A week in the hospital

Ok, it wasn't really a week. It was four days. It sure felt like a month though.

We'd all been having a pretty good night, timmy read his books as part of his nighttime ritual.


We had trouble that night though. He kept waking up coughing. He'd been coughing for a day or so before, but we were concerned because I thought his breathing was too rapid and too deep. We decided, after consulting via SMS with Timmy's doctor (the lovely Dr Maria Elena Quimpo, his aunt and my first cousin) to bring him to St Lukes. After a few hours of nebulizing at the Emergency Room, we had Timmy admitted to the hospital.

He had to have an IV drip installed. He was pretty good about it, yelling when it was going in, but then calming down and getting used to it pretty well.




I had to take the week off from work. Fortunately I have enough flexibility that I'm able to do that. I thought I could do some remote programming at the hospital. I was sorely mistaken though. Taking care of Timmy was a fulltime job in the daytime. Even simple things like feeding him needed four hands since someone had to hold or watch him so he didn't rip the IV out by moving his arm too fast, while someone else prepared the food or milk. Timmy was attached to a machine that monitored and ensured the correct drip rate of the IV and that made the length of free tube very short.

With rest and medication though,
Timmy got well enough so we could bring him home.

He's making us worried again tonight. We're going to be nebulizing again every 6 hours. I hope that the virus goes away and he recovers completely.
The hospital stay was pretty expensive. St Lukes in Quezon City is one of the best hospitals in the country, but you pay for what you get. To be sure, $600 for the 4 day stay, meds, equipment rental, and emergency room care was worthwhile, and very cheap compared to what it would have cost in the U.S., for instance. But it's a significant chunk of change and we're very thankful we had the wherewithal to cover the cost.
We have to process a PhilHealth refund. That'll help a bit. I was pleasantly surprised, when I went to the Quezon City Philhealth office, to be able to get all the PhilHealth documentation I needed in about an hour. Some government systems do work reasonably well (although I've also been on the receiving end of some horrendously bad service by other government agencies). I don't think I've seen anything optimal in any government agency, but that some things work at all is good to see.