Dengue Fever

Dengue fever.

The worst fever I've ever experienced.

I always tell my family and friends that I'm afraid of dengue fever. I wish I won't have to experience it even once in my whole life. I've heard and read about the treatment for dengue fever and I just don't want to go through it. Not at all.

I had intensive course at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for 3 weeks roughly from January 21 until February 7. Full with classes and examinations. Struggling and for sure it was stressful. I went for the classes and yes sat for 3 exams. 6 papers altogether but I just managed to finished 3.

On Thursday (January 31), after a class in the morning. I went to Kapitan for lunch and I ate 2 pieces of garlic naan with Mutton Josh Rogan (I'm not sure about the spelling). Then, I went home and felt so warm. Guess it was because of the mutton (but the doctor said that mutton is a good meat). I slept. Rested before the next class, so that I could wake up fresh and ready to absorb more.

When I woke up, I couldn't walk straight. I felt so dizzy and my body was so warm. Way too warm for a normal human being temperature. I rested on the sofa for few minutes before I walked to the shower room to get ready for the class. I grabbed my sweater and put it in my bag. Just in case. I thought.

When I reached USM, I started to feel cold. Stayed in the class for about half an hour was really difficult. I kept shivering and my friend who was beside me Kus, asked me to see the doctor right away. I didn't insist to stay. 

I went to my company panel clinic which was located near USM for a check up. I couldn't stand the aircond in the clinic and waited for my turn outside. Too bad, so many patients were waited for their turn too. 

Then, it was my turn. After almost an hour waited.

The doctor told me that I got fever. Yes, that's all. Gave me antibiotics, paracetamols and cough fever. Grabbed it and went home.

I started to feel so dizzy. I took the medicines and slept, with hope that I'll be ok the next day.

Wrong guess.

It got worse from yesterday. I couldn't even walk. Bed ridden. Yes, the correct word to be used. What I did were only eat a little bit and swallow those pills and cough syrup. Then continue to sleep. I repeated the same action until Saturday (February 2) and I woke up in the morning ate 2 slices of bread then took my medicines. I felt like I need to go to toilet but then, when I stood from the chair, I just couldn't stand still and I just let my body collapsed on bed. I called Keith to take me to Klinik Bersatu. I wanted an injection as he told me before he got fever and after an injection he was ok. We went there and met Dr Wei. One of the best doctors I'd say. I told him about the symptoms and he asked me to stand and put my feet close together. Hand at the side close to body. Closed my eyes. Bad... I was almost fell. He put me on the chair again and told me that I might get dengue fever!

I was speechless. The worse fever I got, and it's one of the dengue fever symptoms.

I gave sign to Keith so that he would ask the doctor to just give me an injection so that my fever could just go away and I could get ready for my exam on Monday. The doctor didn't want to. By doing so, he might make my platelet drop lower and cause bleeding. He wrote a letter for me to be referred to the hospital. I chose Pantai Hospital because it was the nearest.

I went to the hospital and when the doctor attended me, as I expected, they suspected dengue fever. Drip and took my blood for a test. After an hour or so, the nurse told me in the ward I was infected by dengue positive. Nothing in my mind but...

DAMN!!!

On Monday morning I started to email, text and call lecturers to inform them about I couldn't sit for the exams and do the presentation. I was pretty sad because I knew it will cost me some extra work to sit for the exam alone, writing letter and show some prove about it and do presentation alone. Some friends might think it's a good way, but putting yourself in my shoes would be not as what you think.

My platelet on the first day was 144. 129 on second day. 133 on third day. 99 on the fourth day. Scary isn't it? When it reached 99, the nurse and the doctor started to advise me not to do anything that could cause bleeding as it will be difficult to stop. By the way, now a new policy that the needle for putting the medicines or water should be replaced every 3 days. Duh! Painful.

That night, I started to drink guava juice and eat sea-shell. A lot.

The next morning the took my blood sample again as usual. I prayed that the platelet will be increase. In the afternoon, the nurse told me that it has increased to... 100. Ok, I should be thankful of course. But seriously, I was frustrated with the hard work to eat as much sea-shell I could and the guava juice; 99 to 100 was way too little. Sigh.

Mom and sister kept trying harder. Cooked for me spinach. I ate that too...

But the next day, doctor told me that I can be discharged. My platelet was 110. The normal measurement should be between 150 to 450. I didn't feel good about being discharged with low platelet but I guess the doctor knows better.

Since I was discharged until now, I still feel dizzy. I'm not sure whether it is because of my low blood pressure or low platelet count. I'm not sure.

I still try to eat food that will increase my blood count as much as possible. I need to recover quick. I want my life back to normal.

and...

THANK GOD I AM STILL ALIVE.