About a Bout of Toddler Vomitting

Warning: Long post but worth the read : )

There is a reason why the police like to interrogate people right after a crime or incident. This is because as time goes you forget details and things seem a little fuzzy or you want to talk about it but you lack the strength or you just don't know where to start. Of course, I always knew this but what happened a few days ago reminded me of the fact.

On Tuesday, my soon to be 3 year old daughter had diarrhea. Her poop was extremely and I mean extremely watery. She had it twice and the next day in the evening her poop was normal. *sigh of relief. Then, suddenly at 10p.m. she vomitted. And after an hour she vomitted again. And after that she vomitted every half an hour. So, here we are in a first time situation of such a nature and we find ourselves not in a place where you can find a clinic or hospital at almost every end. We are in Sandakan, Sabah where there is only ONE hospital. A government hospital with a classy name; The Duchess of Kent. They do have a new building and children who are admitted are warded in the new building. The rest of the hospital is very much like other Malaysian government hospitals.

Right, so after the first time she vomitted we went to a clinic nearby (we know the Dr and his clinic is opened till 12pm), Klinik Dr Mahen.(See end of post for details) At that time she had just vomitted once and was still looking okay. Dr. Mahen gave us some medicine to be taken orally to help stop the vomitting. Alas, Cupcake couldn't even drink water so she also vomitted out the med.

So about 1.20a.m. we went to the only available hospital at that time; The Duchess of Kent Hospital Emergency Unit. First, you have to register your kid and pay RM1. Then, they give you a number. Ours was 232. The number on the screen was 162. ???? Huh? Okay so there must be a system of some sort that we were unaware of. One family brought in their elderly mom. She had already seen the Dr. There was another lady. That's it. A few minutes after taking our number, they called us to take Cupcake's weight, gave her ORS (Oral Rehydration Salts) and asked us questions about her condition.

Once that was done we waited and waited and waited. There were 2 Medical Officers on duty. How long can it take, right. Maybe they were taking a break?

After about an hour, an ambulance arrived and 2 teenage girls were brought in. They had been in a minor car accident. I heard they rammed into a concrete pillar or wall or something. One had slight scratches on her arms and feet. The other had a wound under her right chin. Then, I noticed a board with a notice that said if your condition was critical you would have to wait erm..I can't remember how long and semi critical you have to wait..err I forgot again *smile sheepishly. Well, I do remember that if your condition is not critical you have to wait for 90minutes to 120minutes which was what we were doing. There was another mom who came in later with a child who had fever and she went in first.

Right, fast forward.....  My hubby prayed for our little girl. For the next half and hour thank God she took the ORS water and did not vomit.  Finally, we got to see the doctor. He wanted to put her on drips but we asked if it was possible to wait and see as she had seemed to have stopped vomitting. So, we hung around and Praise God our daughter was fine. What a relief..  The doctor checked her again (no other patients were around) and gave us the green light to go home. They gave us more ORS sachets.

When we reached the hotel room at 4.30 I started to feel queasy and 2 hours later my  diarrhea and vomitting started! Oh yes, earlier when I had asked the Dr if it could be food poisoning, he was adamant that that never happens in Sandakan. I asked him if it could be stomach flu and he laughed derogatively at me looking at me like I was speaking gibberish and said, "Stomach flu? Ha,ha,ha. What's that?" (Another laugh squezees through) and he says, " I've never heard of that. There's no such thing". Gives me a queer look.

Gosh...


Klinik Dr Mahen
Ground Floor, Lot 10, Block I, Prima Square, Mile 4, North Road, 90000 Sandakan, Sabah
Tel: 089 218273
Monday - Sunday including Public Holidays
8am - 12.30pm
2pm - 4pm
7pm - 12am