PH Goes to Hospital

Dear friends, readers and fellow bloggers, if you are wondering why I have been silent, not replying to your comments and not dropping by your blogs, it is because I was hospitalized due to dengue fever.


My life was transformed into a living hell by a few pesky Aedes mosquitoes. It started off with high fever one evening which left me feeling drained. After dinner I did not even have the strength to take a shower and I went straight to bed. The next morning, I was a lot worse. I woke up with high fever, a throbbing headache and I could hardly summon the strength to get up. After dragging myself up to the bathroom, I flopped down in bed again and laid there till late morning. 

When my condition did not improve, I suspected that I had dengue and went for a blood test the next day. Within a few hours, it was confirmed. To cut the long story short, I had to be admitted. I was very apprehensive, not knowing what to expect as I have never been hospitalized before. But I knew there was going to be a whole lot of poking to draw blood. Yikes!!

What you see up there is the drip stand which was to become my Siamese Twin for the next few nights. I used to watch medical dramas on TV and always find it amusing to see patients dragging their drip stand with them. It's no laughing matter I tell ya. Plugging and unplugging and dragging my twin with me to the bathroom was quite a chore. Besides, I had to retain my pee in a cardboard bedpan so that the nurses could monitor my fluid output. It was a very tricky maneuver and very troublesome as this Madam pees a lot!

Ah, hospital food! I have heard a lot of jokes and jibes about hospital food and there you have it, my breakfast. Fried rice. It was not bad actually except that the portion size was a bit too small for me. I need 3 portions of that to be full. So I had to supplement with bananas.

My snack of choice at the hospital.

There were hits and misses as far as the food was concerned. The dinner you see below was inedible. I could only take the watercress soup (empty bowl). In the other bowl was fish in a soup with celery, carrots and ginger. I am sorry it tasted awful.

I had to send an SOS to my partner to buy me "chap fan". This was what he got me (snapped halfway through my meal) - rice, braised pigs ears, chicken curry, taukwa, brinjal and ladies fingers. I told you I am a big eater.

This is what I call food!

The best part of my hospital meals? The dessert. Though not exceptional, it was lots better that the main course. Look at this. Creme caramel.

The highlight of the morning is ticking off the menu during breakfast to select my meals for the next day.

Don't get excited about the chicken dishes because they are made from skinless, boneless (and tasteless) chicken thighs. The meat is tough and has a certain smell. I couldn't finish this piece of ginger chicken.

It brought me back to my days in the science lab. That piece of chicken reminded me of meat that has been preserved in formaldehyde. Ughs!!

A few days into my stay, I developed what is known as the dengue recovery rash. I was as red as a cooked lobster. And it was very itchy. But I took care not to scratch and I was given some medication for that.

Another thing that happened was my hand became swollen. See how pudgy my fingers became. It was really difficult to get any decent sleep at the hospital because the nursing team comes to my room every 4 hours to monitor my temperature and blood pressure. I get woken up at 2:00am and if I have fever, another nurse will come by 30-35 minutes later with my meds. So you see, no sooner had I fallen asleep, I would be woken up again. But the nurses are only doing their job and I commend them for their dedication.

My hand became swollen and it did feel very tight and bloated. The swelling has since subsided.

I was taken off the drip and the needle was removed two days before I was discharged. I can't tell you how happy I was to be free from my Siamese Twin!

As of today, I am back home and on the road to recovery. I am still very weak and have been sleeping a lot. I will slowly make my rounds to your blogs to catch up on what I have missed so far. Meantime, I am hoping to bounce back and start wielding my whisk and spatula again real soon! See ya!