Here is how a tiny mosquito can threaten your very own existence in this lovely planet! Why did god create them? or were these particular viruses man made?
March last week : I was at TVM for a function - Sid's "nercha garudan thookam". Its was at a temple at my moms place, adoor. I remember feeling exhausted by the hot and humid climate. I associated the body ache to carrying sid around for too long and the climate change between bangalore and TVM.
Two days later working from Technopark, i just could not sit at my desk as i was shivering away. I logged off and went to the dorm where the ac was too much for me. I called up dad and asked him to take me to doctor.
This physician is someone dad had been taking me to since childhood. He said that it might be a viral fever and that i should take rest. He gave me injections , medicines for a week. A couple of antibiotics, some fluids and couple of days later i was better and i went back to Bangalore.
April 10th -20th.
I felt feverish on and off. Gave blood tests at manipal and they test it for malaria. But the reports were negative. What i felt is the same as before - easily exhausted, feverish, severe body pain , lack of appetite, stomach upsets.
I consulted two different doctors there and both repeated and asserted that i take rest since i am getting repeated viral fever infections. I was then literally surviving on fluids, drinking juice, skipping dinner. I could just not stand the sight of rice.
April 21st
I woke up with severe fever and body ache. I was supposed to leave to trivandrum the very next day. I took leave from work and told raj's mom that i wanted to sleep for some more time. Its almost noon when i woke up and since i had not eaten anything she forced me to eat some rice and rasam. Before even i could finish five spoons, i threw up the whole thing. Raj's father accompanied me to manipal once again and they said it is the lack of rest that is causing the viral to persist. They prescribe some blood tests once again which i dint take that day.
By evening i felt better and decided to go ahead with the travel. Travelling with Sid alone is not easy; since Rajiv is already left for singapore. Luckily for me , dad is flying to TVM the same day in the same flight from kolkata via bangalore. thanks to indigo. I only had to have the energy to make it to the flight with Sid. I gathered all my strength and the thought of going home itself probably pepped me up.
April 22
Waking up early morning at 5, i was neither tired nor exhausted. Fever was also down. Sid was a good boy at airport and without much running around i boarded flight. Both of us slept. I remember dad asking me if i was not well. I told him about the viral symptoms which had not left. Once i reached home, dad and mom insisted that i give the blood sample for the tests prescribed at manipal @ kims the very same day. So in the afternoon we went to the wellness centre near my place and give the sample for tests. The report was expected the next day. Meanwhile, the body ache and lack of appetite showed up again.
April 23, Sunday
It was Aditi's, bhagya's daughter, "choroonu" at a temple , at TVM itself. It's a ceremony i would not miss at any cost, though i still felt tired and exhausted. I told parents to take care of Sid completely from then on and just sat down at the temple auditorium watching things go on. I dint even have the energy to go inside the sanctum sanctorium. After lunch we collected the blood reports. One of my cousins asks me what my platelet count is shown as. And from the report, its quiet normal, within the range prescribed. He suggested that i show the report to doctor at KIMS anyways. Then he narrated his experience- of Dengue. I showed least interest in heading back for another hospital visit. He left after advising me to drink lot of water.
Sunday Night.
I could hardly sleep. I was awake almost the whole night and was constantly up drinking water. More than ten or fifteen times.
April 24, Monday
I woke up with Sid's wake up cooes. But I could hardly open my eyes. I assumed it was the lack of sleep that left me feeling as if i had drunk 10 vodka bottles. Or may the "anamayakki" version of toddy? :)
Did i drink vodka instead of water through the night?- I wondered. For the first time in that month i wanted to drink tea. Mom made the loveliest and tastiest breakfast i had for i dont know how long. That morning i ate well and drank almost three cups of tea. I told my parents i felt as i if i had take some drugs and that i had not slept well, so i wanted to sleep more. Mom and dad looked worried and suggested we should go to doc immediately. I insisted that i was only sleep deprived. I went to sleep and then....the hallucinations started coming in. The first one was a thailand trip. Lots and lots of people. A market place. Chinese pots.... Then there was too much purple paint flowing. Red and Green slowly started spreading into the purple......What a beautiful mix of colors.
I woke up to mom's call asking me to get ready to go to hospital. I was irked , one for waking me up from the wonderful dreams i was having, second for having to go and see a doc for the same old problem. However, i got ready , even before my parents did and then...I got into the car and slept....
Kims, April 24 Monday 11.00 am probably.
It is only in bits and pieces that i remember. I opened my eyes to read the Kims sign. Sleep. Daddy was asking if i could hear him and if I would be able to walk.
I managed to drag myself into the wheelchair that was waiting for me , since how long i dont know.
Emergency - The nurse asked me what i was feeling. I asked her to give me a bed, to sleep.
