I hate the word ACUTE

There is one word that I fear the most here in Beijing. And that dreaded word is ACUTE.

Why? Because, every time, both the kids fall sick and when we bring them to the hospital for treatments, this dreaded word will almost always appear in their diagnosis.

It seemed that everything that they were infected here were ACUTE.

Both kids enjoying some rare moments, playing together without fighting and quarreling. Ryan was pretending that he was on his high power motorcycle, bringing Chenya for a ride.

With winter kicking in recently and temperature plummeting from high 30's during summer to sub zeroes in winter coupled with strong chilling wind, the entire family has been under the weather for almost two weeks now.

Both the kids are back to school today after over two weeks of coughing, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, running nose and more coughing. Daddy and mommy were not spared either. Both of us were also done with fever, coughing and diarrhea.

At first, Chenya came down with diarrhea and was diagnosed as Rotavirus. Before she recovered, Ryan was down and while both were recovering, both mommy and daddy were infected. When both Ryan and Chenya finally recovered from their diarrhea, Chenya caught the flu bug and was down with fever. By then, Ryan came down with a nasty cough and fever. 

He was first diagnosed with ACUTE upper respiratory infection. By the second day of infection, his cough got worse and was `barking' like a seal at night, leaving everybody with very little sleep. We brought him to the hospital again and this round, we was diagnosed with ACUTE laryngotracheobronchitis or CROUP COUGH! We were warned that the virus is infectious and air borne. We were worried sick because the last thing we wanted was Chenya coming down with it, especially since she is only two. We had to split up the kids in separate bedrooms since just to make sure.

I just hope that the worst is over and that we could now get through the winter with less drama and hopefully enjoy our very first WHITE CHRISTMAS here in Beijing.

"Dashing through the snow, In a one-horse open sleigh...

O'er the fields we go, laughing ALL THE WAY! .."