Cough

The last few days Kaia has been battling an ever increasing cough, which has been rough enough to disrupt his sleep and, naturally, indiapapa’s as well. I was monitoring its progression and today, when the hack had been joined by a runny nose, I decided to take him to a doctor. While some of indiapapa’s most devoted readers might recall a post about Dr. Sanjon John written just over one year ago, it is amazing how things have changed in that time. If you take the time to read that post and feel the anxiety of indiapapa’s first visit to an Indian clinic, you would be surprised that the same person confidently marched into a new Apollo Center (both new for us and new in the ‘brand spanking new building’ sense) to visit a new doctor—Dr. Latha—who was recommended second hand as a good pediatrician. The main attraction for us was that she was not a hour’s drive away on the other side of Chennai, but actually very close to Kids Central, nearly 1/3 of the distance from our place. We didn’t have many expectations, but any that we did were remarkably exceeded as she was really great. While Dr. John’s clinic has a bit of a rural, Spartan feel to it, this new Apollo medical center comes with all of the trimmings of any clinic that one might see in the US or Japan—all the way down to the children’s play area stocked with the most popular icons from the Cartoon Network. Anyway, more than the clinic itself, was the way that Dr. Latha made us all feel very comfortable, especially Kaia. And while she did make the minor mistake of offering him a play mask (we all know how much our little guys hates clowns and masks), her friendly disposition allowed her to perform the kind of routine tests that she needed to perform without any protests from Kaia. The photo to the left is of two of the very sweet nurses who were helping us.

The final verdict was a cold that had descended into the lungs, but was not likely an infection. She prescribed some medications and within a few days the cough was gone and our little champ was back to doing what he does best—laughing, dancing and keeping us alert at all times.

Why I Love this Time: The challenge of getting him to drink his medicines—and Joyce’s “lion/bear/mouse” eating and drinking game with him.