A Kiss by Mosquito

September going to end soon! Hmm… I did not blog for nearly a month! What makes me so busy? Spring cleaning? Travelling? Nah...

Actually I was kissed by a mosquito, Aedes. Yes, I had dengue fever!

I did not know when and where I get the mosquito bite. But the symptoms started on 04/09/2014. I remembered that was a pleasant Thursday morning. I had great time with my bestie Min opening our happy mail from Mei Li Paperie and chit-chatting. Suddenly, I felt dizzy and hard to breath. Min noticed that too. Slowly, I got better but I felt something very wrong in my body but I could not tell exactly what was wrong. Later, Min sent me and Baby Hang to my office. After she went off, I straight away collapsed. My back and joints very pain. Then, I started feeling cold. I refused to seek for doctor because I afraid of being hospitalized.

The pain did not go away after I rested for two days. I was very tired. I kept sleeping and sleeping but actually I couldn’t sleep well. I suspected I had dengue fever. Furthermore, may be I skipped my meals, I had gastric that caused me nausea. I vomited once but no frequent vomiting. I just could not eat and drink. Only then I was willing to seek for doctor.

I was verified having Dengue Fever after a blood test. I was allowed to opt for home care as my level of blood platelets still okay. All I needed to do was to do blood test daily, had adequate rest and most important drink plenty of fluids. (Drinking plain water is inadequate.)

Now, the problem was I could not drink that much of fluids because of the nausea. I tried my very best to drink some watermelon juice, bitter gout and apple juice, isotonic juice and so forth but still not enough. I was dehydrated.

After 3 days of home care, my body temperature was back to normal, no more fever. No more back and joints pain. However, I was required to admit hospital in the middle of the night, right after 2^nd blood test of the day because my level of blood platelets kept dropping and I was dehydrated. I was on drip.

With the drip and some medication to relief my gastric and stomach wind, I was able to eat and drink on the next day. I could finish a bowl of kuey teow soup! Can you imagine how happy I was? I kept drinking lots of liquids such as barley, warm water, Milo, juices including papaya leaves juice.

A rash described as "islands of white in a sea of red" occurs in the second night of the stay in hospital (7th days of symptoms). Oh my, the rash made me feel so uncomfortable. Even the clothes slightly in touch with the skin, the ‘pain’ would irritate you and make you incredibly uncomfortable. You would rather stay still. Later, the rash made me feel so itchy but I could not scratch them. Oh I should say I not manage to do that because the itchiness was from inside, not from the skin!

Okay. Let's see some nice things. Here's the view from the window of the room I stayed. 

Well, I was discharged after staying for 3 days.

On 18/09/2013, doctor confirmed that I was fully recovered from Dengue Fever. I was so happy to hear that! Not because of my recovery (I believed that I will definitely survived and win this battle) but NO MORE HORRIBLE BLOOD TEST! Hahaha...

Because of the kiss of mosquito, I missed my precious time with my kids and family; I missed the chance to celebrate and play lantern with my kids during the Mid Autumn Festival; I missed the Penang Adventist Hospital breastfeeding event; We cancelled our trip to KL; We missed friend's birthday party etc. Oh, I missed my crafty corner so much!!!

Another thing that I must share is I still continue to breastfeed my Baby Hang although I had Dengue Fever. I never stop breastfeed him from the day I fall sick. I knew lots of people will stop breastfeeding when they have Dengue Fever but not for me. I was dehydrated but I still continue to feed. Doctors said it is alright to feed if I feel comfortable with. Tell you what, I engorged during my stay in hospital. Can you believe that? It’s true! I had to call my Hubby and bring Baby Hang to ‘rescue’ me. In the middle of the night, I had to stay up and hand express out some breast milk.  To me, it was another great experience and achievement.

Last but not least, I really want to thank my parents and Hubby so much for helping me taking good care of my 2 kids when I was sick. They have to work and at the same time they have to take care of my active and playful boys. Thank You! (Sob.. Sob… my mom fall sick after that because she was lack of rest.)

That’s all for the story about the kiss of the mosquito. This is the reason why I’m kinda disconnected for the past few weeks. No blogging, no facebooking, no instagraming, no emailing … Now I slowly replying messages and emails. I will definitely reply your messages, just that it will take some time as they will be sent by 'snail'…Hahaha!