My Sick Diary

It's been a very long time since I blogged here. 16 days! Sixteen good long days. And yes as the title suggests, I was sick. Thankfully not for the entire sixteen days. But I'm gonna list out and write the entire "timeline" of my sick days. Something I don't want to repeat again! Some keywords to begin my timeline: Migraine, fever, and dengue. Yes I just got dengue this week.

So on the 17th of August, which is Indonesia's independence day (happy birthday Indonesia!), I actually went to Surabaya with my sister and her husband. We were staying from the 17th to the 20th. I was feeling terrific on the 17th and 18th. Nothing's wrong, I ate as per normal and so on. However, things started to go spiraling down from the 19th onwards. Until a few days back!

In the morning of the 19th when I woke up, I was feeling very cold. It wasn't fever, just feeling really cold somehow. Maybe it's because I hadn't eaten my breakfast yet. So I went to grab a bite, it was a chocolate croissant and well after having it, I was actually feeling better! I was no longer feeling cold and so I thought it was really just because of the fact that I had not eaten breakfast.

It was 9 AM and we were heading back to the hotel. We decided to have breakfast at the hotel and.... I started to feel cold again and I was also having nausea and a slight headache. I went back to my room after breakfast to lie down for a while and I fell asleep. At 11 AM, I was woken up by a phone call from my sister and I was actually down with a fever and a severe migraine. So I told her I wouldn't be joining her but I would just take a rest in my room. I decided to sleep again, thinking I'll get better.

I woke up at 1 PM and my fever was getting worst. And my migraine was so bad that I couldn't move at all. Any slight movement made by my head and it felt like someone was kicking my head from the inside. Or it felt like someone was hitting nails from the outside of my head. I was feeling horribly helpless. Thankfully, my dad's friend is a Surabaya local and he called me. He told me I sounded really confused and sick so he went to the hotel to have a look at my condition. 

As you know, I am allergic to paracetamol and ibuprofen. So there was nothing I can have to relieve my headache and fever. He gave me some drugs and I actually felt better! We waited till 5 PM to see if my condition will improve or not but... My fever didn't subside and so did my migraine. He told me if I wanna go home the next day, I would need to be put on an IV drip. I want to go home. So I did.

I went to his clinic to be put on an IV drip. After 2 hours, I was feeling alive again haha. It felt like my fever got washed off by the IV liquid. Well I did pee a lot so that explains. After that he took my sister and I for supper and sent us off at the airport. I am so ever thankful for his help. I seriously didn't know what to do if he wasn't in town or something. I think I'll just panic and send myself to the hospital hah.

Okay so the next day we returned back home. We took a flight from Surabaya to Bandung and everything was great. I wasn't having fever or migraines anymore. Things started to go wrong again during lunch. I started feeling cold again, and the headache returned. After doing a bit of shopping in Bandung, we drove back to my hometown. It was one of the most horrible drive home. Cause I was having fever, sore throat and a pretty annoying headache that made me feel light-headed.

Once I reached home, I took a bath and went to quickly lie down on my bed. I couldn't take it anymore. And for the next few days, that's what I was doing. Curling my body on my bed as I was having fever, headache and nausea. I was also having stomachache. The funny thing is the stomachache only happened when I straightened my body. That's why I curled my body all the time.

I was feeling like this until on Saturday night, my father asked me to get my blood checked. So on Sunday morning, I did a blood test and the result came as... DENGUE! My platelet count was 72.000 (minimum count is 150.000). I was also positive for the dengue virus so... Yes. And once again I was put on home care where I was put on IV drip once again! Hah. Dengue meant that I had to do blood test everyday. So yep that's what I did everyday from Sunday till Thursday hah.

Here's a highlight of my awesome platelet count:

- Sunday morning: 72.000

- Monday morning: 56.000

- Monday evening: 62.000 (I was feeling super hopeful here, cause my fever is gone!)

- Tuesday morning: 56.000 (My hope was crushed :O)

- Wednesday morning: 66.000

- Thursday morning: 106.000 :D

So I was off IV drip on Thursday afternoon. So happy to be off the IV drip really. We have a lot of traditional beliefs here to increase the platelet count. I was drinking this boiled angkak (some sort of Chinese herb that tastes horrible hahaha) and guava juice. Well believe it or not, they kinda worked! We should do a scientific research regarding this. We can save lives baby! 

But yes so now you know why I didn't blog for so long. Anyway I am feeling much better today. No fever no headache, no nausea and stuff. I am still drinking guava juice cause I have another blood test on Monday to see if my platelet level has returned back to normal. But I'm pretty hopeful! They say that once the virus is gone in your body, your platelet count is just going to shoot back to normal. But if you still have the virus, well yes it's going to take pretty long. Gotta stay hydrated and get enough rest!

As weird as this may sound, getting this dengue fever for the first time made me feel awed by my own body. I think it is an amazing piece of machine/work of art. All these waiting for my platelet count to increase, the thought that I was having cytokine storm (high temperature, heart and breathing rate, and blood pressure), and all the little things that reminded me of my immunology lessons, just made me feel amazed by the human body. It is indeed the greatest doctor ever alive on earth!

Oh well, I'm so ever glad to be alive and well now haha. I feel tiny to think how a tiny virus can put me on my bed for days. Something you can't see with your eyes! So yes the next time you meet people who think only of themselves, and who think hugely of themselves, remind them that a tiny virus can kill them haha. Thank you my little dengue virus for teaching me about patience, and to also increase my immunity haha. They say once you're infected with a strain (there are 4 I think) of dengue virus, you'll gain immunity for that strain! How awesome is that. But I don't want to repeat the whole process really.

Alright that's all for now! Seems like I'm going to have little posts for August. But I have a few things I wanna blog about so... See you soon again! :)