Fevers, Surrealism, and Giants... Oh My!

I can finally breathe again. It wasn’t until Saturday morning that I realized I hadn’t really breathed all week. Dagny fell ill with what the doctor believed was scarlet fever—I’d already been worried (not overly so) in the days leading up to her appointment because her fever was steadily rising while her appetite and playfulness steadily diminished. But then to hear the doctor say the words “scarlet fever”… that’s when my lungs started only taking in very shallow amounts of air.

There is no worse feeling than having a very sick child—I know that now. For the past 18-months, I’d been blissfully unaware, living day to day with a daughter who only had a couple of runny noses (and those were due to teething, not being sick). So it wasn’t until last week that I had my first real dose of Frantic Mother With A Sick Child Syndrome—this is where a mom finds herself torn between two very ugly worlds… In the first, she is every pediatrician’s nightmare, jumping the gun and rushing her child to the hospital at the first sign of fever or discomfort. In the second, she is her own worst nightmare… the mom who is missing important signs and isn’t taking the right steps to make her child better. Roll that in with an inability to understand exactly what hurts on your baby, an inability to make her feel better with a kiss and some Tylenol, and an inability to get any sleep, and you’ve got yourself one bleary-eyed, emotional wreck of a woman.

Fortunately, the medical system here is AMAZING. When I called the doctor, they told me to bring Dags in right away… they knew I would be coming on the train or taxi, so they didn’t stress me out any further by assigning me an appointment time. They just said they would see me when I got there. And when I arrived, I only had (brace yourself) ONE medical information sheet to fill out! Dagny’s name, address, and a blank line to list any known allergies or medical conditions.

The doctor was incredibly kind and good with Dagny. On my way out the office, a prescription was already waiting at the counter for us, and the nurse even had her first dose of painkiller ready to go for the cab ride home. And this is perhaps my favorite part of all: they bill everything at once to the insurance company… prescription, tests, visit… all of it. I was speechless! A year after Dagny was born, the hospital was still billing me for items vaguely labeled “Miscellaneous Supplies.” The receptionist laughed when she saw my face, and said, “You must be from the United States. All Americans are amazed when they see how easy we make things here.” Umm… yes, easy is an understatement.

Actually, I take back what I just said… the billing system is my third favorite part of the medical system here. The first was that when I got home and filed Dagny’s report, I realized (looking at the clinic’s information) that they took me in after they were technically already closed for the evening. Maybe it was because they knew there was a scarlet fever outbreak on the island and Dags fit the bill. Or maybe they’re just that kind. And my second favorite thing about the clinics here: the doctor calls you with all test results within 24 hours!

The rest of the week wasn’t easy, especially with the remodeling that is STILL going on in the apartment above us. It’s been three weeks now, with the crews working all day, Monday through Saturday. The apartments are only 1000-square feet… do the math, and you’ll understand my frustration, which turned into Frantic Mother outrage when the workers kept waking my poor, feverish daughter up from her naps by jackhammering marble. One time was actually kind of funny… she woke up Thursday afternoon shrieking and I went in her room to find her standing in her crib with a If-Looks-Could-Kill scowl on her face, expressing her anger in her adorable Dagny babble while pointing at the ceiling… with her middle finger. That’s my girl.

But by Saturday, Dagny’s antibiotic had kicked in and she was starting to feel better. By lunchtime, she had rolled her stroller to the front door, climbed in with her sippy cup, and was shouting “Go, go, go!” We’ve been living like Rapunzel in her 14-story tower all week. I quickly second her demands to Brad. We collectively decide 48 hours on the antibiotic is probably good enough—we aren’t going to further infect an already-infected island—and we head out for the afternoon.

Brad and I want to keep her in air conditioning, so we decided to visit the Art & Science Museum in Marina Bay. Soooo cool… and only one stop away on the MRT.

The Marina Bay Merlion. He may be smaller than the one on Sentosa Island, but this guy shoots water. Pretty cool.

Military ships practicing for National Day.

Marina Bay.

The Art & Science Museum. It was designed to resemble a lotus flower.

Brad and our little trooper crossing the bridge over Marina Bay.

