We went for a holiday to the beach about a month back. The six of us (my parents, my brother and the 3 of us) had looked forward to the break very much.
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| Sunset on the 1st day. |
Grocery shopping was done on the second day. On the way to the mall downtown, I saw this:
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| The Tsunami Village Cafe! |
Once we arrived at the mall, the 5 of them went for lunch. I decided to go for a walk around the mall as I had my lunch in the car. The supermarket and the bookshop are the two places that I usually head to whenever I go to malls.
I started to have a very bad backache and felt as though my brain was in a fog. I thought it was the usual monthly hormonal phase. I felt very cold too. Ever since the gynaecologist said that I've started to enter the peri-menopause stage, I have tried to walk more. Thus, I walked floor after floor to help ease the backache and foggy brain. This time there was no relief. And then I started to feel hot. I told my dad that this month must be the mother-of-all-periods.
We bought groceries and then we headed back to the condo.
The journey back to the condo took about half-an-hour. I started to feel severely nauseated. And then I felt feverish and ill. It was really odd. I've never fallen sick in this manner. Something was definitely not right.
The moment we got back, I tested my temperature. I was burning at 38.8C (101.8F)!
How can it be? I did not have any sorethroat or flu. I've never felt like this before. I decided to shower to bring the temperature down.
"OMG!" I exclaimed when I took my clothes off.
I had chicken pox!
Joel had passed the virus to me! He was down with it two weeks back. A classmate of his was down with it. And then Joel and a few of his classmates caught it.
Suddenly everything made sense.
A week before we left for this trip, I started to have really bad sleep. I had nightmares. I would jump up from my sleep with my heart racing with severe anxiety attacks. I had thought it was my salicylates bucket that had overflowed. My scalp then started to itch to the point I thought I had head lice. It then felt like my scalp was on fire. I thought that I had somehow developed some allergy to my normal shampoos. I attributed it to the peri-menopause. I used Pinetarsol to soothe the itch. I went to my pharmacist and bought Elomet lotion for the scalp. They gave temporary relief. But then the scalp-on-fire symptom would return.
And then I developed severe joint pains. I even went to the ER thinking I had somehow contracted dengue. The dengue test came back negative but the blood tests said that I had a viral infection. So they did a full blood picture test as my platelet count was low. The results were fine but showed that I had low platelet count and a low WBC reading. Again, it showed that I had a viral infection. But I did not have any sorethroat. No flu. The doctor told me to go home and rest and to drink plenty of water.
The day before we left for the trip, I had chest pains. I thought that I had pulled a muscle while I was packing.
It was the chicken pox virus that had been incubating inside me. Chicken pox did not cross my mind at all as I have had chicken pox when I was 19 or 20. But I had it really mild. At that point of time, I did not realise that I had chicken pox. I thought it was insect bites. That was how few blisters I had. I didn't have fever. I thought I just caught a cold. After that I had shingles. Again, it was a really small patch at the collar bone and I did not know I had shingles. I went to our family doctor for something totally unrelated and she told me I had shingles when she saw my neck.
She then asked me, "Did you have chicken pox recently?"
It was then that I only realised that I had chicken pox!
Thus, chicken pox never crossed my mind at all when I had all those symptoms. Night came and the fever spiked. And the chest pains came back with vengeance. I checked the hospitals which were nearby and decided on the one to go to. I'm glad that I listened to the voice in my heart. The doctor at the ER was very well versed with allergy. He said that at my age to have chicken pox is terrible as the symptoms will be 100 times worse. My face would swell up like a balloon. I would wish I was dead as the pain would be so unbearable. I would be literally covered in blisters from head to toe. I needed to have the anti-viral (Acyclovir) drug. As I've never had it before, I took one tablet in the ER and waited for an hour. I had no allergy reaction. I was prescribed 50 tablets of Acyclovir. By the time we went back to the condo, it was nearly 1 am.
This second round of chicken pox was so different from the first time. The fever did not break for 3 days. Even after standing under the shower for half-an-hour, the fever did not budge one bit. And I burned till 39.8C (103.6F).
*picture taken from
HERE
The pain was horrible. I've never felt pain like this before. My cousin who had chicken pox in April, totally understood what I meant when I messaged him that I wanted to die from the pain. When he had the chicken pox, he was in so much pain too. I was moaning and groaning in pain. It felt as though my limbs were being wrenched out and then I was thrown under a steam roller which rolled over me over and over and over again. I asked every one of my family to kill me and to put me out of the misery and pain.
Usually people say that the chicken pox itch is terrible. My itch was minimal. But the pain was over the charts. And the nausea reminded me of the severe morning sickness I had when I was pregnant with Joel.
I was so glad that I had these two to use for my daily shower. It helped soothe the blisters.
Showering was a pain as there were blisters everywhere! I even had them on my gums, my tonsils, inside my ears, EYES and even the anus. They were everywhere. From top to bottom. But showering was a must. One must be hygienic as the blisters can get infected. I was so concerned about the blisters getting infected. I did not want to further burden my system with antibiotics. The doctor gave me a bottle of Calamine lotion. It helped a bit with the blisters. Developing encephalitis and pneumonia were also a main concern.
I couldn't sleep. I was a wreck. My appetite was so poor. I was in so much pain. One blister was on the tip of my bottom lip to the point my mouth swelled up. I looked like those fish with fat lips. It was truly an unforgettable holiday!
Thank god for my family who took turns to take care of me. By the end of the holiday, I could stand a 400km ride back home.
Even though it's been almost 4 weeks since the chicken pox episode, I am still exhausted and have not gotten my strength back yet. I tire easily and the pain still comes now and then. During the first week after the chicken pox episode, every evening I would feel very ill, feverish, nauseated, terrible pain in the body, cold, excruciating pain in the lymph node at the right side of the neck, skull pain and have severe anxiety attacks. It would come every evening at the same time without fail. It has gotten lesser in frequency now but this phase still comes on certain days. I've been sleeping a lot to recuperate. If I had not slept as much as I did, I don't think I would have recovered at all.
The marks are still there. It will take awhile for them to go away. I am fine with the marks taking their time to go away. The only concern I have right now is boosting my immune system to tiptop condition again.
*picture taken from
HERE
*picture taken from
HERE
