2nd dosage

22 January 2007

Today is Ellie's 2nd dosage of the Pneumococcal vaccination. We were slightly late for the 11am appointment as Ellie was in slumberland until about 1040am. Nevertheless, I called up the clinic to confirm that we will be there about 15 minutes later than the appointed time slot.

When we reached the clinic at 1120am, it was so packed with other kids and their parents. Apparently, there were quite a number of walk-in patients. When I approached the counter, the clinic assistant told me we had to come back in the afternoon as every available time slot has been taken up. I was confused for a while and when I regained my composure, I mentioned that Ellie had an appointment at 11am but I already called up to inform the clinic assistant that we'd be late. Upon hearing this, te clinic assistant changed her stance. She said, 'Oh I see. Now that would be a different case. There's a patient in the consultation room now. So your daughter will have to wait for another patient's turn before her.' Well, that's fine with me. There were quite a number of walk-in patients who were turned away.

The clinic assistant took Ellie's weight but forgotten to take her height. Probably because of the overwhelming number of patients today and she's the only clinic assistant around. Ellie's weight is 7.4kg now.

Since there were many patients today, we decided not to let Ellie apply the cream that was said to relieve the pain caused by the injection.

During the consultation, when Dr. Winston tried to use his stethoscope to listen to Ellie's tummy, she thought he was playing with her and she playfully pushed his hands away, laughing all the way. We were quite amused but a little bit sad at the same time as we knew what Ellie was in for. But poor Ellie didn't have a clue.

When Dr. Winston took out the syringe, Ellie saw it and she went "Oh!!! OOHHH!!!" and I guessed she had an impression what was going to happen. She started to struggle but the clinic assistant helped us hold her. As for me, I took up my usual position, with a few rattles in my hand to distract Ellie's attention. When the moment came, the Doc poked Ellie's little thigh. Her little pretty face contorted with pain and she cried. She cried real hard but only for a couple of seconds as we were all there to shake the rattles and cooing at her. After that, she mumbled a few grumbles to herself and she settled down. Poor thing.

The doc also gave us a medicine for Ellie to help her soften up her stools as she did not poo for the past 3 days. This was not good for her or any babies. The doc also reminded us about giving her a proper and balanced diet everyday.

The bill came to approx SGD 197 as the doc gave Ellie a new bottle of fever mixture. The one we had at home was way past its expiry date.

Ellie have one more pneumococcal jab to go. She'd have to take it just past her first birthday. That'll be the booster jab.