Kawasaki Disease

As promise, here is the post about Kawasaki Disease. My son, Aqeel has been diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease on 15 September 2011. It started when he had a slight fever on Sunday 11 September. We didn’t bring him to the clinic as we thought that it is just a one time fever. So we just gave him paracetamol. On Monday, the fever is still there, so we decided to bring him to the clinic for antibiotic. The fever is always below 38C which is not high. (We have the ear thermometer).

On Wednesday, we found that his lips cracks and both palm and feet swollen. So we rush to the emergency ward. However, the General Practitioner informed us that the swollen my caused by allergy. He also advice us to finished the dosage of the antibiotic given by the clinic as usually the virus may only disappear after 3 days taking antibiotics. So here we are going back home.

Thursday morning, his lips began to bleed and he still has his fever. So we rush to the hospital and directly see his pediatrician. To our surprise, his temperature is actually 40C. The pediatrician is using the armpit thermometer instead. (Now we need to have 2 kind of thermometer) She suspected that he is having Kawasaki Disease since all the symptoms are there. However, she will treat Aqeel with viral infection first since she need to do test his blood. By evening, when the doctor do her round checking, she asked the other pediatrician to look at Aqeel’s condition, and yes they agreed that he is having it. She quickly ordered immunoglobulin which cost RM10k and it must be used within 1 day. Please refer here for further details on the immunoglobulin.

Besides that, the scariest thing to see is when the nurses clean Aqeel’s lips with salt water. It is very painful I must say. Even the nurses are very pity to see Aqeel having to go through it. We would have to roll him in the blanket and keep it tight so that he won’t struggle that much. His mouth was full of blood when they clean it and he will be screaming his lung out. The nurses are trying to calm me down by saying that “its ok to see so many blood..he will recover soon”..

The next day we have an appointment with the Pediatrician Cardiology at Gleneagles Hospital since they don’t have the service at Pantai Cheras. The disease can caused inflammation of the blood vessels and damage to heart. It would usually take 10 days starting the day one had fever before this can happen. Luckily, all the vessels are clear when the cardiology Dr did the echo diagram. However, we need to see him one week after that since the virus may attack at slower phase. After the one week appointment, we need to set for 1 month appointment to do detail echo diagram at the heart. This is to make sure that the virus has really disappeared. Please read here of the symptom, treatment for the disease.

Now, the skin at his palm and feet start to peel off. It is very scary but I guess it is not painful. He can still play as usual..naughtier though..but its ok as long as his healthy..

The one month appointment is due next Friday..will update later...