Cough & Short of Breath

William is watching TV

William woke up around 8 AM and coughed a lot; so I decided to take a day off and stay home to babysit him.  After using the nebulizer his cough seemed to stop.  I fed him salmon fish porridge and fruit for lunch.  He ate as normal, I’m glad!

Fruit for dessert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner time, watching Mickey mouse and eating rice with soy sauce and chả lụa.

Short of Breath!

Pari Respiratory Portable Nebulizer Compressor Pack (5.5″L x 3.5″W x 1.75″H)

Today early morning about 1:30 AM, William woke up and cried!  He coughed a lot too.  We gave him a bottle of milk and changed his diaper as usual but he didn’t stop crying.  Looked like he had a stuffy nose that made him hard to breath; so we let him use the nebulizer.  That seemed to sooth him but he kept crying and would not fall back to sleep until 2:30 AM.

William coughed again on the way to Mitchell school in the morning.

9:30 AM, Mitchell school nurse called and told me that William was at her office because he coughed a lot.  She said that she would give him an albuterol treatment; I said go ahead.  She advised the teacher to not let him stay outside because it’s possible that the wind gave him asthma.

The mask that Williams uses with the nebulizer.

10:00 AM, the nurse called again; she checked on William in his classroom; he’s doing fine.  She said it’d be a relax day for him; the classroom has a bean bag where he can rest if he doesn’t feel like doing anything.  She said there is mucus in his nose that caused him to have short of breath. His lungs sounded clear though.  She recommended to let him rest a lot.

Times like this I wish I can stay home and watch him; to let him rest on his comfortable bed.  Unfortunately Tim & I are at work right now.

1 PM, I stopped by the nurse office on my way to pick up William.  She said the same thing that she told me on the phone.   She doesn’t think William coughs is because of the cold.  She thinks that there’s lot mucus that running down to the throat from the nose that irritates the throat to cause William to cough.

The children is learning the new words that start with H. William looked so concentrating on the lesson while other children were joking.  Next time I’ll ask Mrs. Hana if William is always like that.

Continue my way to William’s classroom to pick him up; it’s still a bit early so the class is still in process.  I’m so impressed that William sat still in his chair watching the lesson that the teacher projected on the white board.  When one’s name is called, that child would have to go to the board and point to the correct picture. Mrs. Hana had to call William’s name several times before he could stand up and approaching the board.  Where’s the Hammer? To my surprise, he pointed to the correct picture.

William has running nose so Ms. Susan tried to wipe his nose with a tissue.

1:10 PM, the class is over, everyone stood up to leave.  William ran to me; he looked very bad with running nose, tired eyes and cough a lot.  I could not stand to take him to the day care when he doesn’t feel well so I called Tim’s sister Hue to ask if she could babysit William; and she said “Yes”.

William on his bed.  For the past 2 weeks he’s so attached to those Mickey Mouse books that he always takes them to bed with him.

So I took William home, gave him a bottle of milk, 5ml of the DimeTapp to suppress his cough and then use the nebulizer to help with his breathing.

2:30 PM Aunt Hue arrived; William was happy to see her. When I took off to get back to work William did seem a lot better.  But I’m not worried because I know William is in a good hand.

Beautiful Day!

Mrs. Hana is holding William & Max hands.  William is in green jacket.

It’s a beautiful day today, I took few pictures when picking William up from Mitchell school.  As usual I brought sausage and milk for him; cleaned his face while he’s eating.  After he’s done eating I took him to the Children World Preschool.

Mitchell Child Development School

By the time William is done eating some slices of sausage, everyone including the buses are gone. It’s time to head to the day care.

What to Do When Cannot Sleep?

11:30 PM, William’s eyes were still wide open.  I was so tired so I felt asleep.  Few minutes later he woke me up by sitting right next to me and looking at my face.  I opened my eyes and oh my god, lotion was all over his face & hands.  He looked like he was about to cry because lotion got into his eyes.  I used a wet towel to clean his face, then he laughed! Then I found out his pants was soaked in lotion as well as his shirt!  So we changed his clothes.  I guess he was bored so he played with the lotion bottle.

The night was not over!  we let him watched the Mickey video on YouTube; he put the iPad leaned against the wall and it felt under the bed; we had to move the bed to get the iPad for him.

William really has trouble sleeping at night, he would not sleep until really late in the night.  Maybe because he takes too much nap in the afternoon?  Yesterday he woke up around 5:30 PM after his afternoon nap.

Chicken nuggets

Yesterday William ate 3 chicken nuggets I bought from Mc.Donald after his nap.  I’m so happy because this is the first time ever that he volunteered to eat chicken nuggets.  We’ve tried a few times before but he refused or he only had 1 bite then stopped.

Love my boy, he’s learning!

Mom’s Biggest Fear: Autism!

