You hear about people getting it but after almost two years I was not even giving it any thought. I knew that people say that it can be very debilitating and recovery can take weeks. I just hadn’t figured that I would ever get it. Surprise! What is life without a few surprises.
It was fortunate that my session with Mr. Dengue was two days behind Deb’s. Not that we couldn’t have gotten friends to take her to the hospital but I think it’s good to have one family member on the up and up to make decisions.
The speed in which it took over Debi was amazing. It supposedly takes an average of three to five days, once you are bit, for you to show symptoms. Only three hours passed from the onset of symptoms until Debi was in the ER! It was scary especially with her becoming delirious so fast due to the fever.
My symptoms started differently and less violently. I started getting eye socket discomfort, headache, and some joint pain. It progressed from there but I never felt the need to seek medical attention. Of course knowing what Debi had and then getting the same symptoms did much for the diagnosis and ease of mind.
The worst part for me was definitely the joint pain and the eye socket pain. The fever made things interesting with complete body flushes that made me feel as if I were a volcano and may explode. I did my best to counteract that by getting into the pool. Debi did not want to get in the pool as it was too chilly for her. I didn’t care because I knew that a temp of 103 had to be brought down.
Friends checked on us, ran to the grocery store and brought food. We did not lack in support in any way. We are very fortunate people to have such good friends.
Debi is at 99% now and I’m close behind her. My feeling is that of a car going down the road, I shift easily, seem to have decent power but I just can’t get into 4th gear. Our appetites are almost at normal. I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it is not to have that metallic taste in my mouth, another aspect of dengue.
Well, they say there are four types of dengue and once you have one type you can never get it again. That’s the good news! The not so good news is that if you get dengue again it is guaranteed to be worse. Not what I like to hear!
If you’d like to know more here is a site to go to. http://www.dhpe.org/infect/dengue.html
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