First the mother, then the daughter – just a week apart.

Spud fell ill towards the end of our short family getaway last weekend in Hua Hin. It was 2 days of fever and 2 lousy, miserable, sleepless nights. Her entire body was burning as her fever ran high. She had also been complaining of stomach ache, neck and shoulder ache and she was also breaking out with hives.

We then decided that it would be best to take her to the hospital to get her checked before our long drive home back to Bangkok.

The doctor who examined her was a little weird though. When we told him that we’ll follow-up any further diagnose back in Bangkok because we live there,   he started out by telling us that we should be aware that we were in an international hospital (we know!). He then pointedly told us that the hospital is not just a “local hospital” and that it is not only Bangkok that has the best hospitals (Huh!?).  He then re-iterated that all doctors, including him of course, are all very qualified practitioners who graduated from the States (Like I care! I’m glad for you that you have been the privileged one to get such an expensive education abroad) and has many, many years of experience dealing with children. He then continued on to tell us that he has 35 years of experience in his field (OK. Great then!)

He gave us this vibe that he is superior and IS the authority in our temporary relationship and we shouldn’t be questioning him.  I sense an edge of arrogance in his demeanor. But I wasn’t about to judge – I just wanted Spud to be checked out.

After examining Spud (he was quite thorough, so that was a good thing), he then suggested a few things for us to do. Half-listening, I heard him saying “orange juice” at the end of the sentence that was to be given to her. Just because I thought that we should refrain from giving her orange juice as it is acidic and, had only wanted to confirm if he thinks it is still OK for Spud to be consuming it because juice would have nothing to do with her illness, he then glared at me and then lashed out, “Do you think I’m stupid? I am not that stupid to advise that you should be giving her orange juice. It’s powdered orange flavoured electrolyte to hydrate her! Do YOU think that I don’t know what I’m doing?!”

His reaction surprised me – I was merely asking and he took to such offense that it makes me think that he could have some inferiority (or superiority depending on how you look at it) complex. As a matter of fact, I was quite taken aback! It was WTF moment for me. People can be so weird.

Spud was then required to take a blood sample, and so her veins had to be prodded for them to draw some blood. After half an hour of wait, the results from the blood test indicated that she had caught the Influenza B and some bacterial infection. She was given some meds and after spending almost half a day at the hospital with 50% of the time waiting around, we all could finally leave the hospital. At least our drive back to Bangkok was peaceful as both kids fell asleep for a good 2 and half hours moments when we drove off.

Despite feeling feverish though the day before the hospital visit, Spud showed us a side of her depicting of nothing but will when she first wanted to “just” put on her swim wear to join her grandparents at the poolside. She then insisted on going for a swim and was quite adamant that she wanted to give that a go. She didn’t last very long and came out after less than 3 minutes being in the pool. But she tried again twice more before she decided that,  that was enough. She came out each time shivering. If that is not sheer willpower, I don’t know what is.

The dip in the pool must have done her good – her fever had gone down in the evening and she was gamed to go out for dinner. She wasn’t quite a 100%, but had somewhat returned to her bubbly self for the entire evening.

The night, however, was terribly horrible for all of us as Spud went wailing away in discomfort as she got more feverish for the 2^nd night in a row.

She was a sorry sight; although her sheer will does say a lot about her personality.