I just got out of hospital last night.
In my 22 years of life, I have always been a healthy person except for that one time when I was 5 years old where I had bacteria on my lungs and I had to take medicines for it because my mom didn’t want me to be hospitalised. I thanked God for all the years that I was healthy but last week was just awful for me.
May 2nd: I was already feeling a little bit under the weather when I went to class that morning. I have an 8 am and a 12 pm and after both classes, I took care of a makeup booth at my campus where I get paid daily for how many hours I manage to work that day. I finished work at 5 pm and by then I was just so sick and wanted to get home asap so I got home, took off my clothes, put on my robe and slept until 7.45 pm. Around 8.30 pm I went to see my friends for dinner but I still had my appetite and I managed to finish my food. Before going home, I bought Panadol ActiFast hoping that I would feel better by tomorrow.
May 3rd: I felt awful. Super, super awful. Headache was killing me, my entire body was aching, and I was burning hot. I couldn’t even get out of bed and when I did, I felt like the world was spinning around and disoriented. I only got out of bed to take a shower and the rest of the time I spent sleeping on my bed. Around 3 pm, I felt a little bit better and the owner of a restaurant I always hang out at called me asking me to help her with something and in return she’ll cook tomyam for me since I was sick. I went there but the thing was, I didn’t manage to finish my food at all and I knew there was something wrong with me because I will always finish my food even when I’m sick. I didn’t think much of it, went home and continued sleeping. At night, my roommate bought me McDonald’s porridge and Kool Fever but my condition has gotten worse at night. I wasn’t comfortable to sleep, the cough was bad, and my roommates told me that I grunted in my sleep. I was probably in a lot of pain even in my sleep.
May 4th: I woke up a quarter before 6 feeling just as awful as last night. I took a shower to cool down my body temperature and hoped that it would somehow subdue the headache. My roommates forced me to go to clinic but my hard-headed self wouldn’t go for it. I was like, nope NOPEnope. But come noon I was just done. That’s it. I texted my parents both at the same time telling them that I wanted to go home and they said they’d pick me up at night. So they did. We were reaching home and I felt so hungry as the last meal I had was 5 spoons of my roommate’s fried rice that I had at 12 pm. So I told my mom can we stop by McDonald’s because I really wanted some nuggets and she said to get porridge instead and I was in no power to argue so I agreed and 15 seconds later, I felt like I was going to pass out. My eyes were closing and I said “mama, kakak nak pengsan” and I heard my parents calling me but I couldn’t respond at all. I heard them, I wanted to say something back to them but my brain was just shutting down. I was aware of what’s happening but I didn’t have the energy to react and respond. So my parents rushed me to emergency, obvs. I was suspected for dengue and the first thing they did was taking my blood. I haven’t had any experience with needles for years and years and getting prodded with needle once every hour was not cool!
May 5th: I had to be admitted as a dengue case (although I didn’t have dengue) but the doctors were just being thorough. The next two days at the hospital was not fun at all. They put two cannulas on my left and right hand, left one is for IV drip and the right one is for taking blood. They took my blood every 6 hours, checked my temperature, blood pressure and everything every goddamned time. By morning my fever was mysteriously gone but I was still under supervision because not every dengue case should have a prolonged fever. The doctor said I could go home tomorrow depending on my platelet count as I was being KIV for 24 hours. Yay.
May 6th: In the morning, a different doctor told me that I was being KIV for 48 hours instead which means that I could only go home today. I was furious beyond words! My doctor changed and suddenly now I could not go home today? Are you kidding me? I was #SoDone with staying at the hospital and I could not wait to go home and sleep in my bed. Around 3 pm, my doctor said that I could go home IF AND ONLY IF my upcoming blood test result was as good as previous one. Long story short, after a lot of tantrum and asking the nurses if they could call my doctor to see if I’m fit enough to be discharged, I reached home at 10 pm last night! Huuuuurzah.
Now, have I completely recovered from my sickness? To be honest, no. I don’t have fever anymore, thank god, but you know you feel all sorts of giddiness and disorientation during the recovery process so I’m going through that right now. I still can’t taste food properly and my appetite is still off, I have migraines the whole day because the sun was too bright today that I have to wear sunglasses at home, and I’m still coughing every 5 minutes but at least I’m homeeeeeeeeee.
