I say, ignorance is not a virtue.
Last last weekend, the family and I went to Sunway University to retrieve information on their Pre-U programmes for Jane, also to get ourselves completely amazed by their buildings after their monumental facelift. After that, I went to Pastorale to get my diploma certificate and the invitation to Trinity College London's diploma conferment ceremony on Merdeka day! It was great to be able to tittle-tattle with all of them there who watched me grow since the age of five, who I call my family. Halfway through, I had this familiar tingle on my eyes and with a casual look at my reflection, I just went like, oh, it's swollen.
And I thought I was allergic to Sunway University's carpet, because it did happen to me a few times when I visited places that are carpeted. I was then wronged.
On the same day, I had a high fever that almost went up to 39.0 degree celcius. All the energy that I had had right before the swell happened evaporated out of the blue and I could only sleep while I shivered hysterically under my blanket, thinking the weather was freezing cold when it was blazing hot. Besides, my whole body was aching so badly like another intensive yoga class just ended.
Daddy brought me to a clinic nearby because he got worried as a result of my rising body temperature. The doctor only concluded that it was a typical allergy to a certain kind of food, but I was sure of my intake of food on that day, and the days before that. I concluded hypothetically that it wasn't an allergy to food, unless it was another missing puzzle piece that I have yet to discover.
Later that night, Jane and Mummy couldn't stop talking about the red spots on my face that seemed to be out of the norm. As I've recently changed my usual SeiBella's facial products to Celmonze's, I thought it just needed some time to adapt to the change. However, the next day during my lunch with Daddy, we noticed red spots on my legs that definitely looked like rashes that didn't itch and without hesitation, my father knew it was dengue.
I went to Sunway Medical Centre for a blood test and Daddy was right. It really was dengue.
I was hospitalized just like any other dengue patients. When I was younger, I actually wondered how it would be like to be hospitalized, but being in the situation in reality could be really petrifying. I was put on a drip before being shifted from the wheelchair to the bed. I was never afraid of needles. I grow up visioning injections as ant bites, but the needle I saw with my very own eyes when the nurse had to insert an IV into my hand was a whole different story. To sum it up, IT FREAKING HURT LIKE HELL.
The moment I was moved into the room, I was taught how to disconnect the drip from the plug whenever I had to go to the loo. The nurse also gave me a urinal container that had my name on it, saying it was a mandatory sample they needed from my first pee in the hospital. The container was the normal cylindrical kind that made it pretty impossible for me to pee into it. I did mention that I was on my period, but I suppose it slipped off her mind. And one interesting fact, there was a urinal pan in the toilet with my name on it where my urine had to be kept each time for the nurse to measure, haha, but weird.
As I said, I was on my period. Second day, to be precise. The whole keep-your-first-urine-in-the-container thing caught me completely flummoxed. It took me a long time to figure out how and of course, it was BLOODY RED. I did wonder if the nurses would ever feel as disgusted as I felt, but they should be pretty used to it, no?
When I handed it to the nurse, I was half embarrassed and she said, "Oh yea I forgot you're on your period!", and she threw the container away in a spur of moment... That, THAT, took me FOREVER, but it ended up in the trash can instead of the laboratory. URGH MUCH? Apparently they didn't need the sample because menstruation would only result in inaccuracy on the end-result.
My first night there was not to mention, the worst night I've ever had in my life. As I've mentioned earlier, the rashes didn't itch at all. But well, it didn't stay the way it was. The rashes, being a total nuisance, made me stay up until 3am, wide awake, while I was thinking of ripping off the monstrous hand drip that had to make me refrain myself from scratching my hand. Things only got worse. The rashes on my legs started itching as well, attacking my sole all at once. You know that feeling when your sole gets a mosquito bite? Yeah, multiply that by one hundred, or more.
At 4am, I couldn't take it anymore and I figured I should tell the nurse about it. She gave me this Calamine Lotion that was supposed to soothe nappy rashes, but unfortunately, it didn't work on me. I got VERY irritated and the nurse had to call my doctor to ask for help. Immediately, I was given a pill to wean myself off.
My sleep was distracted every night. The nurse would come to tell me to pee, or that they had to test my blood pressure and body temperature, or that it was time for me to take in medicines. Speaking of medicines, doctors in hospitals actually don't encourage us to take in any traditional medicines because it might affect the outcome, but when you're infected by the dengue virus, the whole world turns to you and say, "DRINK PAPAYA LEAF JUICE!".
Daddy made me drink papaya leaf juice twice every day and it tasted AWFUL. It also made me defecate green faeces....
Meals in the hospital were pretty terrible. But on a side note, I barely had appetite at all, so it wasn't all that bad. Mummy and Daddy also brought me better food every night, but when you have no appetite, there's nothing you can do about it even if the food looked superbly enticing.
There was nothing much I could do in the hospital. I couldn't even make myself read a single page of the novels that I brought alongside. My eyes and brain didn't allow it. But with the TV occasionally showing some nice TVB dramas and reality shows, and some nice movies like Soul Surfer and Shrek, it made my irritations a whole lot better.
I suppose I am considered a lucky dengue patient with my platelet count lowest at 80 before it started rising back up when some people's was a single digit number! My liver count (I don't know if it's really called like so) rocketed to 600 when it was supposed to be only 50 at most, indicating that it was so swollen that I would have a high chance of another round of high fever if I was discharged. Thus, no matter how much I implored to be discharged, I had no choice but to stay.
Home. I thought to myself. Home.
And SHOWER. And, oh, do you know that dengue patients are not allowed to brush their teeth until their platelet counts go back up to at least 150?
All in all, my 5D4N stay in Sunway Medical Centre was very much taken care of by the nurses and Doctor Siti. People always say, being a nurse is one of the noblest things one can ever do. I didn't know how true it was until I witnessed their routines, absolutely bona fide.
Health outweighs everything. I finally got a chance to get a taste of it, but never would I want another chance like this again.
1 comment:
What a fighter! Hope you'll take care of yourself better from now on. Wonder how does the papaya leaf juice taste like though... ahahah
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