In the heat of the moment

Yesterday was one of those days you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy.

Started out alright, quite good actually. One of the mothers from school had her birthday so we went over for coffee and cake. As she is married to a dutch man, the coffee was excellent. I am fussy when it comes to coffee. The cake, a lovely blueberry cheesecake was delicious.

Gabi dropped me home at around 11.45am and she set off for a massage appointment. A present from a friend for her birthday last month. I went down the shed and turned the computer on.

It was about then i started to feel light headed. Weird, sort of spaced out feeling. I was unable to concentrate on the screen, I couldn't hold what I was seeing in my minds eye. I thought I was coming down with the flu and shut down my computer and headed for the house. I lay down in the downstairs room and though I couldn't sleep, all that good coffee me thinks, I was able to just rest. Focusing on the inside of my eyelids was something I could do.

Gabi rang at one and wanted to know if I wanted to do lunch at this lovely little vego place called Colonial that we have found. I told her I was laying down and not feeling too terrific and so she came home.

With no apparent signs of the flu I was now getting worried that I might have dengue fever. A dreaded disease caused by the bite of a smaller variety of mosquito that feeds during the day. There is only 'supportive treatment' available. I drank two liters of Guava Juice, better than water, to maintain a high hydration level. If the platelet in the blood drop too low they will fly you out to Singapore or somewhere to give you a transfusion. This is in extreme cases. People are also known to have died from dengue shock syndrome. All in all, not a good look!

So I am a little worried. Gabi says she will go get the boys and then come back and take me to BIMC. It is a private hospital here in Bali to which we are members. We can go and receive free consultations and just pay for the drugs. Very western, lots of modern gear etc etc..

So by 3.30pm we do get to the doctor and I am feeling more lethargic by now, they take our details and I am taken for a prelim examination by a nurse who registers my vitals and blood pressure. All of which were good I might add.

Back out to the waiting room we sit and are soon ushered into an office with not one but two doctors, I think one was doing his prac here. We run through a verbal and physical examination and the doctor as well has an idea that it could be dengue as all other areas are clean. They are going to take some blood and check. With that done I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and have him look at the sea ulcer on my right big toe which had begun to look a little festered of late.

It is on the top of the knuckle of the big toe and gets bumped almost every time I take off on a wave. He prescribes some cream for it.

We go outside to wait again.

They come back and tell me that the blood they took was 'lazy' seems that the needle was too thin and didn't give them some of the things they were looking for. Sorry to be vague but I was feeling very light headed by now. So they take another sample, this time from the left arm with a needle that you could drive an articulated vehicle through.

We go for one more wait outside. The doctor, the real one, comes over and tells us to ring in about 4 hours to see the results. If the platelet count is below 100 expect to be admitted to hospital.

We go home and I lay on the couch. The boys are watching a Hotwheels cartoon. Soon I start to shiver. Cold flushes run through me top to bottom. It is 28 degrees out and I have two rugs on and still cold flushes wrack my body. This is not fun. I am drinking Guava juice like it is going out of fashion. As suddenly as they started the flushes stop and I start to sweat. Not a little but a lot. I am wet through. I take my temperature it's 39.2! I take two more Panadol and rug up. We eat. At 7.15 I take my temperature again and it has dropped a degree to 38.3 We still have to wait nearly an hour before we can ring them. I am both dreading the call and looking forward to the part where I know for certain. Finally at 8pm Gabi makes the call.

Seems that the abscess on my big toe might have been the culprit. They tell Gabi that it's not dengue but a blood infection, talk about relief! While it is still a bad thing it isn't as bad as i had been thinking.

Hanging on all of this was whether we were going to go to Lombok or not. We have tickets booked to fly on Thursday night. We have the best villa at the Novotel Lombok booked, a friend who goes organised it for us, got a great price. In fact turns out she will also now go over with her daughter. Gabi says she is a little poofed she gave us her villa as she calls it. We know she is joking and besides, it's my birthday on Friday, not hers.

Peace!