I have been out of action for so long now. To summarise, these were some highlights of the past fortnight:
2 BIG rounds of Germ-Battling
Just before Deepavali, WF came down with a relatively mild flu. So, much to his delight, we kept him away from school. Mother helped to look after him during the day and at night, he and I slept on mattresses 'outside the bedroom' (which is what we usually do when any one of us is unwell). As he got better, however, I caught the bug from him and fell ill myself. It always happens....
On Friday night, suddenly I felt my throat tightening so badly that I could hardly swallow my saliva. This progressed very quickly and by the morning, I was already knocked out silly and couldn't get up at all. I had to lie in bed round-the-clock for both days of the weekend, only sitting up to sip water and to pop pills every 4-hourly and getting up to go to the toilet. Felt completely miserable and all I could do was to gesture to R and the boys that they were to stay away from me.......
That Saturday, I had to forgo the Bee Movie and the following day, I had to also miss the Hokkien Huay Kuan Family Day Carnival at the Expo. R had to bring the boys to the cinema and the carnival by himself.
Then, I started on a course of antibiotics prescribed by the doctor at my request (it was just over a week before our scheduled flight to Australia, mah) to hasten the recovery. For the 1st 3 days or so, the medicine seemed to work wonders.
On the 4th day, however, I felt the medicine losing its effectiveness - the throat seemed to become congested again. As I completed the course of antibiotics, the tonsils became so swollen that I actually felt pain at the sides of my throat when I tapped gently at the sides below the ears. Yes, the germs had returned with a vengeance!
This time, I visited my usual doctor (who had been away for the past 2 weeks, so I didn't get to consult her earlier). She described my swollen tonsils as '2 BIG FISHBALLS'!! Yes, it was that bad - I even lost my voice and could not speak any louder than a whisper. It was really such a torture....
In view of the flight on Friday, I pleaded with the doctor for a quickest end to this germ-battling (I mean, as much as we can try, lah!) and was prescribed another antibiotics and a concoction of other 'usual' medicine like Korzen, Dextramine, Loratadine etc. Her strategy is this: Antibiotics will help clear the inflammation, and Korzen will ease the swelling while the concoction of antihistamines will clear the nose - she says it is critical to treat the 'source' = the blocked and mucus-filled nose, lor.
Now I am into 3rd day of this different antibiotics. The swelling has eased a little but it is still painful to swallow even water. The nose has cleared up a lot but I am still unsure if everything can be alright by Friday......
WY's promotion to P5
In between all this germ-battling, WY brought back his examination scripts and we reviewed quite thoroughly his performance. Actually, he has improved for this SA2, but because he had fared badly for SA1, the overall marks were 'pulled down'. The final results were Band 1 for EL, Maths and Science. For CL, he managed only a Band 2 but because this Band 2 score is regarded by the school as 'a high Band 2', WY qualified to continue to read HCL at P5.
Much to his delight, he is promoted to his 'dream class' next year and he will continue the BICEP programme. This means that he will get to go for some overseas trip (usually to China) with his teachers and classmates some time next year. This is keeping him motivated, I think.
One conclusion we have come to after reviewing the report book is that WY needs to improve on his creative writing skills. So, after agonising over 2 days and after lots and lots of thinking, I decided to enrol him on a Creative Writing programme. As much as I hate to trade our very limited 'free time' for more 'tuition' time, we have to be realistic and Do As Romans Do When We Are In Rome. No choice. Please don't criticize.
We have brought WY to view and feel the place where the programme is going to be conducted. We spoke to one of the very friendly ang-mo teacher (all teachers at this school are ang-mo!) and read some very interesting works of the students on the notice boards. WY says he is looking forward to starting the course in January.
Birthday
We celebrated CP's birthday last Saturday. We had not one but 2 cakes that evening! I will upload the pictures later on.
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2 comments:
Wisdom tells us that antibiotics do no hasten the recovery process. It may seem so, but it is the other medicines which covers up the symptoms (such as runny noses and teary eyes) which make us think we are recovering faster.
Most of these medicines only cover up or tricks the brain into stopping the natural responses of the body to combat the germs / viruses. It is still debatable how can a blocked nose or a teary eye actually help us recover faster than without.
I believe these are simply signals for us to take a break from our work and hectic life. Most of the time, we simply need to rest to get well again.
S has had no antibiotics since birth. She has had no long illnesses at all. Most parents here will also attest to this. Lack of antibiotics actually "forces" the normal body to combat the germs/viruses on its own and therefore the body recovers quicker due to experience. Also the body does not "wait" for antibiotics (lazy mind).
Singaporean sick people (due to impatience), uses lots of antibiotics or antihistamines or panadol to "recover quicker". All they do is decrease the body's own self defence, and camouflage the symptoms. If not well managed, the antibiotics will be defeated by the germs, and the illness goes into overdrive (2nd phase can even be fatal)
Most illnesses, do not need medication. If they do, means they are very serious and usually need hospitalisation even.
Although this sounds like theoretical preaching and going against the "practical experience" of many Singaporean parents, many doctors in the world outside Singapore will agree. Antibiotics are losing their battles for supergerms nowadays.
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Creative writing. What's that? Is it not enough to write grammer-error-free stories?
Sadly , I wonder how J will cope when he starts to write.
(not another tuition lesson! poor guy)
Luckily we moved out of "Rome".
Good luck WY. And I wish you all a happy holiday down under! Bring home more souvenirs, we expect a present from each boy to their cousins here (goal for WY and WF when u shop around in Gold Coast).
Creative writing - yes, you have hit the jackpot! It is NOT enough to write grammar-correct-and-spelling-mistake-free stories anymore!!!!!!!
YES!!! I couldn't believe this myself !! I have always remained true and steadfast to our teaching that it is good enough to write grammar-correct and spelling-mistake-free interesting stories. In fact, I have never believed in those excessively flowery and 'bombastic' language that less-than-real people try to use in their compositions. These never impressed me - that's what we were taught, isn't it?
But alas, these days, proper English counts no more! What matters to examiners these days are richly 'bombastic' phrases + exaggerated expressions. Lots and lots of them!!
So long as you have many and many and many of such flowery stuff, even blatant grammar mistakes and spelling errors are glossed over.
I now know this because I just couldn't figure out why WY scored so terribly badly in his composition this time round. So I formally wrote a note to request a review. When the teacher called to discuss, they wouldn't budge. So eventually I persuaded the teacher to fax me a copy of what was considered a 'good' composition.
I almost fainted when I received the fax. Really, my colleague had to stop my jaw from dropping off.
It is not that I hope WY will start to write flowery language etc. I still believe that is not correct. But for purposes of the exams, if that is what examiners want and expect, then WY will have no choice but to be able to give at least some doses of those flowery stuff!
Please don't make it sound so bad that it is another tuition class. To us, it is more like an 'introduction', and exposure to what is expected these days.
So, let's just try to keep up with WY's optimism regarding this Creative Writing programme.
Lest it be forgotten, WE didn't move into Rome; Rome moved in on us.
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