On Thursday morning, Cass woke up at 3:45 a.m. to look for me. She complained that it was very hot. Her cheeks were flushed and lips were redder than usual. It is not a norm for her to wake up at this ungoldly hour to look for me and when she does, she is normally unwell. I gave her some water and got her to pee. She had complained of leg pain and slight headache the night before. Now, that got me very worried. Could she be having a UTI attack? One of Cass’ initial symptoms of a UTI attack are headache and leg / body pain.
At 5:30 a.m. when I woke Cass up to get her ready for school, her body felt like a piece of burning charcoal. I was even more worried. I kept asking her if she felt OK and if she felt any pain at the bladder and kidney region. She said she felt fine but have developed a slight cough. Worries quelled. If she has cough / runny nose, I can safely rule out a UTI. And I asked her many questions on what she did the day before. It was after questioning her that I found out that when she stayed back for extra co-curricular activities the day before, they were made to run in the 2pm hot sun for about half an hour! With a sizzling temperature of almost 38C, kids can easily get sick from being grilled by the unforgiving sun or get a heat stroke. Even we adults may not be able to tolerate running round the track in the burning 2pm sun. I will surely have a headache if I am exposed to the hot sun for half an hour. Crazy teacher!
I gave Cass her usual packet of hydrogen water the first thing when she woke up on Thursday morning. Then gave her another packet to bring to school. I told her to down the packet of hydrogen infused water when she reached school. And to call me from school should she feel unwell and want to go home to rest. When she got home that afternoon, her insatiable appetite seemed to have gone. She could not even finish her bowl of porridge. Her body was warm. After a shower, she asked for an ‘ice cap’ for her head and took a nap. An ‘ice cap’ which we both aptly named, is a frozen wet towel that I put on her head whenever she has fever.
The next morning, Cass’ body got hotter. I took her temperature and got a shock with the 41 degrees Celsius reading on the thermometer. Thoughts of brain damage, febrile fits and hallucination raced through my mind coz a fever of 41C is really high. I continued to give her hydrogen infused water and her supplements containing carotenoids. But the hubs wasn’t happy that with such shockingly high temperature, I wasn’t giving his princess any fever medicine and pressed me to bring Cass to the doctor. I gave in under pressure, though I knew that I could bring the fever down the natural way.
As I had already predicted, the medical officer on duty was super quick to prescribe Cass with antibiotics without even doing any test on her. I told him straight that I wanted no antibiotics and even wanted to tell him that I didn’t want any other oral medicine too. But I just paid for the prescribed flu meds to please everyone at home that I had brought Cass to the doctor and had brought medicine home. But I didn’t give Cass the flu meds. Except for the Volren suppository that the MO insisted to give Cass to bring down the high fever, I gave Cass hydrogen water (every 4 hourly), carotenoids supplements (3 capsules a day), raw honey with bee propolis (3 times a day) and showered her body many times throughout the day and night.
Cass was really disappointed that she could not participate in her school jogathon today. But at least she has something to look forward to now – the school’s jogathon next year 🙂
Today (Saturday) Cass woke up with no more fever. Though she has thick goo and a slight cough, her ravenous appetite has returned, yay! When a sick child still has a good appetite, you can be rest assured that she is recovering and nothing major is brewing inside. No doubt, I was worried sick when Cass’ temperature kept hovering at 40 – 41 degrees Celsius the entire Friday. I always believe in healing the feverish body naturally and with lots of rest and not overload it with medicine.
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Hi, I am pleading with you to please treat fevers, especially when so high. I understand you want to avoid antibiotics but a bit of Tylenol can settle the fever and help the child feel better.
I was in KL recently and went to visit this little 11 year old boy. He had high fevers at home for several days. Parents refused any treatment except for traditional Chinese medicine. He suffered a major seizure ( caused by the fever) , they called an ambulance and while in the hospital had another seizure. He is now in decerebrate rigidity. He is home with 24 hour care. No child deserves this.
Hi Chris, so sorry and sad to hear of the boy’s situation. Will definitely take your advice on fever. Thanks.