MOSQUITO H8ER 4 LYF

Let's talk about mosquitos. They are vile creatures of no use to us in this world. They are pests. They gave me dengue.

I've always been afraid of dengue, ever since my dad contracted it when I was a kid. It seemed pretty scary. It wasn't so bad in my case, to be honest. Save for maybe the high fever.

September 3, 2013. I woke up with a headache and mild fever, feeling grosser than usual in the morning. Mild fever escalated into a high fever, and I was confined to my bed with a self-issued computer hiatus, because I felt that the radiation would make me feel worse. (Well, okay, I went online juuust for a tiny bit, only because of a birthday greeting.) Being chained to my bed prompted some television-watching (as in, using the telly for actual cable) for the first time in nearly two months. (My cable prior to getting sick was Youtube.)

Later that night, my temperature reached scary levels, so we went to the hospital. It was scary because I very rarely get sick, so for this fever to come out of nowhere, we were just, "WTF IS HAPPENING???"

Cue blood tests and urinalysis, negative for dengue and UTI. Oh, and there was also dextrose. Don't forget dextrose. The doctor at the ER wanted to hydrate my body to bring down my temperature. I live-tweeted what happened, and when my cousin saw my tweets he seemed doubtful that I was even really sick, because the way I tweeted seemed pretty normal (read: "Gee Ina, for a sick person you sure don't sound very sick.) Keep it cool, kids.

So I wasn't confined after that. My fever fluctuated for the next three more days, and in those three days I grew sick of the television. Mostly because WOW ARE YOU ALL EVEN AWARE OF HOW OFTEN RERUNS HAPPEN? On the flipside, I found out our cable had some Korean channels, so I got to watch several MV's etc. Not that I could've fangirled properly in my sick state.

By Saturday, my fever was nearly gone. But then the next day happened and I was itching all over. I wondered if it was dengue. I may or may not have spotted a mosquito in my room as I pondered over this possibility. I should've taken that as a sign.

So we went back to the hospital again. Cue another blood test, with consideration to dengue. They gave me a shot for the itching, which hurt because hot daeym did I feel that drug coursing through my veins, but it also knocked me out. I've been given a similar drug before for itching (I once had an allergy attack that prompted an ER visit) and boy, lemme tell you, falling asleep because of a drug is nice. It's like, easy sleep. I have a hard time falling asleep (it takes me about an hour to three hours) so that was really pleasant. Save for the pain it took to get that drug in me.

So after that sleep, I woke up still itchy. The blood test results came in and showed that I was positive for these anti-bodies against dengue. Which meant, okay, it was dengue. Not full-blown dengue (in fact my platelet count was fine), since my body was fighting it, but for the most part it was dengue. Cue IV again.

It wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. I mean, in my first platelet drop, my count was still within normal range. My platelet count dropped twice, and I was still within the normal range. By day three of my confinement, my count went up, and later that night I was already discharged.

Now, the moral of the story is: eat lots of vegetables (it's what I've been doing for nearly half a year, so maybe it helped with my anti-bodies fighting off the stupid virus), get lots of sleep, slather on that citronella.

I was sick for over a week, and it was insane because, as I said, I almost never get sick. It felt so long that I practically forgot what my life was like when I wasn't sick at all. I also stayed away from my computer during the entire duration of my sickness (I was supposed to publish another post, but then dengue happened so no), except I was on my phone a lot... so... my presence on social networking (my Twitter in particular) was still up and kicking.

I'm fine now though. The past three or so days after being discharged were a little off, because there would be lingering itches (mostly on my lower body in the morning) and I'd feel tired during random times of the day. But being able to go on the computer at last must mean I'm okay now, right? And I don't itch anymore. But I freak out whenever I see a mosquito now.

Also, it is worth noting that I got Final Fantasy XIII-2 last night. I don't know what possessed me to do so, knowing my bitterness and spite for this sequel. But it happened, and now my life is ruined. It must've been remnants of the dengue virus that made me do it.

My veins still hurt though.