The monday before last was yet another normal day at office for me. But towards late evening everything went topsy turvy. It started with a bad bout of vomiting and then was followed by a very high fever. By midnight I was running close to 104 degrees temperature and was delirious. After that I went through the full torture of being a dengue patient for almost two weeks. I am back at work but still feeling the tiredness of the fever.
It looks as if dengue as such does not have a specific treatment, as is the case with most viral diseases. In addition to the temperatures I could not eat or drink much because of extreme intestinal discomforts. Thankfully my parents were home and they made sure that my fluid intake was high. In spite of being able to drink only a few gulps every time I was drinking like close to 15 glasses of liquid everyday.
I was taking paracetamol tablets to keep my temperatures down but it was mostly of no effect. 1g of paracetamol every 6 hours barely brought down the temperatures to around 102 degrees for a couple of hours and it would shoot back up again. The fever ran for 5 days and then the second phase of the dengue fever stepped in. The platelet count dropped like a rock from 270000 to 85000 in two days and then I was hospitalized.
The funny part was that by the time I was hospitalized my fever had subsided. This is supposedly a danger with dengue cases and especially when people fail to identify the case as dengue. The danger of platelet count dropping dangerously low and the potential of internal haemorrhage. There is also a danger of a relapse of the disease. When dengue hits the lower sections of the society these two dangers could make the disease fatal. My platelet counts came back to normal after 3 days of hospitalization and I came back home last wednesday.
My daily routines have been completely reversed after the fever, not by compulsion but because of sheer tiredness. I have been drinking bucketfuls of water everyday since coming back from the hospital as instructed by the doctor. I have also been asked to not over strain and to take rest for at least another 2-3 weeks. I don't think I needed too much coaxing to agree to that restriction.
Our health minister would soon have me as a number on her desk as yet another dengue patient in Trivandrum City. The main reason for diseases like dengue spreading is because of the unclean environments that we have around us that help mosquitoes breed. Campaigns like 'Tidycity' are very relevant in this context as they are the solutions to building awareness among the general public about the necessity of keeping our environment clean.
I missed the last two tidycity campaigns because of the fever and it is likely that I will miss another couple. Ironically I fell ill a day after the last campaign that I attended. But dengue fever has an incubation period of 3-14 days so the clean up campaign was not when I got infected.
I had left my phone switched off for the last two weeks and I am sure that quite a few of my friends are still baffled at the lack of connectivity at my end. This post should clarify any pending doubts in their minds.
Take rest for half day and sleep for other half.. :) We want you back in full health !!! I was wondering what happened to you . Now another reason to work hard for tidycity.
Half a day is too long for rest. 1/3 is my routine :-). Yes longing to get back in action again.
It does take a while to regain the full strength and vitality. Don't strain yourself by deluding yourself that you are well, just because it looks like that externally. Take care.
True very true. I am yet to gain my strength after the sickness. The disease is very tiring and I think I have lost quite a lot of weight. Thanks for the wishes. I will keep your advice in mind.
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