…and unfortunately, it couldn’t be
cured with more cowbell. That would have
been awesome though.
There really isn’t a cure for the
fever I had last week, which was of the dengue variety. If you don’t know about dengue fever, I hope
what you read here will be all you will ever have to know. Dengue starts with a mosquito and ends in
days of pain and torture. They didn’t
use to call it “the breakbone fever” for nothing, let me tell you. For me, it started with a headache and some
neck and body stiffness. I thought I
just slept wrong. The next day, the
headache was worse and I was getting hot and cold flashes. At the height of a hot flash, I went and took
a cold shower (the only kind of shower we have). That’s when I noticed the rash. Chest, arms, neck, and top of legs. Hmm. This got me to thinking. I did feel a little warm… Yep, fever of
102. Ok, something was up.
Later, as I lay in bed burning up (temp of 104
at this time) and shivering, every muscle and joint aching,
Sarah walked in. She is staying with me
temporarily while her new housing gets approved, but had been in Quito for a
few days and missed the onset of my sickness.
First thing she says to me: “Hey. Your face looks really swollen. And you are red.” True, and true. After consulting a PCV with internet access
and later, the PC doctor, I found that all symptoms indicated I had dengue
fever. The whole coast is pretty much
dengue-central, so not surprising I got it since I get bitten by mosquitoes ALL
the time. What’s more surprising is that
it took me this long, really. Ok, so I
had a diagnosis. What now? Well, all you can do for dengue is…
nothing. Take Tylenol for the fever and
pain (didn’t make a dent in the pain, let me tell you), drink lots of water,
and sleep. Well, I drank a ton, but the
thought of having to get up and walk down stairs to the bathroom every few
hours hung in the back of my mind with every gulp. I ate practically nothing, watched a half
dozen bad movies (and some good ones too) and spent about 23.5 hours a day in
my bed for 5 days straight.
It’s now been 10 days since the
onset, and I am feeling much better- although the headache is lingering. I never got the blood test to confirm it was
dengue, since the lab to give my blood sample is an hour away in Atacames and I
was in no shape to either walk to the bus stop or sit on a bus for any length
of time (and they wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it anyways- I
was doing everything there was to do), but I still feel confident that that’s
what it was. So does my host mom, who
wasted no time at all pulling out her aguardiente
(sugar cane alcohol) to put on my skin and cool me down. It actually works, for a few minutes, but
even alcohol of this proof is no match for “the breakbone fever.” So there you have it- my first, real-life,
tropical, third-world disease. I had to
get at least one…May it be my last. I so
would have rather had a tapeworm.
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