Today is the last day of April and I am so over this month. March wasn’t pleasant and April is even worst. You know why? I was bitten by the Aedes mosquito and contracted dengue fever.
How It All Started
It all started 2 Wednesdays ago. All of a sudden, I felt so tired and my back ached like nobody’s business. I thought it was due to the heatiness in my body because I did not drink enough water. In the middle of the night, the fever came and I had the chills and the whole body was aching. Next morning, I felt as if I was run over by a bus. My head was heavy and my eyes were swollen. Went to the clinic and was given Paracetamol and a day off.
I still did not realize the I had dengue. Next morning, I went to the doctor’s again and got another day off. The doctor told me that if I still have fever on Saturday, I should go straight to the hospital and take a blood test to rule out dengue. So come Saturday, the fever was still around and hubs drove me to Assunta Hospital to take a blood test. Result came back positive. What a bummer! I was still feverish and the whole body was in pain. My platelet count was 200 on Saturday which was still pretty high so the doctor told me to go home and come back the next day to take another blood test.
Admission To The Hospital
On Sunday my platelet count dropped to 140 and doctor asked me to admit to the hospital for monitoring and put on drip. That was the beginning of the nightmare. Let me just say that nothing can prepare you for the pain you would experience when you have dengue fever. My body aching so much, the fever never subside eventhough I have taken my meds and I cannot even sleep. I just did not know what to feel inside me. I had zero appetite and didn’t eat for 7 days. I would rather go through childbirth than to go through a dengue fever. It is that bad! I have my blood taken twice/thrice a day to monitor the platelet count. The fever finally went away on Day 7 since I started fever. Then the rash broke out on my legs. I was in the hospital for 5 days. The lowest platelet count I had was 67 before it swing right up again.
Dengue Fever Remedies
Friends and family members advised me to drink the juice of the papaya leaves which my husband managed to find and blended it for me to drink. I had 500ml of raw papaya leave juice on Day 5. It was a real horrid drink. I even bought a bottle of papaya leave extract tablets from Carings Pharmacy but my doctor advised me against that. She said she doesn’t know if any other things are added to the extracts so I better not take them. She’s afraid that they may affect my platelet count since they are made from herbs.
Honestly, I really don’t think that the papaya leave juice, raw or tablet form is going to help a dengue patient because according to the information I read and also from the doctor and nurses, the dengue fever takes 7 days. The most crucial time is from Day 4 to Day 6 where the platelet count will dip to very low. Then on Day 7, the platelet count will go up again. Nothing is going to make the platelet go up from Day 4 to Day 6 except water. We have to keep ourselves hydrated. The fever will go away on Day 7 and the platelet count will go up again, slowly but surely.
Getting Well Again
Today I am still on sick leave and will go back to work on 2nd May. I Thank God that I am recuperating well although I am still out of breath when I walk too long. It takes around 2 weeks to heal and perhaps a month or so to regain my strength to before. I am getting more paranoid about mosquitoes at home and have been spraying the house every morning, afternoon and late evening. My new best friend is the mosquito repellent spray.
