I was hospitalised from 3 - 17 August 2012 for dengue fever. The symptoms I had were high fever, body ache, and I was so weak that I could not even stand up and walk. I went to see a GP and was given flu medicine. After taking the medicine, the fever subsided for a while but rose again and made me feel worse. So I went to the hospital with a temperature of 39 degrees Celsius. As my blood pressure was low, I was admitted immediately. My blood test result showed low blood platelet count. A normal count was 120 but mine was only 50. It dropped to 20 on the third day and doctors forbade me to get out of bed as a fall could lead to internal bleeding which could be life threatening. They still could not confirm my diagnosis as a second time dengue victim. Actually I was a bit worried as I was a cancer survivor. I asked myself, “could it be other sickness and not dengue?” But thank God, the next day they confirmed it was dengue.
Doctors could not do anything to bring the platelet up. They took my blood for test every two days, which was a trauma to me. It was pointless to depend on doctors. I count on my faith and helped myself by having a positive attitude and prayed. I told myself that “if I can conquer cancer, what is dengue?” Despite having no appetite, I still drank and ate whatever I could swallow in order to maintain my immunity level. I asked my family to brew nourishing soup and make nutritious oatmeal breakfast for me. On the 2nd week in hospital, my platelet rose to 60, but it was still not back to normal yet. However, I asked to be discharged since my fever and blood pressure had gone back to normal and there was no medicine to bring platelet up.
Doctor discharged me and wanted me to go to polyclinic to take platelet count every morning until it returned to normal. I did not bother to do that. I drank papaya leaf juice, fruit juice and ate well. I rested well and in a month’s time, I was back to normal and I believe my blood platelet was also back to normal. What I want to share with you all is, just do our part to keep our environment safe and clean, so as not to give mosquitoes a chance to breed. However, if unfortunately we get the disease, just accept it with a positive attitude, and do our best to get well. God will do the rest.
Contributed by Cecilia Wong / NPC survivor
Dated 9 April 2013
Survivor since Jan 2008
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