Bitten

So - since we are missing the outdoors we have chosen to play in Ayala Triangle Park.  It's really the only piece of real greenery by our temporary housing.  I let Max run around and have fun....in the grass.  BIG mistake.  When we came home I gave him a bath and he started screaming.

For Max screaming is not uncommon.  As an example: our driver Sammy calls Max an actor because he screams/cries and then a second later he is fine.  Well, this screaming did not stop.  I notice that he was hopping around a little and it looked like his um........penis was a bit red and the area around it was inflammed.  I wasn't really sure what to do so I decided to dry him off and go from there.  The poor little guy was in such a state.  You could tell that he was really in pain and his ummm.....penis seemed to be a little bigger than it was a moment ago.

I knew that there was a doctor in our apartment complex because she was seeing a friend of mine at 6pm (it's nice that the doctors do house calls here).  So, I called down to the front desk and asked them to send the doctor up immediately.  The doctor took a look at him and diagnosed it as a diaper rash.  Really???  A diaper rash.  I don't think so.  I told the doctor (or should I say quack) that she needed to leave so that I could take my son to the hospital.

Of course it took awhile for us to get there.  I had to call the driver and have him come to the apartment which walking distance is 10 min but to drive in traffic it takes 30.  Then we had to get to the hospital which took another 45 min.  My greatest fear here is that I will have to get to the hospital quickly.  I don't see how it would happen unless you were in a helicopter.

We arrive at St. Lukes.  The doctor on duty said to me that it appears that he has a blood clot at the top of his penis.  That there has been some sort of a trauma.  Trauma??  Blood clot???  What the hell is she talking about???  One lady (another doctor) was there and mentioned that it could be a bug bite.  The trauma/blood clot lady rolled her eyes and then started grilling me about his whereabouts that day.  Was I SURE that he didn't fall.  Lady, I said, I don't even have a yaya.  My son is with me 24/7  I would know if he had fallen and hurt himself.  The doctor called a specialist that said if Max didn't have any trouble urinating that we should go home and that we could come back in the morning.  We took off Max's diapers so that they could do a urine sample and we saw that his ummmm....penis was even bigger.  The poor thing...it was like a balloon.  So they called the specialist and insisted that he come in.  In the meantime trauma, blood clot lady was talking about possible blood diseases, etc, etc and I start to cry.    Luckily, the specialist arrives, shines a light on Max's penis, and confirms that he had indeed been bitten.  You could actually see the wound.

Long story short is that he was bitten but by what, we don't know.  So much for Max playing in the grass.  He had to stay for 2 nights at St. Lukes.  It took 2 days for the swelling to go down.
I wish that I would of taken some pictures of his um......penis but I really wouldn't been able to post them anywhere and it just didn't seem right for me to take pictures while he was in pain.  Of course I couldn't resist taking some pictures of him in his cute little hospital nightgown.

Max regressed a bit with the pacifier but honestly I didn't care.  I just wanted him to get better.

 We had to wrap him up so that he didn't pull out his IV

 A basic, standard room at St. Lukes.  Somehow I just didn't feel it was necessary for the delux suite.

 The Cage

 Max with one of the nurses

Max and Me in the Zen garden.  I needed some Zen that's for sure.

Some crazy Filipino art work on the walls.

St Lukes is a really nice hospital.  So nice that I felt like I was in Miami instead of Manila.  And can someone tell me why 90% of the doctors looked like models??  Gorgeous, amazingly dressed, Asian models.  It was bizarre. As I didn't feel frumpy enough after 2 nights at a hospital I had to ride in the elevator with models posing as doctors.  We had to pay the doctor fee in cash (another bizarre thing) which amounted to 16,000 pesos.  That is a whopping 355 chf/usd.    Our total bill came to be about 800 chf/usd  for 2 nights in the nicest hospital around, including the visits by the doctor and the pediatrician, and all of the medication.  Amazing.

I am happy to report that Max is now doing fine and his penis is back to normal!  ;)