Dengue is something I never thought I would ever get.
It was just a normal day, the day before. Met up with some friends and had a good day. My period was expected the next day so I was ready for a day of bed and ibuprofen.
I was definitely bed bound, but more than usual. I had a headache that wasn’t going away and I was feeling very nausious with a temperature. It was unusual because I was taking more and more paracetamol and it just wasn’t working. Painkillers always worked with my period pain. I was starting to think it could be something else. I remember that there was a clinic two minute walk from our resort, so I told my husband that I think I have to head there as what I was feeling was not normal. So we all got ready and headed to the clinic.
We went in and I was taken to the beds. After explaining my symptoms, they said they will take some blood to test. We waited for the doctor to come and explain what could be wrong. I told my husband to go home with our daughter as I was feeling dizzy and nausious. The doctor told me that it could be Dengue fever but the tests aren’t showing anything as it was too early to tell. So they put me on an IV to help with my nauseous and hydration. The doctor said I should stay over night but I wanted to be home. He said that will be fine and I need to come in, in the morning for blood tests.
The next morning I went in for blood tests and it was confirmed by having lower blood platelets that I had Dengue Fever. I thought it would just be a few days and I would be back to it, but that wasn’t the case. I was bed bound for the whole week.
I read that papaya leaves where really good for helping with dengue fever so I sent my husband out to find some. When he got back I had no way of getting the juice out of the leaves so I just ate a leaf. It tasted awful but I was willing to try it. I had some the next day as well and when I went for my blood tests, the platelets didn’t go lower. This was a good sign.
Over that week by platelets had gone down, up, down and then up again. Eventually I started feeling like I could start doing things. Our time was up at this resort and the last day at the resort was the last day I needed to go to the clinic for a blood test, the doctor was happy with my recovery. We decided to spend a week at a different resort as a treat. The room had its own private paddle pool that our daughter loved going in.
The only thing, is that the room didn’t have a kitchen so we had to go out for dinner. This was ok for a few days until one very late evening I woke up feeling extremely unwell. My temperature was high and I was extremely nauseous. After dry heaving in the toilet I was worried that it could have something to do with the dengue back. So I told my husband to ring the clinic and they sent a car to pick us up. My daughter was woken by all the commotion so we decided that we will all go to the clinic.
After the nurses looked at me and took my blood they realised that I had food poisoning. They put me on a IV gave me some sickness tablets and paracetamol for the pain. My husband and daughter left about 4am in the morning.
I managed to sleep but woke up with a massive headache. I still had low blood pressure. They kept me on IV during the day and but mostly wasn’t feeling too good. They told me I could go home later that day. For the rest of the week I was struggling to eat anything. We had buffet breakfast at the resort which I was so disappointed that I couldn’t take part in.
When the week was up at the resort, we had to do a drive up to krabi because the next day we would be heading to Kuala Lumpur to get our Thailand visas done. We shared a taxi with a friend. I had noticed that everytime we were walking, my stomach was in pain and I couldn’t walk fast. I was starting to get my appetite back as we found a western style coffee shop that did avocado on toast. By that point I couldn’t even look at another Thai curry. So seeing enjoying some western food was very good.
I was feeling nauseous and thought maybe I just over did it with the eating. Considering that passed two weeks I hadn’t eaten anything properly.
The next morning we had an early flight out to kuala Lumpur. I was taking the nauseous tablets that the doctor gave me and they were helping but I wasn’t feeling right. We got to Kuala Lumpur and finally in the flat. My husband mentioned I should go get checked out at the hospital. After a while I realised I should go, so I Googled the best hospital in KL (just incase) and got a taxi that way.
To be continued… in next weeks post.
