Medical Care For Your Child

Hello! This is a very lengthy post k!

I was inspired to write this post after reading an medical article about child's health. I'm sure us mommies we want to give the best medical care to our children right? Just want to share with you my experiences with medical care for Khadeeja.

Initially, I had wanted to give birth to Khadeeja at a private hospital. Just because I wanted the luxury of having an individual room and receiving the kononnya kind treatment by the medical staff. I mean, we've all heard that some staff at the government hospital can be quite scary right? hehe. But after looking at the costs and everything, my husband and I decided that we should go to a public hospital instead. Lucky for me, I am entitled to stay in a first class ward. We chose Hospital Serdang as I was quite familiar with the place (my FIL used to be admitted there & I had a cousin who used to work there). Alhamdulillah, I stayed there for 4 days and there was nothing that I can complain about. The nurses and doctors were nice and the wards were comfortable. I couldn't get the individual room as it was fully occupied so I got the 4-beds ward. But it was nice and quiet as there were only 2 patients at the time.

During my confinement and post-natal check up, I had nurses from the Klinik Kesihatan Simpang Kuala (in Alor Setar) to come to the house and check on my baby and me. For Khadeeja 2nd and 3rd months' jab, we went to Klinik Kesihatan Taman Medan. After her 3rd jab, I could no longer tahan the crowded people and the long queue at the klinik I decided to go to my panel clinic for her following jabs.

After my confinement, Khadeeja had what seemed like extra meat falling out of her belly button. We went to our usual panel clinic to get her checked but the GP asked us to go to the hospital immediately. As we did not want to wait too long at the public hospital, we opted to go to KPJ Selangor instead. The paed consultant referred us to a paed surgeon. I was heck panic thinking my 2-months old is going to be cut out! At the same time, I tried to find out from the internet what could be my baby's problem. When we went to see the paed surgeon he immediately told us that she needs to be operated and it'll cost us RM6000. I was freaking out but for some reason, my maternal instinct was going against his decision so we said we'll come back later. By this time, my parents had made some calls to some doctors that we knew to ask for second, third, fourth opinions.

One morning, I told my husband to bring her to a nearby child specialist clinic (Dr. Liew, Taipan Subang). Just to see what the doctor had to say. While he was checking her up, he smiled and told us that this is nothing to worry about. The extra meat is called glaucoma and it should fall off after he ties it. That would take several days. When he mentioned the word glaucoma I told my husband "see? I knew it" as I had already done my research before. Total cost for the minor procedure? RM150. Lord save our pocket. Since then, we usually go to him whenever there are some 'special' kind of sickness. If it's just normal fever, we'll go to the usual panel clinic.

I knew I had to take an insurance plan for Khadeeja. Luckily, I have a relative who is a Prudential insurance agent. In case of emergency, I'll probably go straight to the government hospital but with an insurance at least I have an option. There was a time when Khadeeja had a high fever in the middle of the night. As her usual clinics were closed I decided to take her to a private hospital instead. We went to emergency unit at Sunway Medical Center. I'm quite fond of the place but the total bill is a bit sakit hehe. Things you do for your child kan?

To summarize, my advice to all parents would be:
1. Always get a second opinion.
2. You get what you pay for - if you want luxurious service, go to a well-established private hospital and pay for it. They'll suck your blood out of it. But if you go to a government hospital, you'll have to wait for a very long time to get treated, encountered some nice and not so nice staff, but in shaa Allah if your lucky, you'll get a very tip top medical service. I'm talking about doctors who are very detailed when doing their work.
3. Get an insurance plan - even if you're a government servant, there's no harm in getting an extra insurance plan. Even if you don't use it, at least it'll be a place where you can save your money.