Birthday and Baam Dengue !

I was having some constipation, so I took medicine for the same and ended up getting diarrhea. When diarrhea hit me, I had to wear an adult diaper because the timing was so off. I couldn’t control my motion, and that’s when I really felt like an old person — when things are not in their control anymore, when life is not in their control. But we youngsters fail to understand that. A lot of adults are also not able to understand that their parents are old and don’t have that control anymore. This incident grounded me to the core.

Even with diarrhea I somehow managed to take some tablets and got things under control. So I decided to celebrate my birthday, which was on a Sunday, with my loved and near ones. I cut a cake that I didn’t eat much of due to dieting, and we had lots of fun. We even drank beer and went for gaming — air rifle shooting, bowling, trampoline… you name it! It was fun!!

But that night I felt a little tired, and then the next morning I woke up with even more tiredness. From that day, I again got diarrhea and on-and-off fever, for which we used some medicines and Dolo for the fever. But then vomiting started, and I couldn’t hold on — between vomiting and loose motion, I became extremely weak. My mom’s friends, who are nurses, put me on drips for 4 days straight.

One day I became so weak that I was vomiting even water. Anything I drank wouldn’t stay, and I had no appetite. So we decided to go to the doctor, and they did some blood tests because I was getting red rashes all over my body and bruises where the staff took blood and put the drip. Red rashes confirmed dengue, but diarrhea was not a symptom of dengue, so we couldn’t find it out sooner.When I went to the doctor, my BP was low, and I was so sick and tired that they asked for various blood tests. When the results came, we came to know dengue was positive and the platelet count was below 1 lakh — around 85,000. We didn’t know if earlier it went even lower because we realized very late that it was dengue.

The picture I’m including shows some of the distress I faced — red rashes on my legs, lips drying and breaking, skin peeling from my hands, dark blue bruises where the injection and drip were done, etc.

Why am I mentioning all this to you now — with vivid pictures also?

Because diarrhea can also happen along with vomiting, fever, and tiredness. So even if you find one thing that feels like the odd one out, something that makes you confused about whether it’s something serious like dengue — don’t wait. Go do the blood test and get the necessary help. Every sickness doesn’t always come in the same pattern; it’s different for different people.

It helped me a lot that I didn’t know it was dengue for a long time, because otherwise I’m a worried person, and I would have taken unnecessary tension, which could have worsened everything! But still, it’s a serious issue, and what I realized during those times is that your family and your very close loved ones are the only ones who are truly going to worry about you. When you are sick, nothing else matters — not your degree, not your job, not the people you have fun with. Because family is everything at that point. They look after you, cheer you up, and give you a lot of hope to move forward.Love heals, love nurtures, love gives hope!

Love is love, and love is above all else!

It took me precisely 20 days to rest and recover. But the tiredness is still there! People who have had dengue before told me that the tiredness might stay for longer periods, like 3 months or more, from their experience. For me, a huge weight loss happened — probably from all the diarrhea and appetite loss. I still have the tiredness in my body, but the show must go on… so I’m starting work from Thursday. Otherwise, how will the bills get paid? I think all my healthy eating helped me recover faster. I am urging all of you to quit junk food and be kinder to your body, because when you are kind to yourself and take care of yourself, you will become a healthier and better version of yourselves.

I was dieting for 1 year and I was at my healthiest self, and that’s why I feel I recovered faster. Always consider your health precious. Nothing else matters more!