Oh Rotavirus...

As I was reading one of my friend's entry in her blog, Nuurill, regarding a Rotavirus, I felt compelled to write bout how I come to know this virus, how dangerous it is and how much I feared it!! huhuhu..

This virus first attack my family was in early 2007, when Afeef was only 2 years ++ old. Afeef memang la mangsa pertama, where he got it from at that time, I had no idea...

At the time, I stayed with my mak, abah, younger sister who was on a semester break and my elder sister who was working. Hubby stayed in Kuantan, coz I was still studying (in the middle of Final Year Project), so me and hubby stayed separately and therefore hubby wasn't around to witness it all...

The first symptom Afeef showed was vomiting, in the middle of the night... how bizarre, when I think of it, why symptoms of Rotavirus infections often occurs at night?

Anyway, He didn't have it bad, no fever, just vomiting and diarrhea. And since he didn't have any fever, doc said it was nothing serious.. but the worst part was 2 days after that... when Afeef had fully recovered (it took him only two days), the virus had somehow found its other host, me, my younger sister and my mother... Symptoms occurred for us all at about the same time. My mom had it a bit earlier perhaps because she's an old woman, but hers was really really bad, and me and my younger sister had it at bout midnight. All of us had it at the same time because we were the ones handling Afeef's poops and vomits. We had no idea bout this virus at the time so we didn't thoroughly washed our hands immediately after handling his poops and vomits.

Luckily, my elder sister wasn't affected, so she took us all to the hospital, where mom and me had to be admitted. Even when we were finally able to go home, we were all too weak to do anything, everyone just collapsed, and later, my elder sister was infected by the virus as well huhu..

That was the first incident, it didn't take long before the second one stikes, just a week before Afeef's third birthday, he had the virus in him again.. this time he had it really bad... he was down with high fever, severe vomiting and diarrhea, until he had to be put on a drip. That took him 1 whole week to have fully recovered, and I was about 7 months pregnant at the time, so just imagine how scared I was if I were to be infected again. I hardly even used my hands whenever I eat !!!

This is his 3rd birthday party, hehe nak celebrate jugak tuh !! hahaha, coz dah invite kawan2, so celebrate jugak walaupun Afeef x bermaya.. nampak tu, lemah, cengkung sangat..

After that terrible infection, I always took extra precaution, always made sure that he washed his hands thoroughly after every meal, I guess that helped a lot, we've had no encounter with the virus again until about a year ago..

This 3rd attack, I must say was the worst one !! It happened on the day when our flight was due to depart for Deutschland. I was almost 6 months pregnant with Aleena, and I was the 1st victim !!

It started very early in the morning, after Subuh and our flight was due to depart at 12pm midnight if I'm not mistaken.. I had severe diarrhea as well as vomiting until I had to be admitted, was extremely weak probably because I was pregnant..

While I was in the hospital room, I was quite sure that I was not gonna be able to come with hubby to Deutschland..

Surprisingly, after being put on a drip, at about 3pm, I felt much better though still weak. So, I told the doctor that I'm going home, that I had a flight to catch, and after arguing several times, the doctor gave in and let me go home... Fortunately, when I got home at about 6pm, everything was ready, hubby packed everything up, oh thank God, so all I had to do just gather myself together and get ready, though I felt like I badly need some sleep... I told myself that I culd sleep later inside the airplane (yeah rite...).

We flew with MAS, direct from Malaysia to Deutschland, 12 hours journey.

But, things don't always turned out the way we want them to be... ***sigh*** Everything was so smooth in the beginning, until at about 2 am in the morning when both kids had fallen asleep... Afeef suddenly threw up while asleep.. I felt a stab of fear, oh God!! please don't let that be anything serious, I wanted so much to believe that he threw up because of his 1st flight experience... but, what I feared so much happened... he kept vomiting, his clothes was all drenched with his own vomits, and it wasn't just that, Fatini started to get really restless too, and nak dukung je, and since I was pregnant, papa had to carry her around, and then things got worst when she started to puke on hubby's clothes... huhu the whole place smelled really really bad.. It didn't stop there, while Afeef was still weak and continue to puke, and Fatini was all restless and crying, papa's tummy suddenly started to flip, pulak dah... hubby pun muntah and diarrhea.. oh no, at that time, we still had 9 hours left before we were due to reach Frankfurt airport. 9 hours !!! What are we going to do ??!!! With Afeef being so sick, Fatini whining and papa was so dizzy still had to carry Fatini around.. How I felt at the time??? Helpless... that's the exact word to describe how I was feeling... I just prayed over and over again throughout the journey,

"Ya Allah, let everything be all right.."

"Don't let anything bad happen to my kids..."

All I did, I forced Afeef to drink as much as possible even though he'd vomited after every meal or drink, I didn't care, he had to !! That was the only way to keep him hydrated.. we still had hours of journey, and there were no doctors, clinics, drips etc etc.. We just had to rely on ourselves and Allah SWT.

It was such a huge relief when we finally reached Frankfurt airport, though we had left such a huge mess behind, and I felt sorry for whomever had to cleaned it up... huhu...

It was 6.30am in the morning, (Local time in Deutschland). The first thing we did was cleaned ourselves up, changed clothes, solat Subuh and continue our journey, a few train rides until finally we reached Kaiserslautern. Fuuuuhhhh... The supposedly awesome trip turned out to be a disaster.. Nevertheless, I thank God for everyone was ok, though Afeef was really weak, but he made it eventually. He did vomit a few more times, inside the train station, inside the train, but he was strong enough to make it.. the key is always always give your kids plenty of water whenever this happen.

Just last year, a friend of mine lost her 5 year old daughter because of Rotavirus infection. She wasn't around when her daughter suffered the symptoms, she had to work and left her daughter with the baby sitter, and no one wuld really care for your child like you and your family members wuld rite?

Rotavirus infection is so common among children, but yet, it is a life threatening disease and highly contagious. So, Beware !!