for those of you who don't know, dengue is not contagious. you only get Dengue transmitted by several species of mosquito within the genus Aedes, principally A. aegypti. The virus has four different types; infection with one type usually gives lifelong immunity to that type, but only short-term immunity to the others. Subsequent infection with a different type increases the risk of severe complications. As there is no vaccine, prevention is sought by reducing the habitat and the number of mosquitoes and limiting exposure to bites.
when you are bitten by an Aedes Mosquito you will not know until you do a blood test. the symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. In a small proportion of cases the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs.
so now you know about dengue, let me tell you my experience of dengue.
you normally hear of other people or friend of a friend who gets dengue. but now....it started on the 4th of march when i went to do my hair at my usual place, THE MET. just the night before i was out till late for the redfm red beatz party...and i was fine. so i went for my hair appointment at 12pm and everything was good, i felt normal, just like any other day. i only started feeling weird when i did my last hair wash after the cut and colouring. i suddenly felt cold, i thought maybe it was from the cold water they had used on me. so i ignored it. then i began to feel a throbing headache which was really weird because i rarely get headaches. still that didn't get me thinking about anything but maybe i probably was gonna get sick, you know the kind that you get once every 2 years if not more.
when i was done at the met, i went home as early as i could because that night i had a birthday dinner for my sister with the family. by the time i got home, my headache got worse and i started feeling cold and my body was burning up. i had a bit of time before i got ready for dinner so my lil sister zana gave me panadol actifast and i took a quick nap hoping that all will go away. well, it kinda did, but i felt really tired and my eyes were swollen. despite all that, we had a wonderful dinner and we even sang with the band at hyatt saujana!
the next day i had a photoshoot with the met. but to my despair, my fever had gotten worst! i couldn't even drive! i decided to go to the clinic first to get myself checked and as soon as i walked into the doctor's room, she went "uh oh!". she did a the check up and she suspected it to be dengue but we can't be sure because we cant do a blood test. if we did it on that day itself it will appear as a "false positive". she gave me some meds and told me to go home straight and rest but of course i cant do that! i have to work and i had made commitments! so i went for the photoshoot instead feeling like poop!
i did my thing at the photoshoot and it lasted till about 3pm. thank goodness for the meds, i had the energy to work. the doctor gave me 2 days of medical leave and straight after i was done, i went to my sisters' house and stayed with her for 2 days. the fever i had lasted through out my medical leave and the doctor did say if i still felt the same or worse, i was to go and see her. so on the 3rd day i went to see the doctor and she quickly said "im writing a letter for you to do a blood test for dengue".
oh my bejeebers! i never felt so sick in my life! i quickly went to kjmc to do as the doctor instructed and BOOM! within an hour i was told i was dengue positive and they nurses quickly admitted me and started me on the drip. i didnt get to pack anything for my stay at the hospital!
the feeling was terrible! i was freezing my butt off in my room ( bed 328), i was banned from switching off the aircond because i needed to bring down my fever. the room was so cold that i couldn't get much sleep. everytime i switched the aircond off the nurses would turn it back on. sigh....
the doctor came every morning to check on me and blood was taken everday at 6am. day by day my platelet went down from 90 to 50 to the lowest was 30! the doctor made it sound like i was gonna die! he kept saying i needed to drink a lot of water. i mean i know that, but if my stomoch can't even take in food and water, what else can i do?! i was vomitting a lot, also because i cannot swallow pills! i have phobia for pills if you didn't already know. at first the nurses and doctor didn't believe me when i said everytime i take pills i will vommit! until they witnessed the whole ordeal! hahahahahahhaha take that! in your face! so they gave me syrup meds instead, like the ones for kids. they also gave me apetton for my apetite. i pity the sister who brought me food eveyday, because i didn't touch any of them!
the nurses at the kjmc were very kind. they really took very good care of me. they even helped press my nose when i take my meds so that i don't taste it as much. i was on the drip for 5 days and there was one day they had to double up on the drip because my platlet was too low.
i was told that when you get dengue, in order to help bring up the platlet, drinking banana leave juice/pink guava juice/crab soup will help. and so i actually drank the banana leave juice and it tasted like ass! (and no i have never tasted ass thank you very much!). and then when i found out about pink guava juice, i took that instead which tasted way better. i guess it did help because after drinking 2 bottles of pink guava juice, the doctor took my blood sample and slowly my platelet went up!
of course i was very happy coz that would mean, I CAN GO HOME!! i was getting so bored being stuck in the hospital. its like being in a jail...but a nice one though hehehehe.
7 days in the hospital and finally i was released. doctor gave 2 weeks worth of medical leave. he said after getting dengue, it takes a while for you to recover fully, mainly getting back your energy and feeling like your full self. lethargic is what you will feel. in fact i still feel it. im not allowed to exercise or do anything strenoues.....yet. BORING!
at the moment i still feel the after effect of dengue...sometime, after or even before work i'll get really tired. i can't wait till i can start doing sports and be myself again...
when i was in the hospital, i found out that 3 of my neighbours also was admitted for dengue!! everyone in my neighbourhood suspected it came from the construction thats happening in front of my house...
the neighbours i was talking about were the ones on the left and right of my house, and the other one was the road behind my house. our area was fogged every 2 days in fact just last week they did it again. man what an experience..we are very careful now to always make sure there's no clogging in the drain and that the area is clean. i hope no one else in my area gets dengue.
check out my souvenir!!
oh and here's my cat, boots saying hi!
alright then, that's my story of being dengue-fied. i hope you take care and make sure to check your house and area that there's no aedes mosquitoes!
love, me.
Thank god u r good now. hopefully tak ada dah kes denggi kat your place after this. Happy working with good health aft this yea... Take care! -Ila
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