Dengue Sucks

Nao, Nurse and I were going to spend Halloween with some of Nao’s friends at a different farm. We planned to go into the city for a couple days before heading to the farm.  The morning that we left for Chiang Mai, I woke up with a pretty bad headache but figured it was because I had not been drinking enough water and was in the sun. Before going to the farm, Nao was staying at her friends apartment right in the city. I was welcome to stay, but I decided to get my own guest house so that I could have my own space. Throughout the day, my headache got worse and worse. I have never had migraines, but now I understand the agonizing pain that people who get them go through. That night, I had the hardest time sleeping. I was awake every hour, was sweaty and had chills

My guesthouse near the hospital was a Japanese style guesthouse and the beds were built into the walls.

I woke up the next day very exhausted and tired. I had told Nao that I would watch Nurse while she attended a meeting. Although my head didn’t hurt as bad, I felt so tired and achy. After watching Nurse, I decided to go back to my guest house and sleep instead of spending the day with the girls. Throughout the day, my headache and chills came back and my body aches intensified. My body felt really hot and I was sweaty all over. While laying in bed and feeling like I was in complete hell, I all of a sudden had the thought “I have Malaria!”. I had been in a northern Vietnam in a Malaria area and had not taken Malaria pills. I instantly starting googling “Malaria symptoms” and started getting more and more freaked out. Every symptom that I had correlated with Malaria. I forced myself to get out of bed to locate and purchase a thermometer. I was pretty sure that I had a fever considering my whole body was burning up but I needed to know for sure before I decided to go to the hospital. I was also feeling pretty lonely at this point. In my 30 years of life, I don’t think I have ever had to take my own temperature. I always had a parent, sister or boyfriend to do it for me.

Check, Check, Check = Melanie freaked out!

After going on what felt like a wild goose chase, I found a thermometer. I discovered (after checking the Celsius/Fahrenheit conversion chart) that I had a 103-degree
fever. I went back to my guest house to get my stuff together and head to the hospital. My guest house was right near the Chiang Mai Ram Hospital. The hospital was bright, clean, modern and even had a “foreigner counter”. (I later learned that many expats go to this hospital.) Nurses walked around and gave out water and other beverages and there were coffee stations and free water.

I spent a lot of time in this waiting room

But at least I had free water

I explained that I wanted to get checked for Malaria and only about 15 minutes later I was being seen by a doctor. I was so impressed with how quickly I was seen! The doctor wanted me to get checked for Malaria, Dengue and Influenza and I was sent to the lab to get some blood tests. After about an hour, the nurse told me the test results were back and to go to the emergency room. At this point, I was getting very concerned!

I waited in the emergency room for about 45 minutes until a new doctor could see me. This new doctor informed me that I had Dengue Fever. She explained that if my blood platelets got too low, there was a risk of internal bleeding and brain hemorrhaging. I would need to return in two days to get another blood test to check my platelets. She also told me that there was not anything she could do for the Dengue other than give me medicine to help me feel better. The dengue would have to work is way through my body and I would probably feel a lot worse before I felt better. She prescribed me some medicine for my aches and for the nausea, that she said was coming. She told me to wait in the emergency waiting room for my new scheduled appointment and prescriptions.

I waited and waited and waited. It was starting to feel like a trip to the emergency room back in the states. Finally, I was told to follow a nurse and get on a stretcher. I was so tired and the stretcher was so comfortable that I almost fell asleep, but then I got scared. I wanted to know why I was on a stretcher when I was supposed to be leaving. Hardly anyone spoke English and I kept trying to use my translation app to get some answers. Finally, I was told that I needed to see the doctor. I tried to explain that I just came from the doctor but nobody seemed to understand or care. I was wheeled into another doctor’s office and at this point I was in tears. I was so tired, sick, worried and confused. The nurse kept saying that she understood me and I had to see the doctor again. She was getting irritated with me and was starting to get a little rude. I had no idea what was going on and I asked if someone could call Nao to translate, but the nurse kept saying the doctor would be in soon. The doctor came in and for security measures wanted to make sure I was in fact “Olivia”!

After the whole “Olivia” situation, I was finally allowed to leave. I still had to have the front desk call Nao and get her to translate because everyone seemed to forget that I still needed my meds and my new appointment! The doctor told me to come back to the hospital if I got a rash, fainted or if my pee or poop was black or red. I walked back to my guest house and was not looking forward to to sharing my room(and bathroom) with a bunch of strangers. I was happy that the air conditioner was not on and thanks to the muscle relaxers that I was prescribed, I slept pretty good. I slept on and off the next day but as the day went on, I started to feel awful. I became paranoid that I had a rash on my stomach and I called my mom and cried to her. (Throughout my dengue experience, I tried to take selfies of myself at my worse!)

Facetime with my mom, not my cat.

My mom felt awful that I felt so bad and she hated that I was in a dorm. She wished that she was in Thailand taking care of me so instead of jumping on a plane, she paid for me to have a private room at at a different guest house. I booked a room close to the hospital and enjoyed my private room (and bathroom!) I needed to stay close to the hospital because every two days I had to go back and get a blood test to check my platelets.

I have no pain tolerance

About five days into Dengue, I was starting to feel better. My fever had gone down and I was starting to get my appetite back. I was also for the first time on my trip, craving western food. Everything that I read said I would start to feel better and then all hell would break loose! But… I didn’t want to think about that! All I wanted was pizza. I found an Italian restaurant, which turned out to be the same restaurant that my old boyfriend Elton and I had went to about two years ago! It took a lot of energy to get to the restaurant and I was feeling pretty tired by the time the pizza arrived. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my first pizza in months! (I pretty much refused to eat carbs in the states so this pizza was especially good!) It took forever to find a ride back to the guesthouse and I ended up walking for a while. I was getting frustrated and tired.

Not sure that pizza was the bet idea!

At about 1:00 am I woke up feeling terrible and puked. The nausea had started! I was very grateful to have my own bathroom and bedroom. I puked, showered, puked again, and showed again. That terrible headache was also back and my entire body hurt. I had a rough night and the following day was terrible. My head hurt so bad and my fever was back.

Post puke

After about six days in Chiang Mai (and three visits to the hospital) I was starting to feel better. My mom had booked me a bungalow through Airbnb just outside of Chiang Mai. The bungalow turned out to be beautiful and just what I needed.

Paradise

I relaxed for three nights and four days at peaceful, little oasis. On my second day, I had to head back to the hospital for my final blood test and like the others, my platelets were fine. Other than feeling achy, my only other health issue I had while at the bungalow was I started to get really itchy, especially my feet! Apparently, itching is the final stage of dengue. So…as much as it sucked, I was happy to know I was almost better. My host even gave me some Benadryl for the itching.

Breakfast spot every morning

The bungalow was the perfect place to get over my final days of Dengue. My host made fresh bread every morning and there were always bananas and dragon fruit for me to eat. I assumed that I would get sick on this trip, I just didn’t think I would get Dengue two months in. Getting Dengue was a good reminder for me to cover up and use my Deet lotion.

My sweet bungalow

After leaving my bungalow, I decided to spend one more night at Nao’s and then head to the island of Koh Chang. I had originally only planned to come to Thailand for one week and then head to Nepal, but I knew I needed some relaxation on the beach. I was not quite up to the exciting challenges of traveling in Nepal.

Back to Nao’s on the motorbike taxi and so happy to be feeling better!