Today I took William to see the psychologists at the Regional Center of OC in Tustin after his class at Mitchell.  The appointment was at 2 P.M,  and it took about 1 hour.  Dr. Kyle D. Pontius ( PhD, RCOC Psychologist) came with a lady named  Iris Richard, (MD, RCOC Physician) , they brought us to a big room with a few toys.  William at first didn’t want to stay; he pulled my hand and dragged me to the door.  I led him back to the toys; then he started to play with the ball, climbed up the slide and touched other toys.  At first they just observed him and then asked me lots of questions about his behavior.

William is playing with Service Coordinator Thuy

Does he respond to his name? When did he started to crawl, walk and say first word? What words does he  know? Does he know if I’m upset? Does he follow simple commands? Does he like to look at the ceiling fan? does he ever get into a fight with other children? how does he eat?  Does he feel hurt when he falls? Does he like everything to be neat? The result of the hearing test? how does he like when getting a hair cut? etc.

No, William is now 3 years old but he doesn’t respond to his name at all.   Doesn’t matter who calls his name, he doesn’t show any sign of hearing it: doesn’t turn his head or look up or look at the direction where the voice is coming from; but he does respond to music and sounds from the TV or videos.  He’d spin in a circle so many times when he hears the music that he likes. He can only say Papa or Mama or count to 3.  That’s about it.  Lately he tries to repeat some of the sounds he hears from those Mickey mouse videos from YouTube.  He says it in a very soft voice.  He likes to close things; if he sees the oven knob covers are open, he’d close them.  If I close the lid of the Aquaphor bottle not too tight, he’d try to close it right.  He doesn’t seem to know how to use a toy; he has a Ride-on bike but he always turns it over and spins the wheels only.  Some times he does respond to some simple commands like Stop or Eat or Drink.  He does understand some of the basic activities like Shower, Brush Teeth. When I say these words he’d run to the bathroom.  When he wants something but we’d not give it to him, he’d cry, kick his legs and throw himself out on the floor; if we don’t catch him, he’d hit his head on the floor or the wall.  Haircut? last time we tried was 2 months ago. We put him on the high chair; he cried, kicked his legs and shook his head from left to right until we gave up and let him go.  The result is terrible!

Every time we go out to the mall or park, he’d just run around so fast that we have a hard time to keep up with him.  Times like this saying “Stop” doesn’t mean anything to him.  He’d run to and touch the things that he sees & likes.  He especially like the escalator and elevator.  He’d ride them so many time without being bored.  We’d be tired of the repetitiveness but he would not.

Toward the end of the session, Dr. Kyle said “He has Autism, classic case of Autism”. As soon as I heard that I burst into tears.  He asked “Didn’t that you already know?”.  “I was hoping to hear differently!” – I responded in tears.

I guess it’s time to stop being in denial!

 

Hsi Lai Temple – Xuân Đinh Dậu 2017

Year of the Rooster 2017

It was sprinkling but not too cold. Despite the rainy weather there was still lots of people going to the temple. It’s the year of the rooster so there was a big rooster inside the temple.

People were busy taking pictures with the nice decorations at the temple while William only liked to take the … elevator!  He went up and down, up and down and refused to leave.  He’d cry and kick his legs when we try to take him away from the elevator.  Tim was too tired watching him. By noon we decided to leave because it was impossible to enjoy the sight where the only place he wanted to be is to ride the elevator :).

Cousins Tracy & Danny & Aunt Julie Mom, Dad & William (3 years old)

 

Thanks God, Fever is Gone!

Yesterday afternoon when he came home from Children World preschool, he was not warm but he coughed more and felt nausea more.  So I gave him some DimeTapp.  Later at night I checked again, no fever, great!

When I picked him up from Mitchell school today, his temp felt normal but he continued to cough.  His daily report said he only had chocolate milk; no wonder when I gave him a sausage, he ate it (he refused to eat the sausage the last 2 days).

It’s a very windy and rainy day today, he felt asleep on the way to the Children World preschool; I wish I could take him home so that he can sleep on his comfortable bed but unfortunately I have to get back to work.

3rd Day Watching Fever Temp

last night, 11 PM, William still could not sleep.  I went to the kitchen to refill his milk and he followed me.  His forehead was warm to the touch so I measured his temp: 100.4; not bad but I was afraid that his temp would increase more while we are sleeping so I gave him Children Tylenol.  I took him back to bed shortly after that; he kept playing with his toys until I turned off the light.

5 AM, Tim asked if should he stay home again today; I touched William’s body and it was not warm any more so Tim went to work.

8 AM, I tried to dress William to take him to school, he let me put on his jacket but he looked sleepy.  He didn’t eat much last night so I gave him some milk, he only drank half of it and showed signs of nausea.

When I dropped him off at his classroom, he walked around looking fine; all my worries were gone.

Hopefully fever is gone!