF and I walked all the way to the Boys' Club to catch a cab to CH school. After that, I walked all the way out to catch a bus to Aljunied Road, then change to another bus which brought me to the Aljunied MRT station. From there, I walked all the way to KHS.

On the way, I witnessed from afar a fight between a middle-aged Chinese man and a bald non-Chinese man in his 30s on the island at the Aljunied Road/Sims Avenue junction. These 2 men angrily exchanged blows and punches and pushed each other really so hard and badly that they both kept falling onto the road! And all the other pedestrians stood still to watch. Even the cars came to a complete halt! It was actually quite exciting watching a 'live' fight leh!

Given the way they fought with a push and a punch here and there, it was like very 难分胜负. Then suddenly, the bald buy picked himself up and proceeded to reach for his bicycle chain from his bicycle leaning against the traffic lights! The Chinese man quickly dash across the road - wise move, I think, otherwise he would have 挂彩 already.... Then the crowd dispersed, and I continued walking to KHS.

After getting WY, we took a taxi to the doctor's clinic. We waited for a long time (usually no queue at that clinic). When we were done, we took another taxi home.

Then it was all a sleep sleep and more sleep-afternoon for WY. CP came back to find WY sleeping, so the planned revision was cancelled. So she basically 'wasted' her half-day leave.

The only consolation for the day was this: R passed his exam. Woah!!!!

***********************

On Wednesday, WY went to school for his Maths exam after gulping down some fever syrup. Our plan was that R would take WF to CH school, then bring WY back after his exam is over before returning to the office. In the meantime, I would settle the chores and wait for WY at home.

WF insisted, however, that I was to go along with him to CH school. So in the end, both R and I sent WF to CH school, then both went to KHS to bring WY back home. R returned to office while I took childcare leave to look after WY.

This time, WY felt better and after a nap, he was ok to do some basic recap for the CL Paper 2 exam scheduled for Thursday. Sigh, we could only hope for the best since we weren't able to cover what we had planned.

WF returned home in the evening, and amongst other things, declared to me, "Mama, I have germs." "What germs?!" I asked. "Coughing germs, sneezing germs, fever germs and all kinds of germs," came his reply.

I told him not to sprout nonsense, then sent him to bed early. During the night, he kept complaining to me that he felt cold (although the room temperature was set at a comfortable 26.5 degree).

*************************

When we woke up the next morning, R sent WY to school. As WY was already feeling 'normal' with no fever, no sneezes etc, he stayed on in school for lessons after the CL Paper 2 exam.

As I was about to get WF ready for school, we suddenly realised that he was having a fever now. Sigh. 怎么躲避也躲避不过。。。。

Eventually, R took the day off on childcare leave to bring WF to the doctor and to take care of him. I returned to the office - piles of stuff waiting for me. Super sian ah......

In the evening, WF's fever went like a pendulum. Up and down, quite worrying.

I slept for a total of about one and a half hours that night.

****************************

I took Friday off on childcare leave to jaga WF. Given that his temperature was still hovering between 38 and 40 degrees, Mother would not have been comfortable taking care of him anyway.

WY proceeded to school for his final exam paper for SA1 and returned exhausted at 1:30pm. He was to have returned to CH school that afternoon, but given that WF was at home, we decided that WY would also skip CH and go there only next week.

WF was delighted to be able (finally) to play with WY. So they both spent the afternoon quite 'together'. WF's fever didn't seem to improve. By evening, I had already lost count on the number of times I had had to sponge him.

When R returned after work, he sent WY to his piano lesson. In WY's absence, WF got a 'bonus' slot of computer time because he completed his writing (work) very well. (Nowadays, comp time is a very effective motivator.) But the deal he had with me was that he had to finish off his computer game before WY returned, and that he would switch off the computer once the agreed time was up. All these he did.

In the night, WF's temperature rose all the way past 40 degrees. Very very worrying, and I hardly slept because he kept tossing about. After 3 rounds of sponging and 3 rounds of high-dosage paracetamol, he finally started to sweat and that brought some relief to everyone. It had been so scary to keep feeling the heat radiating from WF's scorching-hot body.......

I finally fell asleep at about 4:30am after giving WF another round of medicine and sponging.

*************************

At 8:00am, I was awoken by Mother's call at the door. Despite my telling her not to buy breakfast for us on Saturdays, she had bought 2 packets of noodles, one packet of fried carrot cake and 3 butterfly fritters. Sigh.

R went to the office because he had already arranged some time ago to swop his duty day with a colleague. So WY, WF and I managed all by ourselves. R came back only at about 4:30pm.

In those hours before came back, we managed to squeeze in WY's piano practice, music theory homework, WF's 文化艺术团 practice, reading and play for both in addition to the routine showers, food, 凉茶, medicines etc etc. 'Normal' chores like laundry were non-event lah.

Now WF is taking his nap while WY is dealing with his handicraft for tomorrow.

How I look forward to TOMORROW.