Not every place is stroller-friendly. We actually do this quite a bit... go muscles!

We visited two and a half exhibits while we were there. The first was the one I’d really been dying to see: Salvador Dali. I’d seen an exhibit of his at the Cleveland Museum of Art several years earlier, but this one was totally different. The one in Cleveland highlighted the paintings he created during the Spanish Civil War, while the ones here in Singapore dealt more with his contemplations on sex and religion. What an exhibit to take a kid to, right? Actually, Dagny LOVED it—sure, Dali paints some pretty lurid and nightmarish pictures, but he also uses a lot of bright, vivid colors. I’m guessing that’s what held Dagny’s attention. If not, I should probably think about getting her in to see a child psychologist and resign from the 2011 Mother Of The Year contest.

The fam in front of an interactive, melting-clock-turned-melting-human exhibit in the Dali gallery. No flashes were allowed, but take my word for it... we looked pretty hot. Dagny thought it was hilarious. With her already-huge head, she looked like a float from the Macy's Parade.

The second exhibit we went to was called Shipwrecked. About ten years ago, divers discovered a sunken ship off the coast of Singapore filled with ancient Chinese money, gold, and pottery from the Tang dynasty. Dagny loved this exhibit, too, because the entire gallery was designed to make it look and feel like we were under water. We even let her out of her stroller, and she was so good! She held her daddy’s hand the whole way through and babbled our ears off while pointing at all the treasure.

The half an exhibit we walked through was Van Gogh—not any of his original art, but a tech-savvy audiovisual tour. I’m not a fan of Impressionist art, and we didn’t want to keep Dags out too long on her first day back, so we cut that one short.

Dagny running through the museum plaza. I would love to know what she's thinking when she's waddle-running around, looking down at her feet and laughing hysterically.

Everything since then has been pretty low key. Brad is in Taiwan all week… sent me this picture of his dinner last night. It’s called hairy crab, and although he said it wasn’t great, it was definitely better than the sea urchin and duck liver he had for lunch.

Today is one of those rare days where there is a nice breeze coming off the water. The sky is a gorgeous, cobalt blue, and full of pillowy, swiftly moving clouds—so our peninsula jumps back and forth between sun and shade every few minutes. Dagny and I took advantage of the slightly cooler, more bearable weather this morning to play outside. It was also nice to soak up the relative silence, since for the past eleven days, we had been dealing with an invasion of netballers.

One of the things I enjoy here is watching sports that aren’t played back in the US. Badminton and table tennis are totally entertaining, and though I don’t understand cricket, it’s still fun to watch. I think rugby may be my new favorite… it makes American football look girly by comparison. Plus, the game I watched was between Australia and New Zealand, which is apparently the international equivalent of Ohio State versus Michigan. It was intense!

But women’s netball… uggh. It reminds me of one of the games our high school gym teachers used to make up, like angle ball or boku ball. Actually, it’s almost exactly like angle ball. Despite being the lamest sport I’ve ever seen played, it draws one of the most wild—and annoying—crowds I’ve ever been around in my life. It really was an invasion, and since the tournament took place in the soccer stadium across the river from us, we were pretty much right in the heart of it all for eleven days.

I have no idea who won the championship, but have come up with my own set of awards for the participating countries:

1.  Most Obnoxious On A Subway: NEW ZEALAND

2.  Most Likely To Ignore All Posted Signage: JAMAICA

3.  Most Likely To Receive Sponsorship From Sherwin Williams For Ample Use Of Body Paint:

     SOUTH AFRICA

4.  Most Likely To Run Into A Stroller Or Cause An Accident Because They Are Too Preoccupied

     With Their Wigs And Capes: NORTHERN IRELAND

5.  Most Likely To Keep Singing And Chanting Long After A Match Is Over—And Usually In A

     Crowded Place: AUSTRALIA

6.  Most Freakishly Tall Women I’ve Ever Seen In My Life: ENGLAND

Thank you for visiting, players and fans. Here’s hoping the world netball championships only take place every four years, like the Olympics.

Bye bye, everyone! Or as my buddy Kai Lan says, Zaijian!