I want to start by saying that I'm very sorry to have paused my blogging and gone on a short hiatus like I did. Thing is, I'm sure you wouldn't want to read about the exciting adventure of brushing my teeth or my daily battle over which conservative (and clean) shirt to wear. One more thing, and this has nothing to do with readership...I simply didn't feel up to it. Whew. That aside, let's get started.
The last couple days have been completely surreal. I'm in India, that's no longer surreal to me. I'm 20, OK that one is a little harder to grapple with. Two decades?! No, can't be. What's most surreal, however, is hearing you have managed to contract an illness you were previously deathly afraid of.
Last Sunday, sitting in Mumbai in the hotel lobby, I could feel that I was running a fever. Like a good pre-med student, I popped a couple Advil and waited it out. By Tuesday, the fever was still carrying on and refused to take a hint from all the meds and get out of town. With our 10 day break/vacation on the horizon, I started to get worried that I wouldn't be better for it. So I headed to the doctor to see what was going on.
Indian emergency rooms (or at least this one) are very odd places. In general, Indians have this thing about being barefoot. It's much more common here to walk around without shoes (even if you can afford them), usually indoors more so than outdoors. The hospital is no exception. The nurses wear shoes but the other employees run around barefoot. The doctor's office also cannot be entered unless one goes in barefoot. Another thing that's odd: the waiting room is never full. Think of an emergency room in the states. From my experience, they're always packed full of people--usually hypochondriacs like myself who go there because they had one shooting pain in their abdomen and they're now convinced their appendix is going to rupture at any moment. This emergency room waiting room is sometimes empty. To think! Empty! Enough about this.
Oh, and I must give a moment to Indian blood-taking methods. In the US (and in Peru, I might add, in fact I thought this was universal), a needle is inserted into your arm and small tubes are attached to it and switched off...tubes with different colorful caps. This lovely tubes have a slight natural vacuum that allows your blood to simply flow into them. They work perfectly. In India, the syringe is used. Let me clarify. A syringe with a PLUNGER. What this means is that they open the plunger when it's attached to the needle that's in your arm and they literally suck the blood out of you. Like vampires. It's very unpleasant.
So to condense a long story and four visits to this emergency room, I've been diagnosed with dengue fever. Also know as the "bone crushing" disease because of the pain it causes, dengue is a tropical virus transmitted by mosquito. Currently, it's estimated that about 2.5 billon people, two-fifths of the world's population, is at risk for contracting this illness. One of the problems with dengue is that it lowers your platelet count, it also lowered my WBC (white blood cell, for you non-premeds) count.
From what I understand, the first time you get dengue it's not so awful. However, unlike other diseases where you body builds an antibody, dengue weakens your body's immunity and hits harder the second time. What I'm saying is that dengue is a middle school bully that steals your lunch everyday then keeps adding to your punishment for just being a scrawny kid.
My experience with dengue has been unpleasant, but not too bone crushing. The first five days brought fevers and a very achy body. A couple days in my ears, face, and body started getting redder and yesterday I started with some bone symptoms. It feels like growing pains all over again, aka short-lived shooting pain in isolated areas.
So my friends have all left for their vacation in which our plan is to see Mussurie, Delhi, and Varanasi. I'm hoping that I will be able to meet up with them when they're in Delhi. In the meantime, I stay here in Pune trying to grow platelets and WBCs.
I'd like to leave you with my classified add.
Dearest, darlingest mosquito population,
I despise you with a fiery burning passion. I attempted single-handedly to massacre your populations in the Amazon and I do feel that I made progress, but there is much more to be done. Your populations will be eliminated. Prepare for complete decimation. You wreak havoc everywhere you're found and no one likes a party pooper. I will find a way to wipe you clean off the face of the earth. Until then, I will continue my brutal methods of force and squish you to death every chance I get.
Cheers to your death and utter destruction,
Christy
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