How to Deal with Dengue

Strike 2. My younger son got the dengue fever five years ago. And just a couple of weeks ago, my elder son got it, too.

As I've labeled it in my post in my now defunct blog, mamaisworking, I say it again that dengue is evil. It keeps you waiting in fear, like waiting for the axe to fall on you anytime and just cut your head off.

It started when Gabo had high-grade fever running up to 39-40.1 centigrade for 24 hours. There was no letup, even though we had given him paracetamol and a sponge bath. He would perspire but still his temperature would remain high. I didn't sleep that night. As soon as the sun rose, we took him to Commcare Merville for a NS 1 test. When the doc said that the results were positive for dengue, I felt something cold run down my body from my head to my feet. Although, his platelet was still high at 270+, we knew that the numbers would go down as soon as his temp would go down, too. I knew the days ahead would be filled with anxiety.

Meanwhile, we had to do what we gotta do: manage his fever. Good thing, my sister-in-law-nurse (Regie) was in town and I have a pedia-niece (Doc Dee). We decided to do the managing at home. Taking instructions from my pedia-niece, my sis-in-law-nurse put IV on Gab and manage his fluid intake and temperature.

We were told that dengue fever has no cure except to feed your body with lots of fluid and food. So that was what we did. For four days, Gab's fever would go up and down from 38 to 39. It was 4 long nights and days, as we had to regularly give him cold sponge baths, force him to drink fluids, and eat!

Then on the fifth day, Gab's temperature finally went down to 36 point something centigrade. Then he had nosebleed. He often gets nosebleed but because he had dengue, it was a very important indicator.

We rushed him to the ER of Paranaque Doctors and true enough his platelets dived to 42 from 247 (Normal 150-200+) along with his WBC to 1.5 (normal: 5+). We couldn't be admitted, however, as there was no available room. We were 7th on the waiting list. The doctor said that they were full of patients with dengue fever, too. Oh my!

After discussion and consultation with Regie and Doc Dee, we decided to take Gabo to PGH (Philippine General Hospital) for Doc Dee is based there anyway. She could look after Gab better. So, off we went in an ambulance as we anticipated the traffic. It was my first time and Gabo's too to take the ambulance. Gabo felt A-OK now because he had no more fever, and thankfully, he didn't feel any pain. His vitals were normal too. I asked how he was and he said that he was both scared and curious as to how it would feel to be in an ambulance. Me? I was shaken the whole time.

At PGH, we were met by Doc Dee at the Pedia ER and was immediately wheeled to Admitting. After less than an hour, we were transferred to our double private room. You know PGH is also full all the time, but we were lucky to get that space. I was happy, too, that our roommate's (a 1-year-old child who was suffering from diarrhea and vomiting) grandparents were retirees from PGH. So our room was always given extra care. In fact, the faucets of our comfort room were fixed because the maintenance people knew Mang Mike. Ha ha!

I can laugh about it now.

But really, how to deal with dengue is to feed the patient lots of fluids and food. There are no medicines. Seeing no harm if we did, we also let him drink tawa tawa and papaya juice. A friend and a co-mom in school gave me this tip:

10 pcs of 1 foot each stalk of tawa tawa
Boil in half liter of water for morning

1 big leaf of papaya (better papaya flower) 
Boil in half liter of water for evening
And most importantly surrender to God everything.

I enjoined prayer warriors to include Gabo in their prayers. I also had this prayer book tucked in my wallet all this time, and when I flipped it open, I saw on the first few pages this prayer:


From 42, Gabo's platelet went up to 48 and then to 145. And on our 2nd night in PGH, I prayed fervently again that we (including the roomie child) be removed from the hospital the following day. Yes, that was how I worded my prayer.

Voila! The following day, we (yes, together with the roomie child!) were given our release orders.

Praise God! God is good! All the time!