Yes I am one of the suay ones. It was a Monday and as usual I did my morning exercises at 5am+ and proceeded to prepare breakfast. Kor Kor had to go to school earlier that day and everything went well though we had to rush a little.
But by noon I was totally flat. Couldn’t finish my lunch. Soon I texted Hubby to ask him to come home earlier. That was the start of my five days in bed. I had zero appetite and was puking even when I had not eaten anything. I was feeling terribly achy but not sure whether it was due to the morning exercise or the illness. Bad, bad headache and fever that hovered around 40 deg C despite taking Panadol every four hours. Was also shivering with cold even with a jacket and blanket and no aircon.
The next day the diarrhoea started. In the afternoon Hubby brought me to the GP and a quick blood test confirmed it was dengue. No surprise actually, as my neighbourhood had more than 20 cases by then. (It’s up to 40 now!!)
Was given medicine for the symptoms but they didn’t really help much. The only improvement was my fever went down to around 38.
Day 5. I still had not eaten much for the past five days. The puking had stopped, thankfully. But the lack of appetite made me feel very weak and I could barely walk. Hubby decided to bring me to Changi General Hospital A&E.
After a blood test and checkup, the doctor decided to admit me as there were signs of liver inflammation (caused by the dengue). Once I was put on a drip, my fever went away!
The next day was a Saturday. Hubby brought the kids to visit me in the morning and again in the afternoon. But by evening, I was soooooo bored. Actually there wasn’t much the doctors could do other than monitor my platelets level and liver condition… And my platelets were on the rise by then and I had numerous bags of drip inside me so I was feeling much better. The diarrhoea had stopped and though my appetite wasn’t completely back, I ate a lot for lunch cos the fish porridge was yummy! (Sadly, dinner was much anticipated but not tasty enough to recall my iffy appetite.) So I requested to be discharged when the consultant came in the morning. He said I would have to sign an agreement to discharged against advice. OK, as long as I could go home!
We reached home on Sunday afternoon. I still felt sooooo weak for the next few days, and I really felt dismayed that perhaps I would never feel strong again… Managed to do some housework but could not do much or for long… But the house was really too dirty!! Forced myself to wash the toilets the next day haha.
Very thankful to Hubby and parents-in-law for taking care of the children when I was sick. He stayed home most of the time and when he had to go to work for a few hours, he sent the kids over to his parents. Frankly speaking, I did zero for the kids for the five days I was sick at home, lying in bed feverish all the time…
After I came back from hospital, Hubby brought me out for yummy food everyday. We had Korean ginseng chicken soup two days in a row! Appetite was not 100% yet but at least I was able to make myself eat. By the second Friday, I felt fully recovered, yay! (But still, 12 days of being sick……. Boooooo)
One good thing from my dengue though…. I lost almost 4kg that week… At first I thought it was water loss or whatever and surely I would gain back the weight from the second week’s bingeing, I mean, recuperation. But I only gained back 2kg, so hey, suddenly I hit my target weight of 50kg haha! Really…… I worked so hard to lose 2kg…. running… dieting…. And I ended up losing more kgs just by doing nothing in fewer days….. That’s life…. Oh well.
Now, I am just very thankful for being and feeling healthy and strong!!
Stay At Home Mum of Three 