Emergency ward, Kims, April 24- from here on i dont have track of time or dates correctly.
Mom is at my side. I am on a stretcher. Hah!!! finally they gave me a bed. Good. I sleepily gaze around and see its around 1.30. I asked mom if Sid was fed lunch. She refuses to leave my side. I told her i would be fine and okay and i would live to see my 25th anniversary with Raj!! I told her this was how i consoled myself when i felt fearful. She still refuses to leave. I dont remember how but when i woke up next damodaran uncle is there. He tells me that I am strong girl and i should not be afraid and that i will be okay. I replied that i am fine , only sleepy.
Once again when i wake up , Manu chetans father in law is there and repeats similar things. I ask where Sid is. I am worried if he will feel uncomfortable not seeing me and seeing a lot of new people around him. He assures me that Sid was playing and was perfectly fine.
Three days later i learned that lot of my cousins had visited and i had spoken to them lying in that stretcher. One of them fed me lunch, which again i have no memory of.
Midnight (April 25)
There has been too many world tours - in my dreams. I woke up to a dark room. I wanted to go to loo, but somewhere my hand is stuck. Sid was sleeping blissfully next to me. Mom was there too in the next bed. I pulled out the wire that was holding me back and went to restroom. Sleepily i tried to look around and get some sense.Oh!!! I had been shifted to the ward and it was a decent looking room. Then i spotted blood stains on the floor tiles, tracing that i saw blood flowing down from my left forearm. I suddenly remember that i had been given IV and that i had just pulled out the tube from it. I closed the IV duct myself , woke mom up and asked her to call the nurse to clean the room. I crashed on her bed and slept off again
ICU.,
I wake up and find that i have shifted to ICU. It was actually the nurse who woke me up to ask what i would have for dinner. I noticed a big blue box on the IV in the left arm and the regular fluids on the right. When i asked i got to know the left one was for restoring potassium levels. I also remember ordering cut fruits and pineapple juice for dinner. That is d only meal i remember eating ever since i went to KIMS on monday.
In between these two days sometime or the other i also have vague memory of speaking to Rajiv over phone and getting glimpses of Siddu here and there.
Once in the ICU i suddenly woke up and asked the nurse where siddu went. She gave a confused look and i clarified that he was there just a couple of minutes back playing with me and he ran into the adjacent room. She asked me to take some more water and go back to sleep.
I dont know how, but i knew Rajiv was coming to see me. And when i came out of ICU i was glad to see the two guys happily cuddling on the bed in my room in ward.
I learned that i was diagnosed of Dengue. I was semi conscious for three days and was blabbering all the time in my sleep. The platelet count which normally is 150 thousand and more in blood, was down to 19000. The low blood pressure, sodium and potassium caused the semi consciousness.
I dont remember being in a mosquito prominent area. No idea how i caught the nasty disease. But i will not forget this one week at KIMS for a long time. There was regular monitoring of platelet count; which meant my veins were being pierced two times a day. After the 4th day they found difficulty finding veins and they had to change the IV connect from my hand elsewhere. There was no other option, so i let them connect it to the main vein to the left leg. Horrifying pierces for the next two days with nurses digging up with needles and getting stuck midway without finding a vein! Finally only the experts would come to collect the sample.
The hallucinations reduced and so did my sleep time. I started recollecting my dreams. Some were very vivid and detailed, that i narrated it to all.
Once the platelet induce was done, within hours the count began to stabilize again going up steadily. It was a relief. But the check for the count was more painful each time.
Sid was such a wonderfully good boy who understood something was wrong with me and stuck to my parents company. He was happy visiting me twice a day. Rajiv stayed on till saturday and i felt a little low when he left.
I rested at home for another two weeks and it took almost more than a month and half to get back to my normal state. I had lost couple of kilos and still looked tired and exhausted all the time through that time. I should thank a lot of people- cousins , relatives, family friends....GOD. I feel truly blessed.
Now at singapore , i when i sit and watch the disease spread, taking a lot of lives , esp of young children, i wish and want to do something to raise awareness.
There are two forms of the disease -- dengue and a more severe version by some clinical name. The symptoms of both are similar but it is in the second one where one slips semi consciousness and sometimes into shock. If not treated at proper time, it is a killer.
Dengue is caused by a mosquito breed named a.aegypti. It begins with sudden fever of 100-105 four to five days after the infection. There would be fatigue, lack of appetite, body ache, joint pain, nausea, vomiting, loose stool etc. It needs immediate medical attention. Clinically it is tested by checking the complete blood count to monitor platelet count. There are three specific blood tests for dengue and the culture takes four to seven days to confirm.
People who are reading this, please please please...take care from the new vampires and stay away from the dangerous bite. Do your bit to keep your surroundings clean and mosquito free. Take care.
