I didn’t want to dampen my blog posts about traveling with the fact that I was miserably ill the entire time, so I am creating a separate post about my tropical disease. Just so we’re clear, I do not recall being bitten by the mosquito that infected me, but he was a sneaky little bugger. Just before travel week, I felt a little feverish but thought I was still good to go. Upon getting to the mountains, I started having a really bad head cold which I assumed was due to the extreme climate change between the heat of Pune and the chilly mountain air. I was wrong. I spent the next few days blowing my nose and sitting in the sun to stay warm wrapped up in my yak shawl (new purchase). But it wasn’t enough as we headed farther up north. I started feeling feverish and dehydrated which I thought was a symptom of sitting next to the heater for too long to stay warm. Wrong again. By the time the last leg of our journey rolled around, I could barely stand up for more than 20 minutes before I started feeling top-heavy and had to sit down. I nearly fell asleep sitting on the floor of the airport waiting for our flight home from Delhi. Again, my fellow travelers and I just thought I was tired from traveling and needed some rest. Wrong, so very wrong.
I texted my host-mom when we reached Mumbai that night to tell her not to worry about me the next morning as I planned to sleep in for a long time to recover from my journey. She obliged but when I woke up around 12pm and walked out of my room with my face bright red to tell her I thought I had a fever, she was allowed to worry. My fever darted around 100, 102, back to 101 all day and finally petered out the next afternoon. The doctor gave me medication for my cold and fever but he thought I’d be fine in a few days. And then came the rash. Itchy itchy damned rash. This was the last straw and I had to get my blood checked. Officially my most efficient experience in India. I went to the lab directly, got my blood taken, and they EMAILED ME my results about FIVE HOURS later. I was extremely impressed. Verdict? Dengue Fever.
Well, that’s half the battle. At least I have a diagnosis. Apparently in the past, students have had to take bed rest for 10 days when they have Dengue and some of my classmates are treating me like I have the plague or staring at me asking, ‘shouldn’t you be in the hospital?’ I know there are possible severe complications, but for now I’m okay and I am NOT contagious as I am not a mosquito and I do not bite nor do I suck blood. My prescription is rest, liquids, rest, liquids, and a normal healthy diet. I probably should’ve been restricted to my bed for the last week instead of traveling through the Himalayas... but you only get to be young and stupid once, right? How was I supposed to know?
I think I’ve also adopted a certain level of paranoia. As I sat typing this post, I heard the notorious little buzzing in my ear. I leapt out of my chair, grabbed the bug spray and covered myself head to toe. You may have gotten me once my little friend, but not twice.
And for some reason I can’t get the song Jungle Fever out of my head... it’s just so catchy and it’s the same syllables as Dengue Fever...
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