I HAVE DENGUE FEVER…. MY STORY TO HELP OTHERS
What to expect if it happens to you. I wish I had known when I got it….
I was finally diagnosed yesterday with Dengue Fever. Thank you to everyone who sent me a message by email or via Facebook.
Dengue is one of the most painful virus that you can get. Your feet and hands are on fire, you cannot stop scratching like if you are possessed, your legs and arms are electrified, your liver is being attacked and the high-fever crashes your bones.
Only thing to do is to check you red blood cell count everyday so that you don;t bleed internally, take Panadol and drink lots of water. Amen, nothing else you can do to survive… Singapore has an outbreak of Dengue Fever right now. Be careful….
Symptoms:
it started with a huge back pain….then the tremendous fever and body ache. When the fever goes away you get a couple of days of respite, but this is actually the more worrisome stage when your blood vessels become weak and you need to watch carefully for signs that the dengue will become Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (e.g. severe bruising, going into shock). Most people develop some kind of rash after the brief break. I had a rash on my hands, arms, and feet. My legs, especially my calves, developed a really nasty red rash that looked like tons of really tiny bruises. I was all by myself in my hotel in Paris airport, transiting between the South of France and Singapore), and I was horrified and all alone.
And then during the night, a new form of torture sets in with the rash: it itches and the tingling in your extremities is getting you crazy!!! Especially my hands and feet were itchy, although they did not appeared to have as much of a rash on them. It feels like ants are crawling all over my hands and feet and biting me. It’s not an itch that you can ignore and eventually it will pass; the more I ignore it the more it physically hurts. I had two nights without sleep because of the itchiness.
There’s no vaccine for dengue and no specific treatment. Taking Paracetamol helped me a lot with the muscle pain (do not take ibuprofen or aspirin – these pain killers can cause complications if you have the hemorrhagic form of dengue!). And I try to drink as many fluids as I can, which helped with the fever and is also supposed to be good for the rash and itchiness. But the vomiting was making it hard to stay hydrated. I ran cold water on my hands and feet as much I could. If you have hemorrhagic dengue you need to get to a hospital quickly so they can give you fluid replacement therapy and keep an eye on your red blood cells count.
After your first bout with dengue you’re pretty resistant to getting infected with that strain again, but if you are infected with a different strain you have a higher risk of developing hemorrhagic dengue. Best to avoid multiple rounds of dengue!
