The stress through pseudomembranous conjunctivitis

All parents would never want their children to suffer, particularly the very young ones. I would rather be penning down my own experience rather than baby Yi's. After a bit bout of viral cold that affected baby Bing, we started to developed some symptoms. I had conjunctivitis of both my eyes which developed into keratitis. Mr husband had diarrhoea.

But baby Yi fared the worst. He's only 3 months plus. Initially he had hand foot and mouth with rashes everywhere. Luckily he didn't have mouth ulcers, no fever and was still feeding well and happy generally. Just as the rashes faded, the worst happened. I noted a red and teary left eye. Even though I started antibiotic ointment for him immediately, it quickly spreaded to his right eye in a day.

So I nervously referred him to the Opthalmology department. I thought the worst was over when he's diagnosed as uncomplicated conjunctivitis. I diligently applied eye drops and antibiotics for him. He remained his happy self.

The next afternoon, he started to have blood stained tears. But he was still my bubbly baby. As a doctor I was still surprised and worried about him. A visit to the opthalmologist confirmed the presence of pseudomembranous conjunctivitis which required manual removal under his lids.

In another 24hours, he started to refuse opening his eyes. So we were at the waiting room again. Corneal abrasions have started to develop in both his eyes! Even I winced with the foreign body sensation and photophobia with my keratitis. I can only imagine how painful it is for baby Yi.

I spent the whole night holding him in my arms to sleep. Because he was cranky and possibly in pain. The incessant crying and being inconsolable really broke my heart. His voice was hoarse by midnight.

His eyes drops round the clock. Have to pry his eyes to install them every 2hours.

I gave him syrup paracetamol and suppository ibuprofen which seemed to help. And I was glad to see his smiling face again the next day. But paracetamol alone is not enough. Once the effect of ibuprofen wore off, he started to wail again. Mind you, regular ibuprofen is not recommended in young children.

I have received yet another worse news the next day in the opthalmologist's office. Both the corneal abrasions have become bigger despite treatment. I read that they should heal within 24-72hours. So we have his right eye patched in hope it will heal faster. I had to put mittens on him because he kept wanting to peel the patch off.

We had to visit the opthalmologist everyday to remove his pseudomembrane and observe how corneal abrasions. And each examination meant heart wrenching and high pitch wailing. Also a teary grandmother outside the waiting room. My heart withered a bit each time just like this neglected plant outside the house.

We went through all these when Mr husband was in the UK for a work related trip. I couldn't get leave because of some administrative reason. I'm just so lucky that my parents are around to help out. Mom did the main bulk of carrying and lulling Yi to sleep during the day.

Pray for us. I hope Yi recovers without any sequelae on his vision.