Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Dengue Fever: What I learned from it?

Hi folks,

Wonder anyone is bored of me keep telling about my dengue ordeal, but I thought it's good to share it and document it so that I remember the lessons learnt.

Honestly, before this I knew little about dengue except it was caused by mosquito bite(of certain species; of the black and white-legged mozzies) that carries the virus. The only symptom I knew then was your bone will ache.

Little did I knew these:
  1. Some will have red itchy rashes on their skin ( I still have it on my legs, it shows that it has not fully gone...).
  2. Some would experience severe vomitting (like me).
  3. Some or most would experience bleeding (I had menses-like bleeding lasted 6 days after my original menses ends 5 days earlier; reason being the wall of the uterus has not recovered and hit by the virus....). Thus, when I discharged, the warning Doctor gave me was, take care not to fall or cut yourself, to avoid bleeding as the platelet level has not returned. So the bleeding would take longer time to heal. If you really bleeds(according to the nurse), hold the wound for longer time to stop the bleeding; that is what I did when the nurse took out the needle and tools which served to hold the drip for 6 days and the bleeding wouldn't stop. Really scary. For the first time of my life, I knew and witness myself how useful and crucial platelet function as part of our body. [Add-on: No brushing teeth, just gargle as brushing might cause your gum to bleed during this time]
  4. Some would have diarrhea.
  5. Fever. I did not know I was 39.5 degree Celsius and once reaching 40, I only felt very hot.
  6. Some severe cases would need blood transfusion.
  7. Some would die from the complication if they have previous/hidden illness or their organs are weak.
  8. It takes one month to fully feel normal again and 6 months for the body to get rid of the virus.
Ok, here are the few new things I learned from dengue....anything to add/ask?

Have a healthy and happy days folks! Laughter is the Best medicine...when I had dengue and find my spirits going low, reading and chatting with friends helped!

Cheers!


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