sick journal

wednesday 20 july. supposed to meet sumi n duan hui for another east coast cycling trip. but me feel sick. aching all over. so i decided to take my temperature. 37.7. considered kinda high, even for my usual standards. so had to cancel. stay at home and rest. by evening, temperature was already very high. 39.5. so no choice, must go see doc. so went to rapha. too late to get blood test so didn't at that time. got medicine etc. went home and rest.

couple of days later, still no better. temperature reaching all time high of 40 plus. so go back to rapha. take blood test. got more horrible tasting medicines. supposed to be damn powerful. but taste horrigible. worked i guess cos temperature went down. feel better. blood test results came out. it was ok. blood platelets a bit on the low side but doc say nothing to worry about yet. had to stay at home the entire weekend. not that i felt like going anywhere anyway.

then monday. horrible day. went for nus matriculation in the morning. horrible morning. first was car sick cos ah ku drove me to nus. then had to stand in line for forever before i could hand in the documents. feel very very sick by then. hand in the documents aldy, thought can go home. but cannot. they forced us to go for some 'cca' tour where there were a billion people pushing pamphlets and stuff into your face. felt like fainting. still haven't gotten over car sick. then rushed to rapha for another blood test in the afternoon. took taxi which intensified the car sick. so felt like vomitting.

anyway, after blood test, went home but can't relax yet. have to sort out all the stupid stuff that the nus people gave. mummy went down to rapha to get the test results. bad news. it's dengue. have to go hospital immediately. sigh. sigh. sigh.

so ah ku sent me to tan tock seng. (this was around 9 plus pm). my platelets were about 80. which is considered low. met this doc that said that actually if i wasn't having my menses, he'd send me home. he was telling me that when he had dengue (in the philippines) his platelet count was 5 before he finally went to hospital. anyway, so i was forced to hang around the A&E until they could find a bed for me. and it was around 12 plus already.

finally, around 1am, i was told that i would be transferred to CDC2 building, not the main ttsh. rode an ambulance there with another dengue patient (in the bed) n the nurse. the ambulance was scary. the door suddenly opened in mid journey. the bed could have rolled out if it wasn't secured down. anyway, had to wear a mask and went up to the ward. the room i was in had 2 others also.

doc came in. and put in a drip for me. sigh. hated it. pain. pokey pokey with my hand. and he drew this huge syringe of blood. gosh. i'm half asleep by then actually. 2+am. much later on, almost 3, finally they're all done. i can go to sleep now. but can't sleep. the drip thing is in the way. so uncomfortable. my hand very cold. sigh.

newae, morning wake up, cannot brush teeth. cos they scared we'll start bleeding and can't stop. so we get mouth gargle instead. tastes bad. breakfast sucks too. oats. i couldn't get the thing open. had to call the nurse in to open the bowl for me. but i didn't finish it. can't stand oats. no blood test for today. the girl in the bed opposite me got discharged. visiting hours at 12-2pm. mummy n daddy came. lunch sucked. couldn't finish it. anyway, after visiting hours, sleep until the next visiting hours at 5-8pm.

every now and then, they came in n take temperature and blood pressure. and that's my problem. cos my temperature always was higher in the evening. so they'd give me 2 panadol. or throw a damp cloth on my head and tell me to rest and drink water. i can do that at home, i was thinking. the nurses were quite nice. most of them are filipino. which was a problem when my new roommate spoke chinese only. i'd spend the day, sleeping, reading "harry potter n the half blood prince" (which was a bit of a disappointment. but that's another story), or watching tv. i was the only one with a tv cos i was supposed to be in a B1 ward. but ended up in a normal ward, n they pushed in a tv for me. ok. watched the repeat of american idol at 5pm. cheered up a little cos i saw the episode when clay was there! sure it was a bit chaotic in the room at that time n i couldn't hear what ryan was telling but still. sigh. seeing him brightened up my day a bit.

anyway, wednesday, my platelet count went up to 71 from 57. darn. cos the minimum point is 80 then i can go home. missed by a bit. sad. next day, the count went up above 80. but i got the feeling that i still wouldn't be discharged. cos in the morning, the docs came and talked to my other 2 room mates, n they were taken off the drip but i wasn't. sigh. the doc told me that they would wait until 5pm n see how's my temperature. n unlucky me, the temperature didn't allow me to be discharged. so sad.

cos the other 2 had gone home already, they transferred me to another room. turns out it's the room with that woman that i shared the ambulance with. the new room was smaller. the door was half glass, meaning every tom dick n harry walking past can see every single thing happening in the room. and it's near the nurses' station. which makes it noisy. had to pull the bed curtain when i want to sleep. sleep wasn't too bad then cos i got used to the stupid drip. but that night, in the middle of the freaking night, i discovered that my new room mate snored. loudly. sigh. lucky i'm used to sumi, if not i'd be kept awake the rest of the night. :D

anyway, next morning, doc came to take blood. this is the only take blood that i vividly remember. cos he came in, prepare everything. one, two, three, needle in. ok, no problem. then, he took the phial thing to collect the blood. (i wasn't looking btw) then, he started poking here and poking there with the needle. that's not right. what the heck is he doing?! he starts complaining, the blood not coming out. what??!??!?!!!! he continues digging at my arm. bloody fucker. pain leh! finally, he tells me that the phial spoil. lao huang. so he sends the cleaner to get a new one. the needle is still in my arm btw. so he's holding on to the needle with one hand, the other hand telling the cleaner aunty where to get another phial. there i was thinking, "hello? hurry up can or not??" idiot.

anyway, finally he's done. check check. no problems. temperature normal. discharge!! yay!!

right. end of account for now. more edits if i remember anything.