The Dengue Attack

That's right! I've never thought that I could be diagnosed with dengue, gosh! When I heard that, my first reaction was nothing but shock, my mind couldn't think, not even the idea of life or death, it was just blank. When I gained back my conscious, I was like, what should I do? Am I going to survive this? I'm not going to die right? Of all people, why me? And the questions went on and on, the fear, panic, anxiety come kicking in......

Of course right, it's dengue, not any other disease whereby, you would get prescribed medicine, antibody, or vaccine or anything at all. Dengue on the other hand, has nothing! The doctor just said, please take Panadol if you have fever. That's all. There was nothing else I could do. Can you imagine how scared I was......

Day 1: I was feeling very cold in McD, it was somewhat weird to me, but I didn't really care too much. Until, I was still feeling very cold though staying in the car,  parked under hot noon sun, for one hour without any aircond. When I reached home, I noticed my temperature had gone up, I knew I must have fallen sick.

Day 2: My whole body aching, especially backbones, and all the other bones, in that matter. I doubt it was due to improper sleeping posture. The fever came and go, and I felt hot and cold every now and then, simultaneously. Headache, weak, no appetite to eat, not even drink. Had no energy to walk, lazy to shower, literally lying on the bed whole day. At night, went to a doctor and tadda! T.T

Day 3: I was still at home, as the doctor suggested that it was not necessary to get admitted just yet seeing that my platelet counts were still at normal level. My eyes could no longer focus, made it difficult for me to poke my acne. I didn't know what to do, except to take some Panadols when the fever came, and 1000mg Vitamin C (hope to boost antibody). Then, my friend suggested papaya leaves, and trust me, the taste was awfully bitter!

Day 4: I had no choice but to continue the consumption of papaya leaves. I was sceptical at first, but then I went googled and read up. Instead of plainly taking the papaya leaves, I mixed it with papaya juice, and it did the same trick. I had no fever the whole day. However, I started having rashes. 

Day 5: Though it is not scientifically proven with the papaya leaves, I decided to continue, at least my platelets no longer dropped drastically. I was told by doctor that if I started having rashes all over, it's a good sign that I was starting to recover. I hope he was right, I hope I really was.

Day 6: Woke up with insufficient sleep because I was too busy scratching my body the whole night. The rashes spread, the itchiness was so intense that I couldn't stop scratching, like literally! Anyway, I gained back my strength and went hangout with friends. Forgot to take in papaya leave juice though. And I felt guilty. It was my first day stop going to hospital for blood monitoring too.

Day 7: Woke up by a phone call from the MoH, informing that they were coming for checking and fogging (which they have not). I had kinda reckless breakfast, aka the Roti Canai, hopefully it doesn't stimulate anything bad from the virus. The rashes are still itchy, but no longer so badly. Was feeling dizzy though (probably due to low bp). Spent whole day watching Taylor Swift related videos, eg: interviews, concerts, awards presentation etc. I adore her! Wish to be at her 1989 world tour concert!! ❤❤

Day 8: Exactly one week had passed. I've lost 3kg, but I'm glad I survived! Thank God... #LittleSurvivor 

Day 3; Day 6; Aftermath of using a rather big-size needle just because
the doctor couldn't get blood from my right arm.. zzzz....
(Actually it looks more severe than the photos, just that my camera not good enough)

"Papaya Leaves: My Life Saver"

I'm not saying that people with dengue SHOULD try papaya leaves. I'm just saying, when you are at the edge of dying, you would try anything, at all, no matter how ridiculous the method might be, to give it a shot. It's like you have only a last few breath before kissing the world good bye, and you hope you could grab anything to fight, you even hope you could grab the attention from God, hope that He sees how serious you are, about staying alive, and hope that He grants you mercy and spares you your life. Fine, I don't know what I'm rambling here.

Anyway, this is the papaya leaves I've been consuming:

Put the entire thing into the blender and blend it.

If you are a person who has no problem with bitterness, you may just drink it straight. I heard there are even people who chew it straight along with some bread and Milo, like for breakfast. As for me, I can't. Thus, I had to add a lot of sugar~~~ 

For me, I added 2 spoons of sugar into the cup of warm water and dissolved it.

1. The papaya leaves juice (which blended with 2 spoons of sugar).
2. The dissolved sugar.
3. The papaya juice (which blended with 2 spoons of sugar too).

For me, I didn't take much, just pour one to two tea spoon of the leaves juice into the papaya juice, then pour the sugar solution into the papaya juice until it's full.

I took this twice a day.

If you want a more speedy recovery, perhaps you may add more of the leave juice into the papaya juice, or may be drink that more times in a day? I'm not sure but since I'm not a bitter fan, I took it twice a day and could see the results in next blood test.

Not many people knew of me being attacked by this bloody dengue. I only told those who I had no choice but stood them up on some shopping agenda. And a few very very close people who I have been chatting with, one of whom was Mr L. He sent me  jokes everyday to help release my tension, how very thoughtful :)

May be I will write another post about what this bloody dengue has inspired me to think of my life. Or may be I won't. I'll just keep it to myself and do as I like. I just hope that this post might be able to help some of the people out there who are clueless as to how to deal with dengue. Hope that people are aware of the alternatives and help minimize the casualties. 

I'll end my post with one of my Instagram captions:

"Even in the toughest of time, stay cool, stay strong. Everything is on God's will, just have faith, and do your best."