The Story of my Life

I got bitten. Yes, you read it right. I got bitten by some dirty mosquito which caused me a week in St. Luke's.

I was in Manila the entire Holy Week. Went out a couple of times for coffee and badminton. But for the most part, I was just at home watching my DVDs and binging on whatever I can grab from the fridge. It was a quiet weekend, uneventful and reflective. On Sunday, I heard mass and went straight back to my DVDs. But at around 10pm, I began to chill and my head began throbbing. My temperature was 39.

As a child, I was never sickly. My illnesses vary from colds and cough and mild fever, nothing serious that required confinement. So now that I'm all grown up, I've always wondered how it felt to be "really" sick; to have doctors monitoring you on a daily basis. It's true what they say, be careful what you wish for. :-)

Because I wasn't sickly, I thought that the fever would be gone in the morning. But that morning is probably the weakest morning I've had in my entire existence...Okay, let's exclude the times I was hung over (they don't count)...I woke up all sweaty but still with high fever. So I told myself, this is official. I am sick and unfit to work.

I played doctor and shifted from Biogesic and Advil, hoping to relieve my headached and fever. No change. With the advise o f Dr. Pia Cruz (thanks to you Pia! You are my angel.), I decided to bring myself to the ER. After some lab tests, they discharged me on account of UTI. Gave me some antibiotics to treat the infection. As soon as I got back, I noticed I had rashes in my forearm. I ignored it thinking that i might disapper the next day.

Come next day, my fever was at 39.5. I was beginning to wonder whether it was the antibiotics kicking in or there's more infection going on inside. More importantly, I was worried about the 1520 white blood cell count in my CBC. The normal range is 4800-10000 and mine was far from normal. At 6pm, there was no sign of progress. My fever was still at 39.5 and my rashes have settled in quickly.

I went back to ER looking more groggy. The second CBC showed my platelet dropped from 175,000 to 100,000, just a day after my first visit. My fever was up to 39.9, the highest of them all. They had to confine me on account of suspected dengue. A day after, my attending physician informed me that I have, indeed, an infection and that the platelet drop may be caused by dengue.

The sound of dengue cause my mind to panic. I was never the type to text friends to pray for myself. But this one is rather serious and I believed I need all the prayers I can get. I wasn't ready for a serious illness like this. I only wanted to have a "feel" of the hospital bed, enough to make me enjoy it. hehehe

I've heard a lot of horror stories about dengue. A lot of my cousin had it when they were younger and they all required blood transfusion. The thought of someone else's blood being transferred to me scares me. What if he was sick or infected? What if my body rejects the blood? Gggaaahhh...Torture. Will I bleed as other dengue patients? Horror!

And because my platelet was dropping, they had to take blood sample from me every 4 hours. The lowest on account is 28,000. The nurses advised me to drink lots of water as it would help increase it. So one night, as I was trying to sleep, I told myself..."Water pala ha. Maghanda kayo bukas. Lulunurin ko kayo sa water." I was losing my sanity. My prayer was "Lord, tama na po. Na-experience ko na po pano ma-ospital. Okay na ko."

The next day, my temperature improved but the platelet was neither going down nor up. I was on stand-by. Watchful for bleeding episodes. Luckily there was none. Last Saturday, platelet count started going up. Hurrah! There's progress. One more day and I was out.

Back in the real world. As I told my friends, ang pagbabalik. Parang walang nangyari, except that I lost weight. hehehehe...music to my ears.

I'm well, but not 101%. Thanks for all those who prayed.