Wrecked and Ravaged

Thursday 17th April: -
Day 1 - I started the day sneezing and wheezing. Blame it on the fact that the ac was on the whole night and me being so susceptible to cold, had to contract it. But I put on a brave front, popped a cetrizin and waddled to office. At office I was fine for some time, but then suddenly felt the ac temperature was a bit too low. And at 1400 hours a sneezathon started. Within an hour I was having a numbing pain through my body, and a tingling sensation from the roots of the hair to the tips of the toes. Thats when I realised Oh! Boy!! I was getting a fever.

I wrapped my work ASAP (That was the penultimate day for tax declaration and some more mumbo jumbo one is supposed to do in beginning of the fiscal year. How I hate the beginnings and ending of fiscals years. Grrrrrr) and scurried home. At home I had a warm cup of tea and hit the bed with my best friend (Amrutanjan :) )

That night I had a very high temperature and survived on 2 crocins.

Day 2 - Morning I did not have fever and woke at 8 to bid K goodbye as he was leaving for office. Since I had not slept well the night before I decided to take the day off. And as K was leaving Wham!!!!! I fainted and had a 5 feet 5 inches free fall. I was picked up by K, the maid and my mom in law and conciousness was restored. Then I slumped on the bed and slept off. K took the day off.

Evening, once the outside temperature was a bit bearable, we both went to see a doc.

The doctor was a well reco-ed one so my expectations were all the more from him. We went inside, he took my BP!! Peered into my throat - "Throat is very bad" He croacked. And decreed - "You have viral fever. Dolo 650, Allegra, Becosules and Azethomycin. You will be fine in 4-5 days. If any problem is there you can visit me. But I think there is no other cure but for you to bear it. "

I was so DISGUSTED. He gave scant regard to a person with some 104 degrees temperature!! And what the blooooooody hell of there is no cure and you have to bear. Why did we pay you those 100 bucks?

Anyways we came home and I tried to have some food and retired to sleep early on.

Day 3 - Saturday no let up by the fever. I spent the whole long day sleeping. K and I had plans to go for a movie the weekend :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

K starts sneezing by the evening.

And....... Night I had terribly high temperature. I shivered a lot. :( :-S

Day 4 - I called up my uncle who is a doc in Apollo Hyderabad and oldhim the symptoms and whats going on. He was like see if this is viral, started on Thursday, its already been 4 days, 2 more days and by Tuesday you should be on the move. But I would suggest you get an MP(Malaria Parasite) Test done. I was like God Blessssssssssssss You!

Day 5 - Its Monday. Poor K takes leave for me. He takes a limping me to the Malaria Centre. They draw blood. And tell the results will b out at 1500 hours. I limp back home with hubby. And fall asleep flat with a temperature that could makes chickens hatch :-S

1500 hours results come. MP Test Negative. I dunno whether to the relieved or be sad.

So we decide to pay a visit to our good old doctor.

And this time he greets us with a smile and says ," Maa listen, this is how it is. You have to be positive. Once you start thinking negative that is when things start turning bad. I dunno why there are so many cases of this fever now a days. May be something to do with our changed lifestyles and polluted environment. Do these tests and come back tomorrow."

All the while I was seething inside listening to his sermons on Art of Living. I wanted to strangle him to death with his own stethoscope. &^%&%^%

Gave a quintal more blood for some more bloody tests. (It was MP Test again and a haemoglobin count test)

That night I wear 2 sweaters, take a thick blanket, switch off the fan :-( All this in the heat of Chennai- Still my teeth clatter. A dread ful night.

Day 6 - Since I am so ravaged with fever, I called uncle again. Uncle this time asked me to take the Typhoid test (At least he makes me take some decent tests not a damn Haemoglobin count test. Btw my haemoglobin count comes as pretty low in the test and Dr Dear asks me to come with my husband and meet him in the evening. I mentally mouth profanities and keep the phone.)

Then uncle states, now a days malaria aint getting detected that easy. So if the fever does not subside by tomorrow and the typhoid test is negative, we will start the dosage of quinine. It has no side effects, but you have to take it on a full stomach else the blood sugar level might drop.

Day 7 -7 days of full blown fever. 0700 hours. Typhoid test - Negative.

I started quinine dosage at night.

And that night I felt as if I was being exorcised. I had such a high temperature that I had a cold towel over my forehead. After one hour, the temperature started coming down. Then I felt my heart beat rate increased enormously. :-S And I was hyper ventilating. I lay on my stomach to stop the pounding of my heart. All this while I was wondering if my stomach was full enough before I took the medicine. And I was thinking may be I should have asked my uncle the symptoms of dripping blood sugar, for God forbid, if this was it :-S I am done for :-S. Then after 20 minutes of absolute agony, I broke into a nice sweat. I sweated as if I was in a sauna. And I sweated and sweated and sweated and finally slept......

Day 8 - Fever was at a manageable 100 degrees. Uncle told, it should be done with by Friday. That is tomorrow. In case not - We have to get you admitted in a Biiiiiiiiig hospital with Biiiiiiiig instruments and Biiiiiiiig Doctors and Biiiiiiiiig tests :-S That is exactly how he said it. And I prayed to God fervently that I better get well sssssssssssssssssssoooonnnnnnn.

But he said, it must have been Malaria cos no other parasite responds to Quinine. So since the fever has gone down due to quinine its proved it was malaria which was not being detected.

Oh! How I adore a logical explanation!!

Day 9 - Hmm feeling much better, I was singing praises of my uncle and cursing that God forsaken Chennai doctor every moment. And one of my friends told me that day was World Malaria Day :

Day 10- I am able to get up and move around :D :D :D :D

I make the masala, K makes the dosa and we eat happily ever after :D :D :D :D

Day 11 - I make food again. And evening we even go out to the beach !!!!!!! We start from home at 1730 hours, spend some time on the beach with K 's uncles family, then we take a walk, have some tit bits @ Barista, do some shopping and come home at 2100 hours!! That was the longest duration I was off a bed and outside after eonssssssssssss.

Day 12 - I am in office. In front of a machine finally typing all this :D ;)