Yemana Paathu Sirichavan Da!!

Day 1: It was Friday morning August 3rd I slightly felt the temperature on my body. Just 2 days before I consulted a doctor for fever and I was normal after following the medications. I managed to go to office on Friday morning and I was feeling restless as I could not sit on my seat. So, I visited my company’s health centre and took some rest there after an injection and Paracetamol tablet. I had a weekend plan to Mahaballipuram with my chithi, chithi daughters, mom, dad and brother. So, booked 8 tickets for the same in TTDC (Tamilnadu Tourism development corporation). In TTDC tickets can be cancelled only before 24 hrs, after which I will get only 0% refund. I thought I would be normal before Sunday morning. Day 2: But fever and body pain did not reduce till Saturday evening. So went to Hariharan clinic in nanganallur, and doctor prescribed some medicines for the fever. I came home happily and followed the medicines. Meanwhile my family members wanted to drop the Mahaballipuram trip cos of my health condition. I said I would be normal tomorrow, so I asked them to carry on with the plan. I postponed 2 tickets of mine and my dad to next week. Day 3: Sunday was moving like a bad day, stomach started aching; I started to vomit without taking food. I went back to same clinic for blood test and urine test. By evening, the reports came, and doctor said blood reports are normal and urine report is also normal, no need to worry for Jaundice, Malaria or typhoid etc. I was thinking then why the hell my fever is not reducing. My family members were back from the mahaballipuram trip. Around 12 in midnight I was vomiting more than 3 times. My brother took me to the same clinic. Some night duty doctor gave me an injection to arrest the vomiting. Day 4: I gave up myself and got admitted in the hospital around 6 a.m, august 6th 2007. They took me directly to ICU. I was thinking, whats wrong with these people why are they taking me to ICU. Immediately a nurse came and started to search the vein in my wrist. Ouch, she inserted the lengthy needle at my wrist. The saline bottles were connected and it started to flow inside me. I was confused about whats happening to me. No one diagonised the reason for the fever and stomach ache. Still I was not tired and continued my job i.e vomiting. I was wondering, how I can continuously vomit without taking any food. Yah I remember now, I had an apple and one sweet lime the night before, it was giving me the energy to vomit. Finally a guy came with a scanner and started to scan my abdomen. He asked me the spot where it was paining. He said it might be DENGUE virus. At last it gave me some confidence that they diagnosed the reason. Doctor came and confirmed the same. I had a misconception that dengue is a just like another viral fever, so asked the doctor to discharge me and give medication for dengue. But he said, we have started the treatment for dengue. I got confused again. They sucked my blood in the evening and did some test. Doctor said the platelet count is 1.3 lakhs, so we need to test the blood again tomorrow morning. As a biology student I could recollect about platelets. Human blood normally has three components Red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells (WBC) and platelets. RBC is responsible for normal body functioning, WBC is for antibody creation and Platelets are important for the blood clotting function. Normal human will have 1.4 lakhs to 4 lakhs platelet cells in the blood. If it goes below the normal count, the blood wont clot in case of any cut in the body. Dengue virus affects the platelet cells in the blood. One thing which was bothering me, mobile phones are not allowed in the ICU. I was having a tuff time. The temperature was normal but the abdomen pain was slightly there. Some nurses were coming now and then and checking my blood pressure and body temperature. Day 4 was over, I was having sleepless night cos of screaming and mourning patients in ICU. One old lady was admitted in the hospital after drinking sodalime, mistaken for water. One guy was having severe heart attack and other guy got admitted due to food poison, other patient with damaged liver because of continuous boozing. Visitors were allowed only for short time and also 1 person at a time. Day 5: Tuesday, a guy came early in the morning and sucked some blood for testing. Believe me he did the same job both morning and evening till the day I got discharged. He was the one who counts the platelet cells in my blood and gives report. The count was dropping suddenly to 80,000. Doctor said, platelets transfusion has to be done immediately. Earlier days, the platelets were taken from the donars blood. Thanks to the science advancement, the platelets are available separately in pockets. After few phone calls to Jeevan, Aurobindo, Siranjeevi blood banks, 4 packets of platelets were requested for my A+ve blood. Each pocket would have 10,000 platelet cells and should increase my count accordingly. But after giving pockets of platelets, blood test should be done. Day 6: The morning blood test was done. The result came and it was shocking. The count was dropping to 48,000. I was hoping for 80,000 plus 40,000 added now. I don’t know what would have been the count, if I was not given platelets artificially. Same 4 pockets of platelets were given for me today also. Evening result was again shocking. Now 36,000 counts. It was like our Indian cricket score. One good thing for the day was, I was shifted to general ward from the ICU. It had one TV and one extra bed for my dad. Day 7: This morning platelet count was dropping further to 32,000. Today doctor said just 3 packets of platelets are enough. I guess he lost the hope on me. Evening result was out, after 3 pockets of platelets. It was just 26,000 thousand. I got used to the negative result. My mom and dad were thinking about changing the hospital. But doctor convinced my father after showing the reports of old patients. It happens. Day 8: Friday morning 10 august, it was miracle the blood platelets count went up slightly to 30,000. The sun started shining in our faces. All these days the saline was continuously given to me. My right arm started aching. One good thing for the day was, the blood platelets transfusion was not done today. Evening count was slightly up, 35,000. Day 9: The morning count was 52,000 cells/mm3. Everyone was happy. I thought I could get discharged from the hospital very soon. Doctor said, only blood count test in the morning was enough. I requested doctor to stop giving saline. He granted the wish and it was stopped and I started taking normal diet. Day 10: The count was skyrocketing 1.1 Lakhs. I insisted for discharge the same day. Doctor asked me to wait for one more day. Day 11: The count was 1.4 lakhs and doctor said I shall be relieved from the hospital. I was very happy. I wanted to get out of the small room where I was hospital arrested for 1 week. Thanks to doctor who saved my life, dad and mom who were with me day and night and TTK insurance covered my 21K bill amount. Here is the snap of my unshaved face taken after 1 week hospitalization when I reached home.

Learnings and warnings:
1. Stay away from mosquitoes. Protect yourself from mosquito bites.
2. Drink clean water.